Here’s a note to those who smugly believe that our species is superior to animals: Without their skins and furs, we would probably never have survived the ice ages that hit earth since homo sapiens appeared over 300,000 years ago. Possibly proving this point is a recent archaeological discovery in a cave in Morocco that dates the oldest recorded human-made tools for making leather and fur garments to the onset of an ice age around 120,000 years ago.
Leather played an important role in the development of arts. One of the very earliest artistic techniques, developed by cave dwellers in the Stone Age, was pyrography, the craft of burning images onto stone or leather. Painting with leather brushes was an ancient art originating in China. The age-old Indonesian art of shadow puppet theatre employs carved leather figures manipulated between a lamp and a screen to bring the shadows to life.
In the Paleolithic period, around 40,000 years ago, people started making moccasin-like wraparound footwear out of softened animal skins, or rawhide. This seemingly simple advancement gave humankind a major leg up in long-distance travel and marked the beginning of leather-making.
When formerly nomadic tribes established agricultural settlements, animal husbandry provided a steady and easily accessible source of food and rawhide. This allowed our ancient ancestors to develop a process that made hides more durable and less susceptible to decomposition. This process evolved into the craft known as tanning.
The harness followed.
By the Neolithic period of the later Stone Age, most farm animals, common today, had been domesticated. The earliest harnesses were most likely employed in agriculture, on oxen or donkeys. "
Between 12,000 and 6,000 years ago, tanneries began cropping up in towns in Sumeria, Mehrgarh, and other ancient cultures.
The work of an ancient tanner was unglamorous to say the least.It started with an arduous preparatory stage that could take several weeks.
First, the animals skins were cleaned and softened with water. Once cleaned, the tanners still had to pound the hides to remove excess fat and flesh. Next, to loosen the hair follicles, they would either coat the hides with an alkaline lime mixture, leave the hides out to putrefy for months, or soak them in vats of urine before removal with a dull knife (scudding).
In the bating stage, tanners worked animal dung or brains into the skins either by beating with sticks or kneading them in a vat of feces and water. The combination of bacteria enzymes found in animal waste and the beating or kneading action fermented the skin and made it supple.
Understandably, ancient tanneries were always found on the outskirts of towns.
With the malodorous preparatory work complete, the hides were ready for tanning. From ancient times and through the 18th century, tanners used a chemical compound called tannin, derived from tree bark and certain plant leaves. Hides were stretched out on frames and immersed in vats concentrated amounts of tannin. Tannins bind to the collagen proteins in the hide and coat them, causing them to become less water-soluble, more bacteria-resistant, and more flexible.
"The introduction of a sturdy leather sole many millennia ago enabled people to travel long distances. This increased the likelihood of different tribal groups being exposed to each other.
Commerce was stimulated and an exchange of ideas and technology occurred.
Archeological discoveries indicate that horse harnesses may have been in use in parts of Europe five thousand years ago, and in China three thousand years ago.
About the fourth century B.C. the Chinese devised a harness with a breast strap known as the trace harness, later modified into the collar harness. This was a vast improvement on the throat-and-girth harness used in the West, which choked a horse and reduced its efficiency. The
- Chinese currency of the second century B.C. was made of leather. - The Romans also used leather coins. The English word “pecuniary”, meaning monetary rewards, comes from the Latin word “pecos” for hide. - Even as late as WWI, leather coins were used in Germany.
Early bark tanning likely started with the soaking of hides in pits lined with tree bark, and evolved into milling or crushing the bark to increase surface area and make the tannins more available. The remnants of mills for crushing bark prior to 1500 BC have been identified. The crushed bark was placed in a pit with water and skins were soaked with the tannins released from the bark to produce strong, pliable, durable leather. Similar processes are currently used in several countries.
The trace harness arrived in Europe in the sixth century A.D.. China is also credited with inventing the stirrup. The debate about when and where saddles first appeared continues, but there are Western biblical references that indicate saddles may have been in use as far back as 1,000 B.C. Horseback riding, and later horse drawn vehicles beginning with the chariot, enabled people to travel farther than ever, into strange new terrain and climates. Social change escalated with the momentous interaction of varied cultural values.
One of the earliest forms of soccer was played in China. Almost 1,500 years ago, they kicked around a leather ball. It is known for sure that a soccer game was played in 611 A.D. in the ancient Japanese capital Kyoto.
Early weapons, shields and armour included leather in their design.
