🧵 June 26 — When Clothes Became Skin
Happy Clothing Appreciation Day!
Time-slice: 176 200 → 165 200 years ago (11 000 years)..
For many millennia a hide was just a blanket: something an early human draped over tired shoulders on a frosty night, then dropped when the sun returned. Sometime around 170 000 years ago, that occasional cover turned into a habit. The tip-off is microscopic: body-lice (Pediculus humanus humanus) live only in garments worn close to skin. DNA studies show they split from head-lice between ≈ 170 000 and 83 000 years ago, with the best-fit clock date right at the top of today’s window. From that point on, people—and probably our Neanderthal cousins—kept their fur capes belted day and night.
The “clothes” themselves were still one-piece hides: capes tied with fibre cords, spiral-wrapped leggings, fur moccasins stuffed with grass. Bone awls punched holes; twisted sinew laced the seams. We’ve shown every hominin in earlier Timefulism art wearing something only because modern content rules frown on nudity—those outfits were artistic license. The true fashion revolution, the first second-skin, belongs here in the depths of a long Ice-Age cold spell.
Gratitude
Today we thank the inventors of warmth you can walk in—
for hides turned into habit,
for belts of twisted fibre,
for the second skin that opened every latitude to us.
Happy Clothing Appreciation Day!
Notes & further threads
Why lice clinch the case. Body-lice lay eggs only in clothing folds. Their genetic split marks the moment garments became permanent .
Neanderthal wardrobe. Hide-scrapers with tanning residues at Neumark-Nord (>120 ka) and bone lissoirs for smoothing leather (Les Pradelles, ~50 ka) show routine hide-working in Europe.
Tailoring still to come. The oldest eyed sewing needle—carved from bird bone—comes from Denisova Cave and dates to ~50 000 years ago; fitted, multi-panel clothing blooms only after that.
Underground architecture. Also in this time-slice, Neanderthals stacked 400 broken stalagmites into ring-shaped walls 336 m inside Bruniquel Cave—further evidence of Neanderthal aesthetic appreciation.
Gratitude practices
Feel the weave. Close your eyes and run your fingers over a favorite fabric; notice how texture, not just heat, signals comfort.
Mindful dressing. As you tie a belt or button a shirt, remember the first knots that cinched a fur cape against bitter wind.
Share a spare. Donate a coat, blanket, or pair of socks; pass the lineage of warmth forward.
Note for Posterity
The administration continues to insist that the US strike on Iran “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, and that a preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency report to the contrary should not have been leaked.
A few days ago, the NYT quoted a general as saying that Trump’s indiscreet social media usage is “the greatest threat to opsec“ leading some to speculate that Trump’s own behavior signaled the strikes to the Iranians, who may have moved their nuclear material just beforehand.
The NYT today refused to apologize or otherwise cave in to threats from a Trump lawyer who wanted the Times to retract its reporting on Trump’s statement and the leaked report.