Ancient humans fashioned fur from bearskins 300,000 years ago, new finds suggest

Researchers from the University of Tübingen have provided new depth to our understanding of early human adaptation by presenting evidence that bearskins were used by ancient people long before the emergence of fully modern hunting strategies. The central claim of the work is that bearskins served not only as a source of food and raw material but also as protective coverings that helped humans endure the harsh climates of northern Europe hundreds of thousands of years ago. The study situates this finding within a broader archaeological conversation about how early populations managed exposure to extreme cold, how they exploited available animal resources, and how such practices might have influenced mobility and settlement patterns in glaciated landscapes. The research adds a crucial piece to the puzzle of prehistoric behavior by linking a specific skeletal record with practical hide processing, thus bridging the gap between subsistence activities and climate-driven survival strategies in prehistory. The team emphasizes that this nuance about fur use broadens our view of the adaptive toolkit available to ancient communities and invites reassessment of how full winter preparedness could have shaped group dynamics, tool-making choices, and seasonal migrations in the European north. The implications reach beyond mere curiosity about what people wore; they touch on the fundamentals of cultural resilience in the face of persistent cold and resource volatility that characterized much of Pleistocene Europe.