History of Clothing

There is no information about when we started using clothes. However, Anthropologists think that animal skins and vegetation were adapted as protection from weather conditions in ancient times. There is the other idea that clothing may have been invented first for the purposes, such as magic, decoration, cult or prestige, and later-on found as means of protection. There are various archeological findings by wan of representation of clothing in art which can help to determine when particular clothing appeared in history.

During the Stone Age, textiles appeared in the Middle East. There is also evidence that humans may have begun wearing clothing somewhere from 100,000 to 500,000 years ago. Primitive sewing needles have been found which dated back to around 40,000 years ago. Dyed flax fibers which have been found in a prehistoric cave in the Republic of Georgia are old some 36,000 years. Some 25,000 years ago the Venus figurines started appearing in Europe, that were depicted with clothing having also basket hats or caps, belts at the waist and a strap of cloth above the breast.

First material used for clothing that was not leather. Nålebinding, which is another early textile method - a type of precursor of knitting, appeared somewhere in 6500 BC as some evidence tells. At a Neolithic site at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia were found oldest known woven textiles of the Near East. They were used for wrapping the dead. Flax was cultivated from c. 8000 BC in the Near East but sheep are bred much later in 3000BC. Cotton was used for clothing in Ancient India from 5th millennium BC. Linen cloth was made in Ancient Egypt from the Neolithic period. Flax was grown even earlier. Ancient Egypt also knew about different spinning techniques like the drop spindle, hand-to-hand spinning, and rolling on the thigh as well as about horizontal ground loom and vertical two-beam loom which came from Asia.

The earliest proof of silk production in China dates from between 5000 and 3000 BC and is in the form of cocoon of the domesticated silkworm which was cut in half by a sharp knife. Japan started with weaving in Jōmon period which lasted from 12,000 BC to 300BC. There is evidence of pottery figurines that were depicted with clothing and a piece of cloth made from bark fibers dating from 5500BC. Some primitive needles were also found as well as hemp fibers and pattern imprints on pottery which proves existence of weaving techniques in Japan at that time. Silk Road was very important for exchange of luxury textiles between East and West. It helped in the development of the great civilizations of China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, the Indian subcontinent and Rome that traded along the route.

The birth of Tea

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is often thought  as being a British drink, drinking it over 350 years. But the history of tea goes much further back and begins in China. According to legend, the Chinese emperior  Shen Nung in 2737 BC was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled drinking water, when some leaves from the tree blew into the water. Chine Emperior, Shen Nung, a renowned herbalist, decided to try the infusion that his servant had accidentally created. The tree was a Camellia sinensis, and the resulting drink was what we now call tea.

Tea originated in Southwest China,  and was used as a drink for medicinal use. It was during Chinese Tang dynasty popularized as a recreational drink. During the 16th century tea drinking spread to other East Asian countries and Portuguese priests/merchants introduced it to Europe. During the 17th century, drinking tea became fashionable among Britons, who started large-scale production and commercialization of the plant in India.

Tea is an aromatic beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub (bush) native to Asia. After water, it is the most widely consumed drink in the world. There are many different types of tea; like Darjeeling and Chinese greens, having cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour.

Who invented tea bags?

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), in China, paper was folded and sewn into square bags to preserve the flavor of tea. The first Western tea bags were hand-sewn fabric bags; tea bag patents date as early as 1903. First appearing commercially around 1904, tea bags were successfully marketed by the tea and coffee shop merchant,  Thomas Sullivan from New York, who shipped his tea bags around the world. The tea in loose form was intended to be removed from the sample bags, but the customers found it easier to brew the tea in cups still enclosed in the bags. These days tea bags are usually made of paper fibre. The heat-sealed  paper fiber tea bag was invented by William Hermanson, one of the founders of Technical Papers Corporation of Boston. The rectangular tea bag was not invented until 1944. Prior to this, tea bags resembled small sacks.