User:Chowchow013/Clothing in the Ancient World

Materials Used
The Neolithic Period marked the transition from a nomadic lifestyle to a settled agrarian society. The farming communities, textile production, tooling, and resources enabled finer clothing quality to be feasible and manufactured. Early clothing was created with the intention that it was to be functional rather than fashionable—preferably as a product of necessity and protection from unknown terrain. Factors such as climate and terrestrial surfaces influenced the creation and design of clothing, and the resources available to produce such clothes.

The development of clothing in the Neolithic relied on location, hence why certain materials were more commonly used in specific climates. In colder regions, warmer clothing was typically made from animal hides, which provided both fur and leather for creating heavier garments. For example, leggings were pieced together with either a sheave of fur or leather and attached to loincloths. The thickness of the leather allowed for stronger protection against harsh winters, while also providing durability on rough terrain.

Loincloths were one of the most common sources of clothing during the Neolithic due to its versatility in various climates. Whether worn alone or used as layering, loincloths were pieces of fabric that were used for covering the groin and could be made from plants, linens, or animal hides.

Furthermore, there are instances found of clothing being stitched together with piercing tools like bone needles to create holes and string made from plant materials like vines and nettle. The common nettle, a type of plant, was another type of material used in clothing during the Neolithic, evidence of which was found in a Switzerland Neolithic lakeside site.

Flax linen is derived from the plant Linum usitatissimum, specifically the bast found underneath the stem surface. These plants would have to undergo thorough treatment in order to obtain the highest quality fibers such as retting and heckling. Retting involves employing microorganisms on plants to dissolve the cellular tissue, while heckling includes separating the short fibers of flax from the long fibers in order to make the fibers soft and flexible for weaving. Linens were used prevalently in Ancient Egypt as a luxurious material. They were easy to clean and whiten without use of heavy chemicals, but difficult to dye the fibers themselves.

In the Ancient Near East, especially in Ancient Mesopotamia, wool was a common material used. The finest wool clothes were reserved for the elites of society and religious idols. The shearing of wool made the material very abundant and renewable. It resists water seeping, can trap heat, allows breathability, easy to dye, and is flexible enough to be woven into many dimensions. These attributes made wool not only a reliable clothing material but a good product for trading. Furthermore, some sheep were later selectively-bred in order to produce longer length wool, which was more easily spun than the coarser outer wool.

Manufacturing Techniques
To prepare hides for garment construction, the people of the Neolithic Age used sharp, flat edged rocks to scrape them. If the hide was to be sewn, they needed to be cut to shape as well. Stitching methods included the running stitch, overcast/hem stitches, and whipped hems. There is evidence of overcast stitches on clothes found on a mummy discovered in the Otzal Alps known as the “Iceman”, or Otzi. His clothes were found to be composed of bear, goat, sheep, cow, and deerskin. These stitches were likely performed using needles made of bone and antlers, such as those found in Grubgraben dating back to approximately 20,000 BC.

The people of the Neolithic also used plants and wool to create garments. The task of spinning wool and plant fibers into yarn was originally completed by hand, a time-consuming endeavor where each strand was individually twisted onto the next until long and thick enough to constitute yarn. By the early Neolithic Period, however, humans had developed the hand-spindle, which allowed the fibers to be wrapped several times with a single twist, making the process more efficient. This yarn might then be woven into cloth. By the Neolithic Period, there is evidence for the invention of large, warp-weighted weaving looms. They differed from the more portable weaving bands in that they used stones tied to the warp strands to apply tension. These looms would not have been easy to transport thus indicating a more sedentary lifestyle. Impressions in stone tell us that fabric was woven using the plain, or tabby, weave along with rep weave—a warp-faced weaving pattern with a ribbed appearance.

Adornments
As the Neolithic period progressed, so did the existence of personal ornaments. From tombs and excavation sites, there have been findings of beaded jewelry, headpieces, and shell necklaces that were used as adornments for clothes during this period. Additionally, there is evidence of the use of cosmetics found in an archaeological site in Slovenia. Small bottles were discovered with traces of beeswax, cerussite (lead carbonate), animal fats, and plant oils inside. While we can’t be entirely sure of the uses of these substances, most likely they were used for either cosmetic or medicinal purposes. The Iceman of the Otzal Alps shows evidence of tattoos thus indicating the presence of this practice during the Neolithic Age. These tattoos appeared on areas of the body that undergo continual stress, such as the ankles, wrists, knees, etc. Therefore, it is thought that his tattoos served a therapeutic purpose rather than a religious or decorative one.