Primitive costume

THE APPEARANCE OF CLOTHING

Archaeological excavations show that clothing appeared at the very early stages development of human society (40-25 thousand years ago).

Clothing, like any item of decorative and applied art, combines beauty and practicality. By protecting the human body from cold and heat, precipitation and wind, clothing performs a practical function; decorating it is an aesthetic function.

For the practical purpose of protection from bad weather and insect bites, people in ancient times coated their bodies with clay, damp earth, and fat. Then vegetable paints were added to these lubricants - ocher, soot, carmine, indigo, lime, and the body was already aesthetic purpose painted in various ways and color. Over time, the fragile surface coloring gives way to a tattoo: a layer of paint is passed under the skin in the form of various patterns. In the same way, feathers, bones, hair, and teeth of killed animals were initially worn on the body as protective and symbolic elements of the costume. When the body is increasingly covered with the fibrous materials of the clothing itself, a person creates artificial attachment points for pendants-symbols, piercing holes in the ears, nose, lips, cheeks, and wears them as jewelry.

Body painting and tattooing were the direct predecessors of clothing. However, even with the advent of clothing made from fibrous materials, they continue to remain in the costume, performing illusory and aesthetic functions.

The tattoo designs were subsequently transferred to the fabric. Thus, the multi-colored checkered tattoo pattern of the ancient Celts remained the national pattern of Scottish fabric.

The significance of decorations in historical costume grew and expanded: class, symbolic, aesthetic. Their forms became more complex and diversified: removable, fastened to the body (bracelets, rings, hoops, earrings); motionless, fixed on fabric (embroidery, printed design, relief decor).

MAIN TYPES OF CLOTHING IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY

The shape of the human body and lifestyle determined the first primitive types of clothing. Animal skins or plant materials were woven into rectangular pieces and draped over the shoulders or hips, tied, or wrapped around the body horizontally, diagonally, or in a spiral. This is how two main types of clothing appeared based on the attachment point: shoulder and waist. Their most ancient form is draped clothing. It enveloped the body and was held in place with ties, belts, and fasteners. Over time, a more complex form of clothing arose - an invoice, which could be closed and swinging. They began to bend panels of fabric along the warp or weft and sew them on the sides, leaving slits for the arms in the upper part of the fold and cutting out a hole for the head in the center of the fold. The closed-up clothing was worn over the head, while the swinging one had a slit in the front from top to bottom.

MAN AND CLOTHING

Try to imagine yourself naked. Not in your bed at night, not making love, not washing in the bathroom. Try to imagine yourself naked on the street, in a cafe, in a movie, at work. Remember how you felt when your fly came undone or a button on your blouse fell off. And try to say a list of these emotions to yourself. Shame, discomfort, anger, irritation - just to name a few. But no one could have noticed what happened to you. Now imagine that suddenly you find yourself without any clothes at all.

It is quite difficult to imagine such a situation, because we are not somewhere in the deserts of Australia, but in big city, in the capital of a huge country. And we don’t tend to think about such things. However, it is precisely in the described spectrum of emotions of a person left without clothes that the secret of its (clothing) appearance lies. Not in climate change, not in abstract shame, which is described in the Bible, Koran, Talmud.

Modern researchers of the psychology of primitive people are increasingly coming to the conclusion that the reason for the appearance of clothing was fear. Fear of being naked in the face of danger. First, we asked you to imagine yourself naked on the street or at work. Let's change the conditions of the problem a little.

Imagine that for some reason you find yourself in a position where you need to fight. The enemy looks at you furiously, clenching his fists, you get closer. And suddenly you realize that you are completely naked, that you have no, no clothes left on you! What now? I'm sure you won't be able to fight at full strength. If you don't believe me, try throwing a few punches naked at home in front of a mirror.

It was this fear, the reasons for which are hidden in the depths of our subconscious, that became the basis for the appearance of clothing. Understanding human psychology is extremely important in order to understand why the history of clothing developed the way it did and not otherwise.

But what did the first people wear? The answer is simple: in conditions when there were no such important incentives as fashion, public opinion, the social structure of society, the sole purpose of clothing was to save a person from the feeling of fear. And since the first people appeared, as we now know, in Africa, there was no such factor as weather conditions.

