Archaeologists have identified the oldest known evidence of stitched clothing through a re-examination of artifacts found in Oregon's Cougar Mountain Cave.
A team led by Richard Rosencrance used modern dating techniques to analyze a collection of organic tools and materials that had remained unexamined for decades.
Among the recovered items is a fragment of processed elk hide, known as artifact CMC21-1, which dates back approximately 12,600 years, according to refractor.io.
The fragment consists of multiple cut pieces of hide sewn together using a Z-twist cord secured with a knot to prevent unraveling.
Technological complexity in the Pleistocene
While the number of items from the late Pleistocene was limited, the discovery highlights a high level of technical skill.
“We found tremendous technological diversity, as enough raw material use that attests to a really complex and detailed knowledge system,” Rosencrance told New Atlas.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, confirms that ancient humans used sophisticated methods to survive extreme cold during the last ice age.
Rosencrance noted that these physical remains validate previous assumptions about ancestral survival.
“I think our study is special because we don't have to assume; we know based on these extremely rare items that tell us these details,” the archaeologist said.
Researchers believe the elk hide might have originally been decorated with pigments like ochre.
“That’s often a way that people express identity in the past,” Rosencrance speculated, though no physical evidence of coloring was found on the fragment.
Because most tools from this era were made of perishable organic materials, much of this history is lost to time.
Costantino Buzi, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Perugia, noted that the development of stitched clothing is an aspect of human evolution that is often overlooked due to the lack of surviving evidence.
