Archaeology TheFoxPosts.com

As early humans evolved from ape-like ancestors, they came down from the trees, began to walk upright and lost their fur. But without fur, our ancestors would have been exposed to the elements. They would have needed clothing for protection. So when did humans start wearing clothes? This is a tricky question, because clothes don't survive the way artifacts made of stone, bone and other hard materials do. Instead, scientists have to get creative. The evidence used to answer this question comes from a few main sources, including bones bearing evidence of skinning, sewing needles and awls, and lice. Related: When did Homo sapiens first appear? "We tried to understand what changes have happened in lice evolutionary History that might be correlated with loss of body hair in humans , and then the subsequent acquisition of clothing use in humans ," David Reed , a biologist at the University of Florida, told Live Science . Lice are incredibly specialized to their habitats...

For centuries, the "Unicorn Cave," or "Einhornhöhle," in central Germany has been famous for its many thousands of bones. In medieval times, people thought the bones came from unicorns. But a few years ago, archaeologists excavating the cave unearthed an unusual object: a toe bone from a giant deer. The material itself was noteworthy: Although giant deer were once prey for Europe's prehistoric hunters, the animals usually roamed much farther north, indicating this bone had been brought from afar. And it was clearly different from others in the cave: Several large grooves had been carved at angles into the bone's upper surface, creating a prominent chevron-like pattern. Even more extraordinary was its age: Radiocarbon dating of the bone showed that the deer lived around 51,000 years ago, when the Unicorn Cave was occupied by Neanderthals , our extinct human relatives. "The engraved bone from Einhornhöhle is at least 50,000 years old and thus range...