The first clothes apparently appeared about a hundred thousand years ago and were tanned animal skins. Obviously, the first thing people wanted and tried to protect with clothing was intimate areas. So the first garment is loincloths. In addition, at the same time, clothing items such as arm sleeves and knee pads appeared to protect against possible damage.

We will conclude the article on the history of clothing of primitive people with the Neolithic era, the beginning of which is considered to be the middle of the tenth millennium BC. At this time, man already had many skills for creating a wardrobe, and archaeologists find the most different types clothes: sleeveless vests, shirts, stockings! In addition, woven clothing appeared (before that, clothing was made only from the skins of killed animals), and by the middle of the Neolithic, such almost modern elements as an oar shirt (unbuttoned in the middle) appeared.

So, we found out that the first people began to dress because of a subconscious fear of being naked in the face of an enemy or a wild animal. The importance of clothing can be seen, in addition to the obvious, from how quickly (historically) the methods of creating it developed.

Only weapons, which were no less necessary, developed at the same speed. Neither the arts nor the methods of obtaining food have undergone such changes over a similar period of time. Obviously, issues related to clothing worried primitive people extremely much, perhaps no less than you and I!

THE ORIGIN OF CLOTHING AND ITS MAIN FUNCTIONS

Archaeological excavations show that clothing appeared in the earliest stages of human development. Already in the Paleolithic era, man was able, using bone needles, to sew, weave and bind various natural materials - leaves, straw, reeds, animal skins - to give them the desired shape. They were also used as headdresses natural materials, for example, a hollowed out pumpkin, coconut shell, ostrich egg or turtle shell.

Shoes arose much later and were less common than other elements of the costume.

Clothing, like any item of decorative and applied art, combines beauty and practicality, protecting the human body from cold and heat, precipitation and wind; it performs a practical function, and by decorating it, an aesthetic one.

It is difficult to say exactly which of the functions of clothing is more ancient... Despite the cold, rain and snow, the aborigines of Tierra del Fuego walked naked, and East African tribes near the equator dressed in long fur coats made of goat skins during the holidays. Ancient frescoes from the 4th millennium BC. e. show that only people of noble classes wore clothes, while the rest went naked.

So, it is assumed that clothing first arose as a means of decoration and class distinction for a person...

The direct predecessors of clothing are tattooing, body painting and the application of magical signs to it, with which people sought to protect themselves from evil spirits and incomprehensible forces of nature, to frighten enemies and win over friends.

Subsequently, tattoo patterns began to be transferred to fabric. For example, the multi-colored checkered pattern of the ancient Celts remained the national pattern of Scottish fabric.

The shape of the human body and lifestyle determined the first primitive forms of clothing. Animal skins or plant materials were woven into rectangular pieces and draped over the shoulders or hips, tied, or wrapped around the body horizontally, diagonally, or in a spiral.

This is how one of the main types of human clothing appeared primitive society: drapey clothing. Over time, more complex clothing arose: an invoice, which could be closed and swinging. They began to bend panels of fabric along the warp or weft and sew them on the sides, leaving slits for the arms in the upper part of the fold and a hole for the head in the center of the fold.

The overhead closed clothing was worn over the head, the swinging one had a front slit from top to bottom.

Draped and overlaid clothing has survived to this day as the main forms of fastening it on the human figure. Shoulder, waist, and hip clothing is represented today by a variety of assortments, designs, cuts...

The historical development of basic forms of clothing took place in direct connection with the economic conditions of the era, aesthetic and moral requirements and the general artistic style in art. And changes in the style of an era are always associated with ideological shifts occurring in society. Within each style, there is a more mobile and short-term phenomenon - fashion, which affects all sectors of human activity.

Fashion is the temporary dominance of certain forms, associated with a person’s constant need for diversity and novelty in the reality around him.

THE EMERGENCE OF COSTUME AND WEAVING

From the beginning of the Mesolithic (tenth to eighth millennium BC), when climatic conditions, flora and fauna changed, a major environmental crisis broke out on Earth. Primitive communities were forced to look for new sources of food and adapt to new conditions. At this time, there was a transition of man from gathering and hunting to a productive economy - agriculture and cattle breeding, which gives scientists reason to talk about “ neolithic revolution", which became the beginning of the history of civilization of the ancient world.

The separation of agriculture and cattle breeding into separate types of labor was accompanied by the separation of crafts. Agricultural and pastoral tribes invented a spindle, a loom, and tools for processing leather and sewing clothes from fabrics and leather (in particular, needles from fish and animal bones or metal).

