Could You Survive as a Hunter-Gatherer

Observe an animation of the breakup of Pangaea.

The fibres could have been used to sew hides together for clothing and shoes. They could have been used to make packs which could have allowed Stone Age people to go on long hunting expeditions.

Some of the fibres were twisted and were probably used to make ropes or strings. Others were dyed with natural colours from plants and roots - including pink and turquoise strands.

Young flax fibres dating back to around 21,000 years old were also discovered in the cave.

The scientists were not looking for fibres but were trying to study ancient tree pollen.

Previously the oldest known fibres came from the Czech Republic which were made around 28,000 years ago.

He added: 'We were looking to find when the cave was occupied, what was the nature of the occupation by those early hunter-gatherers, where did they go hunting and gathering food, what kind of stone tools they used, what types of bone and antler tools they made and how they used them, whether they made beads and pendants for body decoration, and so on.

'This was a wonderful surprise, to discover these ancient flax fibres at the end of this excavation project.'

The researchers also found remains of animal hair, skin beetles and moths.

It is only through the study of impliments left behind and the places early humans lived and worked that we know about what they did or did not wear. Early materials from which clothing was made are perishable and could not survive long, leaving us with no record of design or placement of these earliest garments.

The Middle Paleolithic was the time of the Neanderthal who wore clothing made of animal hides draped around the body and probably bound in place with sinew. Neanderthals did not create any surviving artwork and did not leave behind any evidence of loom or needle.

Neanderthals did tan their hides, however, as uncured hides are smelly and prone to rotting. A number of tanning methods were developed – placing raw hides in the sun, salting hides, smoking hides, chewing hides – all of which achived the goal of making a hide more suitable for clothing or shelter. Some scientists have hypothesized that even urine was used for tanning. Many dispute that fact since the first time something tanned with urine was rained on or sweated in, the resulting odor would have been less than pleasant. Evenutally a technique called ‘brain tanning’ in which the oils from animal brains were used to make a raw hide into a soft, velvety wearble skin. Later, a process called vegetable tanning was developed in which hides were submerged in pools with vegetable matter in them – tannins. The type of tanning used varied by location and resources as well as contacts with other groups.