Did Neanderthals and Denisovans have to have snow-boots and clothes 400,000 years ago in the ice?

Submitted by science-raven t3_11jukqp in askscience

Neanderthals and Denisovans lived in very cold climates up to 400,000 years ago, including the UK and Denisova Russia which is -14'C this week. What were the temperatures there at the time, just 5'C higher? was it snowy and frosty sometimes?

Can we use paleoclimate to presume that Neanderthals were working mammoth leather into boots to travel in the snow 120,000 years ago, perhaps 400,000 years? There is a flute from 60,000 years ago, and it's more useful and easy to craft a shoe than a flute.

Can we suggest that Neanderthals excursions north are evidence of human's first technological ability to live in the cold with clothes, and homo-habilis too because his flint tooling was as technical as clothesmaking?

Is the progressively northward range of humans evidence for boot technology?

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Cute_Consideration38 t1_jb81zi9 wrote

I always assumed that they did use the pelts they had left over from kills in order to clothe themselves. The question I have is: did they discover how to create fire because they saw that their flint-napping could spark unexpected fires? Or did they discover flint napping while making fires? I'm pretty sure one would have to come with the other. Just as clothing, and subsequent survivability in colder climates probably came alongside hunting animals for food.

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TickTock432 t1_jc90h95 wrote

Neanderthals were making tar 200k years go. They were roasting crabs at least 90k years ago. They were making glue 50k years ago. They were tracking axial precession at least 40k years ago (hypothesized 70k years ago). It is very likely that they also knew how to dress themselves.

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