With the cooling in many regions, the need arose to protect the body from the cold, which led to the appearance of clothing made from skins - the oldest material for making clothing among hunting tribes. Before the invention of weaving, clothing made from skins was the main clothing of primitive peoples.

Skins taken from animals killed by men while hunting were, as a rule, processed by women using special scrapers made of stone, bones, and shells. When processing the skin, they first scraped off the remaining meat and tendons from the inner surface of the skin, then removed the hair as much as possible. in different ways, depending on the region. For example, the primitive peoples of Africa buried skins in the ground along with ash and leaves; in the Arctic, they soaked them in urine (they treated skins in the same way in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome), then the skin was tanned to give it strength, and also rolled, squeezed, and pounded using special leather grinders to give elasticity.

The skin was tanned using decoctions of oak and willow bark; in Russia it was fermented - soaked in sour bread solutions; in Siberia and the Far East, fish bile, urine, liver and animal brains were rubbed into the skin. Nomadic pastoral peoples used fermented milk products, boiled animal liver, salt, and tea for this purpose. If the top grain layer was removed from fat-tanned leather, suede was obtained.

Animal skins are still the most important material for making clothing, but a great invention was the use of sheared (plucked, selected) animal hair. Both nomadic pastoral and sedentary agricultural peoples used wool. It is likely that the oldest method of processing wool was felting. Ancient Sumerians in the third millennium BC. wore felt clothes.

Many felt items (headdresses, clothing, blankets, carpets, shoes, cart decorations) were found in Scythian burials in the Pazyryk mounds of the Altai Mountains (VI-V centuries BC). Felt was obtained from sheep, goat, camel, yak, horsehair, etc. wool. Felting felt was especially widespread among the nomadic peoples of Eurasia, for whom it also served as a material for making dwellings (for example, yurts among the Kazakhs).

Among those peoples who were engaged in gathering and then became farmers, clothing was known from specially processed bark of bread, mulberry or fig trees. Among some peoples of Africa, Indonesia and Polynesia, such bark fabric is called “tapa” and is decorated with multi-colored patterns using paint applied with special stamps.

Various plant fibers were also used to make clothing. They were first used to weave baskets, canopies, nets, snares, ropes, and then a simple weaving of stems, bast fibers or fur strips turned into weaving. Weaving required a long, thin and uniform thread, twisted from various fibers.

During the Neolithic era, a great invention appeared - the spindle (the principle of its operation - twisting fibers - is preserved in modern spinning machines). Spinning was the occupation of women, who also made clothes. Therefore, among many peoples, the spindle was a symbol of a woman and her role as the mistress of the house.

Weaving was also the work of women, and only with the development of commodity production did it become the lot of male artisans. The loom was formed from a weaving frame on which the warp threads were pulled, through which the weft threads were then passed using a shuttle. In ancient times, three types of primitive looms were known:

1. A vertical loom with one wooden beam (beam) hanging between two racks, in which the thread tension was ensured using clay weights suspended from the warp threads (the ancient Greeks had similar looms).

2. A horizontal machine with two fixed bars, between which the base was tensioned. It was used to weave fabric of a strictly defined size (the ancient Egyptians had such looms).

3. Machine with rotating beam shafts.

Fabrics were made from banana bast, hemp and nettle fibers, flax, wool, silk - depending on the region, climate and traditions.

In primitive communities and societies Ancient East there was a strict and rational division of labor between men and women. Women, as a rule, were engaged in making clothes: they spun threads, wove fabrics, sewed leather and skins, decorated clothes with embroidery, appliqué, drawings made using stamps, etc.

THE APPEARANCE AND FORMATION OF THE COSTUME

The history of costume is a reflection of the history of man and human society. The social structure of society, culture, worldview, level of technological development, trade relations between countries - all this, to one degree or another, was expressed in the costumes worn by people in a certain era.

A modern suit is the result of a long evolution, a definite result of creative discoveries and achievements, the fruit of the improved experience of many generations and at the same time the image of a man of our time, in which all the basic values ​​are embodied modern society.

Clothing appeared in ancient times as a means of protection from unfavorable climate, from insect bites, wild animals while hunting, from blows from enemies in battle and, no less important, as a means of protection from evil forces. We can get some idea of ​​what clothing was like in the primitive era not only from archaeological data, but also from information about the clothing and lifestyle of primitive tribes who still live on Earth in some inaccessible areas and far from modern civilization: in Africa, Central and South America, Polynesia.

