Developments of invention of jewelery and invention of shame have lead to a further invention, the invention of clothing. Both could lead to that new development: On one hand, the shame on parts of the body as to the buttocks and the sexual organs developed over touthands of years to a shame on action as to excretion and sexual actions, and on the other hand the wearing of jewelery had begun to emphasize individual people as special knowledge bearers.

With the jewelry, man started to drape ones body, i.e. to cover parts of the body. In addition to feathers in the hair, necklaces with attached amulets were surely one of the first jewels. Whoever not only hung a lumbar cord around the waist but also hung pieces of jewelry or ribbons on it, had soon covered his genitals with jewelry, and could thus follow the shame as to body parts, which had been instiled in him: the apron was invented.

Of course, for thousands of years clothing remained a privilege of the upper class. Also, in the early history of the clothes, these were by no means always worn, but only for special occasions such as celebrations or rituals, but in no case during hunting, in the field or housework – it was only disturbing, handicapping and had no benefit – like that can still be said today for most activities.

The fact, that wearing clothes became something common and commonplace, lasted until the historical time, namely to the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt (around 3000 BC). German Brockhaus Encyclopaedia also reports on the Old Kingdom (approx. 4000 BC): “In general, they went in the nude.“ And in many societies and cultures, which do exist still separated and undisturbed on the southern seas, in the Amazon region, or in African savannas or virgin forests, people still do not wear clothing except on special occasions.

Tomb of Ti detail Contour drawing 1887 Contour drawing 1953 Workers tomb of Ti

In the tomb of Ti, a high official in the 5th dynasty of the Egyptian Empire, extensive paintings were created around 2,400 BC. For example, they depict scenes, which played a role in the life of the Ti, e.g. the supervision of agricultural work, receipt and accounting of the harvest, etc. It is noticeable, that some of the agricultural workers wear an apron, that is open at the front thus leaving the genital organ of the men uncovered. Others obviously did not wear an apron at all.

From today's perspective, it seems funny, that the author of the book “History of Ancient Egypt“ from 1887 found this fashion so frivolous, that he consciously made a false outline drawing for his book, in which, contrary to the original painting, all men chastely covered their genital organ with an apron – but perhaps his book publication would otherwise have failed because of the imperial censorship authority? A contour drawing of the same motif in the book "Le tombeau de Ti“ from 1953 correctly depicted the facts. The fourth picture shows other workers dressed in the same scarce fashion.

Egyptian paintings show on one hand, that in the centuries in which clothing slowly prevailed, apparently clothed and unclothed people worked together, and that on the other hand, covering genital organ was not the most important thing: It was a status symbol, with which one could show: I afford something, that others don't have!

Until the time of classical Bronze crater of Vix - Greek Soldiers in armorGreece, people were obviously not very squeamish about which regions of the body should be covered by clothing. For the soldiers, for example, it was mainly important, to protect those body parts with iron armour, which were particularly endangered in battle: Head, upper body, and shins. The abdomen remained – as depicted on the bronze crater of Vix – often unprotected and nude – with the advantage of being able to move as unhindered as possible and perhaps to gain the decisive superiority over an opponent.

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