Because cloth decomposes and leaves no fossils, scientists traced the origin of clothing through an unlikely source: the genes of body lice. By dating when clothing lice diverged from head lice, researchers estimate humans began wearing clothes roughly 70,000–170,000 years ago; Neolithic sites later yield actual bone needles and spindle whorls. In Greek myth, the weaver Arachne is turned into a spider after besting Athena at a weaving contest; in East Asian folklore, the weaver-girl Jingnyeo and the herder Gyeonu are separated across the Milky Way, meeting only once a year on Chilseok. What began as protection from the cold grew into a language for saying who we are.