A person’s appearance has always been, in a sense, a “work of art,” one of the ways of self-expression and self-awareness, determining the individual’s place in the world around him, an object of creativity, a form of expression of ideas about beauty. The most ancient types of “clothing” are painting and tattooing, which performed the same protective functions as clothing covering the body. This is evidenced by the fact that coloring and tattooing are common among those tribes that even in our time do without any other types of clothing.

Body painting also protected against the influence of evil spirits and insect bites and was supposed to terrify the enemy in battle. Make-up (a mixture of fat and paint) was known already in the Stone Age: in the Paleolithic people knew about 17 paints.

The most basic: white (chalk, lime), black (charcoal, manganese ore), ocher, which made it possible to obtain shades from light yellow to orange and red. Body and face painting was magical rite, was often a sign of an adult male warrior and was first applied during the initiation rite (initiation into adult full members of the tribe).

The coloring also had an informational function - it reported on belonging to a certain clan and tribe, social status, personal qualities and merits of its owner. A tattoo (a pattern pricked or carved into the skin), unlike coloring, was a permanent decoration and also denoted a person’s tribal affiliation and social status, and could also be a kind of chronicle of individual achievements throughout life.

The hairstyle and headdress were of particular importance, since it was believed that hair has magical power, mainly long hair women (therefore, many nations had a ban on women appearing in public with their heads uncovered). All manipulations with hair had a magical meaning, since life force is concentrated in hair. A change in hairstyle has always meant a change in social status, age and social and gender role. The headdress may have appeared as part of the ceremonial costume during rituals of rulers and priests. Among all peoples, the headdress was a sign of sacred dignity and high position.

Same the oldest species clothing, like makeup, are decorations that originally performed a magical function in the form of amulets and amulets.

At the same time, ancient jewelry served the function of indicating a person’s social status and an aesthetic function. Primitive jewelry was made from a wide variety of materials: animal and bird bones, human bones (among those tribes where cannibalism existed), animal fangs and tusks, bat teeth, bird beaks, shells, dried fruits and berries, feathers, corals, pearls, metals

Thus, most likely, the symbolic and aesthetic functions of clothing preceded its practical purpose - protecting the body from environmental influences. Jewelry could also serve an informational function, being a kind of writing among some peoples (for example, among the South African Zulu tribe, “talking” necklaces were common in the absence of writing).

PRIMITIVE COSTUME. GENERAL INFORMATION.

Along with housing, clothing arose as one of the main means of protection from various external influences. Some bourgeois scientists recognize this utilitarian reason for the origin of clothing, but many take idealistic positions and put forward as the main reasons a feeling of shame, aesthetic motivation (clothing supposedly arose from jewelry), religious and magic shows, etc.

Cloth- one of the oldest inventions of man. Already in the monuments of the late Paleolithic, stone scrapers and bone needles were discovered, which were used for processing and stitching skins. The materials for clothing, in addition to skins, were leaves, grass, and tree bark (for example, Tapa among the inhabitants of Oceania). Hunters and fishermen used fish skins, sea lion intestines and other sea animals, and bird skins.

Having learned the art of spinning and weaving in the Neolithic era, man initially used fibers from wild plants. The transition to cattle breeding and agriculture that took place in the Neolithic made it possible to use the hair of domestic animals and fibers of cultivated plants (flax, hemp, cotton) for the manufacture of fabrics.

Embroidered clothing was preceded by its prototypes: a primitive cloak (skin) and a loin cover. Various types of shoulder clothing originate from the cloak; subsequently, a toga, tunic, poncho, burka, shirt, etc. arose from it. Belt clothing (apron, skirt, trousers) evolved from the hip cover.

The simplest ancient shoes- sandals or a piece of animal skin wrapped around the foot. The latter is considered the prototype of the leather morshni (pistons) of the Slavs, the chuvyak of the Caucasian peoples, and the moccasins of the American Indians. Tree bark (in Eastern Europe) and wood (shoes among some peoples) were also used for shoes Western Europe).

Headdresses, protecting the head, already in ancient times played the role of a sign indicating social status (headdresses of a leader, priest, etc.), and were associated with religious and magical ideas (for example, they depicted the head of an animal).

