Humans start wearing clothes
Body lice can only live in clothing — so their origin dates the invention.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 41 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 50 thousand years
- Era
- Middle Pleistocene, Quaternary
Human body lice are a distinct form adapted to living and laying eggs in clothing rather than hair. Because they cannot exist without garments, the date at which they diverged from head lice sets a minimum age for habitual clothing, and genetic estimates cluster around 170,000 years ago, possibly earlier. It is an unusually elegant piece of evidence: a technology that leaves no archaeological trace whatsoever, dated by its parasites.