Saturday 22 December 2012

The naked ape?

We have no evidence at all that Neanderthals wore clothes. Not so much as a needle.

The problem is that if Neanderthals were naked (as some academic theories suggest) then to survive the extreme cold they’d have had either to have 4cms of fur all over, or to be insulated by about 52kg of fat.

 This means that clothes Neanderthals must have had, whether there’s any archaeological evidence for them or not.

 I must say that for me as a writer of young people's fiction this information came as rather a relief.

 

1 comment:

  1. What can one say to that but PHEW!! Though imagine the wonderful press coverage you'd get if you wrote a children's book where everyone was naked! Of course they were wrapped up...Lord alone knows quite how but yes, they must have been.

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