Clothing is usually adapted to the conditions of the geographical environment. In different climatic zones it differs in shape and material. The oldest clothing of the peoples of the tropical forest zone (in Africa, South America, etc.) is a loincloth, an apron, and a blanket on the shoulders. In moderately cold and arctic regions, clothing covers the entire body. The northern type of clothing is divided into moderate northern and clothing of the Far North (the latter is entirely fur).

The peoples of Siberia are characterized by two types of fur clothing: in the subpolar zone - blind, that is, without a cut, worn over the head (among the Eskimos, Chukchi, Nenets, etc.), in the taiga zone - swinging, having a cut in the front (among the Evenks, Yakuts, etc.). A unique set of clothing made of suede or tanned leather developed among the Indians of the forest belt of North America: women had a long shirt, men had a shirt and high leggings.

Forms of clothing are closely related to human economic activities. Thus, in ancient times, peoples engaged in nomadic cattle breeding developed a special type of clothing convenient for riding - wide trousers and a robe for men and women.

As society developed, the influence of differences in social and marital status on clothing increased. The clothes of men and women, girls and married women; everyday, festive, wedding, funeral and other clothes arose. With the division of labor there appeared various types professional clothing. Already in the early stages of history, clothing reflected ethnic characteristics (tribal, clan), and later national ones (which did not exclude local variations).

While satisfying the utilitarian needs of society, clothing at the same time expresses its aesthetic ideals. The artistic specificity of clothing as a type of decorative and applied art and artistic design is determined mainly by the fact that the object of creativity is the person himself. Forming a visual whole with it, clothing cannot be represented outside of its function.

The property of clothing as a purely personal item determined in its creation (modelling) the consideration of the proportional features of the figure, the age of a person, as well as private details of his appearance (for example, hair color, eyes). In the process of artistic design of clothing, these features can be emphasized or, conversely, softened.

This direct connection between clothing and a person gave rise to active participation, even co-authorship of the consumer in the approval and development of its forms. Being one of the means of embodying the ideal of a person of a particular era, clothing is made in accordance with its leading artistic style and its particular manifestation - fashion.

The combination of clothing components and items that complement them, made in uniform style and artistically coordinated with each other, creates an ensemble called a costume. The main means of imagery in clothing is architectonics.

Numerous tribes that settled in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire (5th century) had a fundamentally different approach to clothing, which was not supposed to envelop the body, but reproduce its shape, giving a person the opportunity to move easily. Thus, among the peoples who came from the North and East, the main parts of clothing were coarsely woven trousers and a shirt. On their basis, such a type of clothing as tights developed, which occupied the main place in European costume for several centuries.

In 1991, paleontologists in the Alps found an ice mummy. These were the remains of a primitive man, who was given the name “Ötzi.” Ötzi lived 5300 years ago. Ötzi's clothes have been preserved in good condition. Ötzi's clothes had an intricate shape. His body was covered with a cloak woven from straw, as well as a leather vest and belt; there was a bandage on his hips and boots. A bearskin hat and a leather belt across the chin were found next to the mummy. Wide, waterproof boots were most likely needed for walking over snowy hills. The sole was made from bearskin, upper part woven from deerskin, and bast was used as laces. Soft grass was tied around the legs and served as socks. The vest, belt, windings and loincloth were made from strips of leather that were sewn together with sinew. On the belt there was a pouch in which useful things were stored: a scraper, a drill, a flint, bone arrows and dry mushrooms used as tinder.

The ideas of the ancients about female beauty are clearly shown by the found female sculptural images. They have a massive, muscular body, big belly and breasts, which was important for childbirth, and therefore beautiful. However, Paleolithic female figurines were also found, devoid of massiveness and other similar features, which does not exclude other attributes female beauty, other aesthetic value.

Clothing as a means of protection appeared in man when climatic conditions associated with glaciation forced him to escape the cold. At first, back in ancient times, in order to protect against bad weather and insect bites, people coated their bodies with clay, damp earth, and fat.

The need to shelter from bad weather and protect from the forces of nature, the causes of which man did not know, forced him to resort to animal skins, which he threw over his shoulders. This is how something between a blanket and clothing appeared, which can roughly be called a “bedspread.” Man learned to make waterproof capes from fish intestines, and loincloths from herbs and bird feathers.

