December 5, 2007
Did cavemen sunbathe nude?
Did prehistoric man tan? It seems quite likley that they would have taken at least short breaks from their clothing to dry out, clean up and feel refreshed. Genetic studies of the human body louse indicate at least some humans started wearing clothing about 72,000 years ago. I say some, because there are still remote ethnicities that live their lives nude today (not even counting us nudists of western society)!
Imagine something like ice age clothing. You’d need multiple layers, and you would start sweating with the everyday activities such as hunting, gathering, and grinding food. This was way before washing machines, underwear, swim trunks, inexpensive clothing at Old Navy, private bedrooms, soap and showers. On top of this, notice I mention the study of lice. Yes, body lice had been a consistent scourge of humanity since we invented clothing, until more modern hygienic times. Now imagine all the itching and how all sorts of things, from lice, to fungus, to smelly bacteria could breed under a caveman’s clothes. What would be the only real solution? Get naked - and often! Getting nude in the sun for a few minutes would have help to dry and cleanse the skin and clothing, and would have provided more vitamin D absorption through the skin. In fact, it’s the human body’s physiological “desperation” for vitamin D that led to the evolution of lighter skin tones of some races. By the fire at night would have been another good place to get nude, with similar drying-out effects to sunlight.
And remember… the study said that some humans started wearing clothing 72,000 years ago, which indicates everyone was pretty much nude, all the time and everywhere, before that!








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Diane Webber, born Diane Marguerite Empey (


