Humanity has used
animal hides
since the
Paleolithic
[
clarification needed
]
, for
clothing
as well as mobile shelters such as
tipis
and
wigwams
, and household items. Since
ancient times
, hides have also been used as a
writing
medium, in the form of
parchment
.
Fur clothing
was used by other
hominids
, at least the
Neanderthals
.
Rawhide
is a simple hide product, that turns stiff. It was formerly used for binding pieces of wood together. Today it is mostly found in
drum skins
.
Tanning
of hides to manufacture
leather
was invented during the
Paleolithic
.
Parchment
for use in writing was introduced during the
Bronze Age
and later refined into
vellum
, before
paper
became commonplace.
[
citation needed
]
Prehistoric and Ancient use
[
edit
]
The world's oldest leather shoe
A German parchmenter during the 16th century
Ian Gilligan (Australian National University) has argued convincingly that hominids without fur would have needed leather clothing to survive outside the tropics in mid-latitude Eurasia, southern Africa, and the Levant during the cold glacial and stadial periods of the Ice Age, and there is archaeological evidence for the use of hide and leather in the Paleolithic.
[1]
Simple, unmodified stone flakes could have been used to scrape hides for tanning, but scraper tools are more specialized for tasks such as woodworking and
hideworking
.
[1]
: 19?20, 37
Both of these stone tool shapes were invented in the
Oldowan
,
[2]
: 61, 66?67
but direct evidence for
hideworking
has not been found from earlier than about 400,000 years ago. Examination of microscopic use-wear on scrapers demonstrates they were used to prepare hides at that time at Hoxne in England.
[3]
The earliest known bone awls date to between 84,000 and 72,000 years ago in South Africa, and their use-wear shows that they were probably used to pierce soft materials, such as tanned leather.
[4]
Bone awls were later made in the
Aurignacian
in Europe, west Asia, and Russia, and also in Tasmania during the
Last Glacial Maximum
.
[1]
: 50?51, 44?45
[2]
: 157?158
The earliest eyed
sewing needles
date to between 43,000 and 28,500 years ago, probably at least 35,000 years ago, in southern Siberia, and were used across Paleolithic Eurasia and in North America.
[1]
: 49
Paleolithic hunters are also known to have targeted fur-bearing animals, such as wolves and arctic foxes in Europe, snow leopards in Central Asia, mole-rats in Africa, and red-necked wallabies in Tasmania.
[1]
: 45?48
As
animal husbandry
was introduced during the
Neolithic
, human communities got a steady source of hides. The oldest confirmed leather tanning tools were found in ancient
Sumer
and date to approximately 5000 BCE.
[5]
The oldest surviving piece of leather footwear is the
Areni-1 shoe
that was made in
Armenia
around 3500 BCE. Another, possibly older, piece of leather was found in
Guitarrero Cave
in northern Peru, dating to the
Archaic
period.
[2]
: 340
The first written references to leather are documented from
Ancient Egypt
around 1300 BCE.
[6]
Various substances used were
tannin
obtained from trees, as well as animal
brains
, or
faeces
. The odor from tanning separated the tanneries from populated areas.
Medieval use
[
edit
]
During the
Middle Ages
, as leather craft was developed,
welt shoes
and
turnshoes
were invented. Refined kinds of leather such as
suede
and
nubuck
were also introduced.
[7]
Modern use
[
edit
]
New kinds of tanning chemicals came to use during the
Industrial Revolution
.
Chromium tanning
was invented during the 1850s.
Patent leather
has been manufactured since 1819.
Phenol formaldehyde resin
came into use during
World War II
.
Fur farming
was introduced in the 19th century, and is today the main source of fur clothing.
Synthetic fur
is an alternative to genuine fur, for cost and ethical reasons.
Several kinds of
synthetic leather
have been invented during the 20th century.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Gilligan, Ian (March 2010). "The Prehistoric Development of Clothing: Archaeological Implications of a Thermal Model".
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
.
17
(1): 15?80.
doi
:
10.1007/s10816-009-9076-x
.
JSTOR
25653129
.
S2CID
143004288
.
- ^
a
b
c
Scarre, Chris, ed. (2005).
The Human Past
. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.
ISBN
978-0-500-28531-2
.
- ^
Keeley, L. H. (1980).
Experimental determination of stone tool uses: A microwear analysis
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 128?151.
ISBN
0-226-42889-3
.
- ^
Henshilwoood, C. S.; d'Errico, F.; Marean, C. W.; Milo, R. G.; Yates, R. (2001). "An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language".
Journal of Human Evolution
.
41
(6): 662.
doi
:
10.1006/jhev.2001.0515
.
PMID
11782112
.
- ^
"
"????????"... ???? ?????? ??????"
.
??? 48
(in Arabic). July 12, 2016
. Retrieved
20 June
2018
.
- ^
"The History of Leather"
. Vonbaer.co.uk
. Retrieved
2018-05-24
.
- ^
Ma, Jianzhong; Lv, Xiujuan; Gao, Dangge; Li, Yun; Lv, Bin; Zhang, Jing (2014-06-01).
"Nanocomposite-based green tanning process of suede leather to enhance chromium uptake"
.
Journal of Cleaner Production
.
72
: 120?126.
doi
:
10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.03.016
.
ISSN
0959-6526
.
References
[
edit
]
Scarre, Chris, ed. (2005).
The Human Past
. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.
ISBN
978-0-500-28531-2
.
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