Already at the first stage, man tried to give shapeless materials - skins, fibers; feathers - the necessary shape. Primitive man dressed in a skin - a blanket, held on his shoulders and which served as the prototype of modern shoulder clothing- a cloak, tunic, cape, and also wore a loincloth made of plant fibers and feathers - a prototype of modern belt clothing - trousers, skirts, aprons and pants.

Already in the Stone Age, man discovered the fibrous structure of some plants and animal hair, and in the Neolithic era he learned to spin, weave and knit. The first fabrics were coarse, matting-type materials woven from plant fibers. The basis for the production of matting is, as is known from historical sources, the skill of weaving baskets; People have mastered this art since ancient times.

Finds of bone needles from the late Neolithic suggest that clothing at that time was mainly sewn animal skins. It was during the Neolithic era that man learned to spin and weave, and the initial elements of textile production arose.

The first mention of textile production, according to archaeologists, dates back to the 7th millennium BC. e. Even now, remains of textiles of various weaves from that period have been preserved.

Initially, people used the fibers of wild plants to create threads and fabrics, and when they took up farming and cattle breeding during the transition to a sedentary lifestyle, they were able to make fabrics from the fibers of cultivated plants (flax, hemp, cotton) and the hair of domestic animals.

Culture developed at the fastest pace in Western Asia, Egypt and India, where the cultivation of plants began very early on the basis of gathering, even in the Mesolithic. The beginning of livestock breeding also dates back to this time.

It has been here since the 6th-5th millennium BC. People began to use wool from sheep, goats, and flax stalks to make clothes. In India it's already the end of the 3rd. For thousands of years cotton has been cultivated and clothing made from it.

In the East, in China, around the middle of the 3rd millennium, that is, towards the end of the Neolithic era, a way to unwind a silk cocoon was found, and silk clothing appeared. The Chinese also made clothes from cotton fabrics that came to them from India. And in the 2nd millennium, China had already established the cultivation of cotton and the production of clothing from it.

The development of Neolithic cultures in Europe proceeded on a local basis, but under the strong influence of the cultures of the Near East, from where they entered Europe already in the 4th-3rd millennium BC. the most important cultivated plants penetrated. Linen fabrics have been found in Neolithic excavations in Switzerland.

On the territory of Eastern Europe, even in the Mesolithic era, great changes took place in the economy of primitive society. Along with hunting and fishing, the population began to master agriculture and cattle breeding, process fibrous plants and produce twisted ropes, woven nets and fabrics.

Ancient ritual songs and finds of linen products in burial grounds confirm the fact that linen was well known to the Eastern Slavs long before the formation of Kievan Rus.

Around the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. In the treeless plateaus of South America, the ancient Peruvians - the Incas - tamed and began to breed llamas and alpacas, whose wool was spun and the resulting threads were used to make fabrics and knitted clothing.

By the end of the Stone Age, man already had a whole wardrobe of various clothes, which he knew how to make both from animal skins and from a variety of fabrics, having learned to spin, weave and knit. Now he could throw not only skins, but also rectangular pieces of fabric over his shoulders or hips, tie them or wrap them around the body horizontally, diagonally or in a spiral.

Depending on the materials used and the geographic region, clothing was attached to the figure in different ways: wrapped around the body or draped around the body. Draped clothing enveloped the body and was held in place with ties, belts, and fasteners.

Man learned to sew not only skins, but also pieces of fabric, bending them in half and leaving the holes for the arms unsewn, and cutting a hole in the middle for the head. By cutting the front in the middle, he got a swing-out garment.

The answer to this question is known to everyone: of course, in the skins! As soon as you say the words “primitive man,” a picture appears in your imagination, either from a textbook or from a popular book: a hefty fellow, whose torso is carelessly wrapped in skin. There is another option: sexy beauties from the film “One Million Years BC”, sporting bikinis made of skins.

As a rule, our knowledge about the wardrobe of primitive man is limited to this. And no wonder. No clothes from those distant times have reached us anyway. Who knows how they dressed there, in the Stone Age?

It turns out that scientists managed to figure this out.

Not far from Vladimir there is a famous site of primitive man from the Upper Paleolithic era. Based on the name of the river, not far from which it was found, the site is called Sungir. It was discovered in the 50s of the last century, its age is more than 50 thousand years. Two burials were found there. In one there rested a man of about 50 years old, in the other a boy and a girl aged 13 and 10 years old. The clothes of these people, of course, were not preserved. However, a huge number of bone beads, pendants, and various gizmos have come down to us, which scientists interpret as hairpins and fasteners. Based on the order in which they lay on the remains of people, archaeologists were able to reconstruct the clothes of the deceased.

