Humans were already sewing their clothes 40,000 years ago on the Catalan coast | Science

39,600 years ago it was very cold in Europe. The icebergs came down to the Portuguese coast and almost the entire Iberian peninsula was a Siberian steppe where woolly mammoths lived. The last ice age, that of Würm, was nearing its climax when groups of modern humans, the Homo sapiens, reached this end of Europe, reaching the Neanderthals. And they must have made well-fitting skin dresses: in a site near Barcelona they have identified a bone object used, according to a study published today, to perforate and sew leather.

“We already identified it on the ground, it had a series of marks that were not dented by carnivores or cuts or anything frequent,” says Montserrat Sanz, an archaeologist at the University of Barcelona. Together with a group of colleagues, Sanz was excavating in 2007 in a gravel pit located at the confluence of the Canyars and Can Llong streams, a few kilometers from Gavá, where she found the piece. Located on a river terrace, it must be a hunting area for hyenas and cats, due to the high concentration of bones of horses, bovids and other herbivores that were found. But among all the animal bones, they found half a dozen quartz and flint stones carved in a way that only some of the first modern humans who were arriving from the east could have done. Along with the stones we also found that bone that caught their attention so much. “Maybe there was a nearby camp or he passed by and they abandoned them,” Sanz thinks. Now, microscopic analysis and a series of experiments have allowed its discoverers to determine that it was a tool for sewing skins.

The piece, about 10 centimeters, is incomplete, which complicates its identification. But due to the size and shape it should be part of a hip or jawbone of a large herbivore, perhaps a horse or bovid. Although its collagen is not preserved to be able to date it, with the help of other remains and its location in the stratum in which they found it, they have allowed them to date it: they must have done it about 39,600 years ago, in the middle of the Upper Paleolithic. The date would fit with the beginnings of the Aurignacian culture, which led the H. sapiens to most of Europe. The special thing about this bone object is the perforations it has.

“On the one hand, it has several groups of perforations, but the most striking thing is the series of symmetrical marks that it has on the other,” highlights the Catalan archaeologist. It is about a dozen parallel and almost equidistant cracks that already intrigued them in 2007 and now they believe they have discovered what they were for. “From the Upper Paleolithic, burins had already been found [una especie de punzón] that I should use to work the skin, but the base was missing”, continues Sanz. And now they have found it.

“They had already found burins that they should use to work the skin, but the base was missing”

Montserrat Sanz, archeology from the University of Barcelona

In the first study, Luc Doyon, an expert in bone archeology at the University of Bordeaux, has been key. Being clear that it was a human work and not the random result of the bites of some animal, it was necessary to determine what it was for. It could be a decorative or symbolic element. But Doyon dismisses this: “In the Aurignacian context, ornamental design that imitates natural or clothing features often appears on substantially carved objects. This is not the case with the Canyars object. We also rule out that it is a symbolic object because the modifications must be clearly visible and organized to guarantee that the meaning they must convey can be understood by the different members of the group. Apart from the 10 lined up punctures that are screening facilities, the other 18 are arranged haphazardly.”

The study, the results of which have just been published in Progress of science, supports these conclusions in a series of experiments using carved bone replicas and stone burins. “A careful analysis of the 28 holes revealed that it had been made using the same technique, but with at least six different stone tools, suggesting that it was used over a fairly long period of time,” Doyon says. “By puncturing thick leather samples, we were able to produce punctures with similar rounded characteristics,” he concludes. Comparing the results, everything indicates that the distribution of the marks on the bone surface was aimed at producing a linear stitch.

The manufacture of custom clothing must be essential for the survival of Paleolithic people who lived in cold climate environments. According to marine tests in the area of ​​the island of Alborán, the temperature in the Iberian Peninsula was more similar to that existing in present-day Siberia than to that of a Mediterranean country today. At the time of the Canyars site, the average temperature of the coldest month did not rise below -8º, compared to 5º today.

“The key issue for human adaptation to cold environments is to be able to create custom clothing”

To combat the cold, wrap up more than one that is close to the body. Traditionally, archeological logos have been linked to the appearance of tight clothing with that of bone sewing needle technology. The problem here is that, found in southern Africa around 73,000 years ago and in Siberia and China around 45,000 years ago, the needles didn’t reach Europe until around 26,000 years ago. However, the perforated bone suggests that skins were already being sewn in Canyars some 14,000 years earlier. Also, bone needles are not strong enough to repeatedly pierce thick leather.

Francesco d’Enrrico, a researcher at the Center for the Behavior of the First Sapiens at the University of Bergen (Norway), defined that “the key issue for human adaptation to cold environments is being able to create tailored clothing.” To sew it, there must be, like today, different tools. Perforating the skin and passing a thread through the holes produced in this way, possibly with the beating of a punch on the leather and with a perforated base, would be one of them. Regarding what was found in Canyars, d’Enrrico wrote in an email: “The needles with an eye are important because they probably represent a refinement of previous techniques. However, being able to pierce skin to make tailored clothing represents the real turning point in the history of human adaptation.” And in addition to clothing, they also had to sew, shoes, bags or tents.

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