Morocco Archaeology: 120,000-Year-Old Clothes Making Tools Found

Archaeologists in Morocco have identified clothes making tools fashioned from bone dating back 120,000 years, the oldest ever found, one of the researchers said.

The international team discovered more than 60 tools in Smugglers Cave, less than 20 kilometres from the North African country’s capital.

They had been “intentionally shaped for specific tasks that included leather and fur working”, the team wrote in a study published in the journal iScience.

The discovery could help answer questions on the origins of modern human behaviour, said El Hajraoui, a researcher at the National Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage.

The team also discovered living spaces dug into the ground or built in the cave, as well as perforated seashells apparently used as ornaments.