When did humans first...

[FrankN]

The first evidence of wheeled cars or pushbarrows is wheel tracks found at the Flintbek megalith tombs near Kiel, Germany (ca.3.400 BC). The wheels were 5-6 cm wide, the wheelbase measured 1.1-1.2 m, which is similar to the measures of the first wheel found in Slovenia. The Flintbek tracks predate the Slovakian wheel by around 200 years.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Ne.....-a0268601224
http://webcl3top.rz.uni-kiel.de/ufg/...pearch_web.pdf

Flintbek_1.jpg
Flintbek_2.jpg
Edit: Looking at the papers in more detail, it appears that while the Flintbek tracks are the first material evidence of wheel use, depictions of wheel carts on a pot from Boronice (near Krakow, Poland), and on Late Uruk clay tables are at least contemporary, possibly a century older.

The earliest evidence for wheels and wagons is spread over large distances. However, we probably underestimate the occurrence of wheels and thus their functions within Neolithic societies because of the poor preservation of wooden artefacts (cf. Johannsen & Laursen 2010). More finds can be expected in the future and better dates (for example of the Majkop and Boleraz specimen) may come in earlier than 3400 or even 3500 BC.

[LeBrok]

First cloths dated to 170 thousands years ago by evolution of specialized louse which live only in cloths. Unlike its cousins who live in head and pubic hair.
Textiles were not invented yet, therefore we are talking only about leather cloths, furs, skins.

Clothing
While the evolutionary history of lice helps us trace our deep past, we can also use them to explain more recent developments, such as the advent of attire. Body lice hang out—literally—in clothing, and pinpointing when this Pediculus subspecies separated from its head-bound brethren may have helped pinpoint when Homo sapiens decided to put on some clothes. Fig leaves aside, the question has been wide open, with ranges from 40,000 years ago to 3 million. But recent work indicates a divergence between the Pediculus subspecies at 170,000 years ago. This timing puts clothing far earlier than many estimates and well before humans would have needed them for warmth. It’s also well after humans lost their body hair, so for awhile there, our ancestors were wandering around naked and smooth, until a snake came out from behind a tree and…oh, never mind.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...itchy-history/



It means that it must had happened during second to last Ice Age. It must have gotten a bit chilly during this time in Africa, or the clothing lice are of Neanderthal's heritage.

[FrankN]

What's the timeline on cultivating textile fibres? I know that linseed has been found near to the Lake Constance in settlements dated to the 5th millennium BC, but I suppose the cultivation and use of linen (flax) dates back far earlier (Ethiopia? Egypt?). Cotton may have been around the Indus valley for a long time. Anybody having a clue?

[LeBrok]

What's the timeline on cultivating textile fibres? I know that linseed has been found near to the Lake Constance in settlements dated to the 5th millennium BC, but I suppose the cultivation and use of linen (flax) dates back far earlier (Ethiopia? Egypt?). Cotton may have been around the Indus valley for a long time. Anybody having a clue?

It will be hard to find out. Linens decay rather quickly, so the earliest signs of clothing fibers come from imprints of pottery makers' garment on some pots they were making.
My guess would be at the beginning of Neolithic in Near East.

[Angela]

Flax is native to the eastern Mediterranean all the way to India. Some scholars believe the earliest cultivation, based on the diversity of the seeds, is India. Others look to Iran and a spread in all directions from there.

The earliest indication (30,000 ybp)of the use of flax fibers is from a cave in Georgia. The flax grew wild in the vicinity of the cave, apparently. I have my doubts that they were actually weaving the flax fibers, as in weaving with a loom, although it's clear that they dyed the fibers. They could easily have braided them or used them to make macrame like decorations, or perhaps as thread to sew skins together.
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...rs-discovered/

The earliest example of actual woven linen cloth is, to my knowledge, from Gobekli Tepi in Anatolia, 7,000 B.C.
"Renewed work within B.52 uncovered a burial containing a cloth made from flax. This cloth was actually wrapped around an infant."

http://www.catalhoyuk.com/downloads/Catal_News_2013.pdf

[FrankN]

It will be hard to find out. Linens decay rather quickly, so the earliest signs of clothing fibers come from imprints of pottery makers' garment on some pots they were making.
My guess would be at the beginning of Neolithic in Near East.

As concerns linen, I'd rather think of Ethiopia. Linseed is a key element of the traditional diet, and flax is being planted in one phase of their traditional seven-years crop rotation cycle (though I don't have an idea when that cycle was established).

[Angela]

World's oldest pants found in a site in the Tarim Basin dated to 3300 to 3000 B.C. They were made of loomed woolen cloth and the scientists associate them with the development of horseback riding by steppe peoples.

http://www.archaeology.org/news/2157...-yanghai-pants