So, the ancient Sungir people were dressed almost exactly as the peoples of the far north dress to this day. This is not surprising, the era of glaciation, after all.

All three were wearing clothes called “kukhlyanka” or “malitsa” (different northern peoples have different names) - a thick jacket with a hood. These jackets provide excellent protection from the cold. Modern Evenks and Chukchi, just like our ancestors from Sungir, richly decorate their kukhlyankas, including sewing beads on them.

In addition to kuhlyankas, in the Upper Paleolithic era, fur pants and shoes were in fashion, which can be interpreted as the closest relative of moccasins. At the same time, the shoes were also richly decorated with beads.

On the heads of the men there were either caps or leather forehead protectors decorated with animal fangs. But the girl was given a headdress, which we would now call a bonnet or cap. Something like a hood, also trimmed with beads and pendants. Such fur caps are still worn by residents of the polar regions.

So the wardrobe of primitive man was not so poor. Moreover, we still use the developments of ancient fashion designers. Moccasins, Alaskan jackets, hoods – who would be surprised by this now? The only thing is that the way of making and selling clothes and shoes has radically changed. Needless to say, today you can even order online quality clothes and shoes. Some sites even offer clothing designers for custom tailoring.

When answering the question " when did clothes appear"The opinions of scientists differ. According to the most cautious hypothesis, clothing appeared about 40 thousand years ago, which is confirmed by archaeological data, since the oldest found sewing needles date back to this time. According to the most daring hypotheses, the appearance of clothing could coincide with the loss human ancestors of the main part of the hair, which happened about 1.2 million years ago. There is also a hypothesis that the time of the appearance of the first clothes can be determined based on when body lice appeared, which live only on clothes. Genetics say that body lice. separated from head lice at least 83 thousand years ago, and perhaps even earlier than 170 thousand years ago. There are more bold estimates of the time of appearance of body lice - from 220 thousand to 1 million years ago.

Most likely, clothing arose not so much as protection from the cold (tribes are known who did without clothing, even living in a harsh climate, for example, the Indians of Tierra del Fuego), but as magical protection from outside threats. Amulets, tattoos, and painting on the naked body initially played the same role as later clothing, protecting the owner with magical power. Subsequently, the tattoo patterns were transferred to the fabric. For example, the multi-colored checkered tattoo pattern of the ancient Celts remained the national pattern of Scottish fabric.

The first materials for clothing of primitive man were plant fibers and skins. The methods of wearing skins as clothing varied. This includes wrapping it around the torso and attaching it to the belt, which provides good cover for the pelvis and legs; putting it on the shoulders through the slot for the head (the future amice), throwing it on the back and tying the paws around the neck to create a warm cape in the form of a cloak. How more people complicated his clothes, the more various fasteners and additions appeared on them. These are claws, bones, bird feathers, animal fangs.

Clothing of the ancient Germans of the Stone Age:

At the Paleolithic site of Sungir (territory Vladimir region), the estimated age of which is 25 thousand years, in 1955 the burials of teenagers were found: a boy 12-14 years old and a girl 9-10 years old. The teenagers' clothes were trimmed with mammoth bone beads (up to 10 thousand pieces), which made it possible to reconstruct their clothes (which turned out to be similar to the costume of modern northern peoples). A reconstruction of clothing from the Sungir site can be seen in the following picture:

In 1991, the ice mummy of the primitive man “Ötzi”, who lived 3300 BC, was found in the Alps. Ötzi's clothes were partially preserved and were able to be reconstructed (see picture).

Ötzi's clothing was quite elaborate. He wore a woven straw cloak, as well as a leather vest, belt, leggings, loincloth and boots. In addition, a bearskin hat with leather belt through the chin. The wide, waterproof boots were apparently designed for walking in the snow. They used bearskin for the soles, deerskin for the uppers, and bast for lacing. Soft grass was tied around the leg and used as warm socks. The vest, belt, windings and loincloth were made from strips of leather sewn together with sinew. Sewn to the belt was a pouch containing useful things: scraper, drill, flint, bone arrow and dry mushroom used as tinder.
In addition, about 57 tattoos of dots, lines and crosses were found on Ötzi's body.