Human and Animal Interrelationships from Domestication to Presen Term Paper Information - Essay Example

It is argued that no discovery has ever matched it. Research indicates that humans can refine or improve wool, but cannot make it. In fact, mankind has done so through selective breeding of sheep, as well as by including wool fabrics. After its invention by primitive humans, ancient tribes in northern Europe began using wool from sheep to manufacture clothes. In fact, wool has been part of England’s history and was woven into cloth during the Bronze Age, which spans to about 1900 B.C. However, this is quite recent in historical terms.

In other parts of the world, primitive humans first uses wool which was obtained from domesticated sheep around 10,000 B.C. This discourse will explore the history of the use of wool from ancient times to the present. The history of wool dates back to more than 4,000 years ago when primitive humans first used wooly skins obtained from the domesticated sheep to as cloth. The primitive people relied mainly on hunting and gathering as their main source of food. Afterwards, they began domesticating wild sheep, which they discovered could offer other benefits such as milk and meat.

As a result, they began milking the domesticated sheep, the same way it is done in some parts of the world today. When the domesticated sheep shed some of their fleece, the primitive humans would take them (the fleece), spun them, and later wove them into clothing, which they used to protect themselves from excess heat and cold weather. It is then that humans realized that killing sheep for its meat alone was not only a waste of food, but also material. As a result, they ventured into the production of clothes made using the fleece shed by the domesticated sheep (Gleason 24).

The use of woolen clothing began to spread to other parts of the world with time. Historians reveal that people in most parts of northern Europe began wearing woolen clothes that were being spun and woven by the local tribesmen way before 10,000 B.C. To spin the wool, these people in would place the wool in one hand and draw it out. This would then be followed by twisting the wool to form threat. This resulted in the formation of a thick yarn. This was followed by the invention of a crude spindle, which enabled the drawn-out yarn to be twisted on the spindle.

Even though this method of spinning was used several years ago, most peasant communities around the world still use it today (Burnley 8). Britons were so eager to improve the methods used in weaving wool after some time according to Burnley (12). As a result, they opted to develop a wool industry by around 55 B.C. This meant that the Britons had already built a wool industry by the time the Romans invaded the northern islands. In fact, the Romans were surprised by the quality of woolen clothes that the Britons manufactured in the industry.

They even went as far as comparing the woolen clothes with the spider web, in praise of its quality. However, the wool industry was almost destroyed during the Saxon invasion in the fifth century. Reports indicate that Britons soon began exporting woolen fabrics to other parts of Europe after the arrival of the Roman conquerors in 1066. By the turn of the twelfth century, wool had become England’s major asset. Cloth making also spread throughout major towns in England, particularly in major towns in the eastern and southern parts of the country (Burnley 12).

Even though cloth making using wool was