Re: clothing

Glenn.Morton@ORYX.COM
Fri 27 Dec 1996 07:06 CT

Concerning the Dmanisi, Georgia Homo erectus dated at around 1.6 myr ago, and
his need for clothing, I had better head off a possible counter argument.
There is some good evidence that Homo erectus had sweat glands like we do.
The importance of this is due to the fact that humans have a unique sweating
system and it seems to preclude hairyness ›SIC?›. It will take a couple of
days for me to put that argument together. But if H.erectus was not hairy and
was relatively hairless as we are, he would need clothing.

I just wanted to head off the, "He's a hairy ape" argument.

One other item of interest with clothing, even morphologically modern humans
were not able to inhabit the really northern parts of Eurasia until the
invention of the humble sewing needle. Only then could form-fitting clothing
be made. This was required to retain heat in those hostile lands. This
invention occurred somewhere around 20,000 years ago. It explains in part the
late habitation of North and South America.