Considering the freezing temps we record annually coupled with tornadoes and other natural phenomena, how did ancient people survive the adverse weather without modern housing, clothing and heating technologies we have today. I’m taking 500+ years ago.
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500 years ago isn’t considered ancient. Before humans lived in permanent settlements, they were nomadic in nature and moved around the regions with climate and weather changes mind. They also clothed themselves with very thick animal skins… which provide much better insulation than todays cheap made in China threads. There were less people back then so natural disasters weren’t as much of a concern. Also, they didn’t have huge cities with junk laying around everywhere to get thrown around during tornadoes or floods. they also paid close attention and understood weather than the average modern human who barely understands the variables than contribute to day to day weather and long term climate
500 years ago is not that long ago. It’d be weird to even call people from then as “ancient”.
Anyways. Surviving the cold is pretty easy, even without modern technology. A nice fur coat can keep you perfectly warm, and yes they had fur coats in the 1500s. In fact, fur clothing in general dates back well over a hundred thousand years.
As for heating… A fire works great as heat. And humans have been using fire since literal cavemen days.
1000 years ago, human beings were building cathedrals. The Oude Kerk in Delft, for example, was built in the early 1200s.
*Medieval* housing/clothing/heating technology 😉 Namely igloos/semi-underground buildings with straw or animal fur insulation, fur coats, and fire. It definitely wasn’t as material-efficient as modern tech is but that doesn’t stop it from working!
Humans have lived in the Arctic for at least 45,000 years. Tools. Clothing. Fire. Community. All work the same today as they did then.
Fire predates _Homo sapiens_.
Otzi the Iceman, from around 3300 BC, was found wearing very sophisticated cold weather clothing and boots, complete with nice soft underwear.
We’ve got evidence of sewing leather clothing far older than that.
Small windowless homes with thick walls are pretty easy to heat with even a small flame.
There are people alive who remember hearing stories from their grandparents about living in the Arctic without anything we would consider modern technology.
Humans are surprisingly adaptable as evidenced by the range of habitats we can occupy.
Just because they didn’t have modern housing didn’t mean they had no way of staying warm.
Examples: fire, furs, body heat. You may have brought your livestock in the shelter, everyone generating heat ensures everyone survives.
Then of course you have wood stone and dirt m, enough of it can be pretty good insulation against the elements.
Keep in mind, they weren’t heating a 10,000sqft ranch style house with 16 windows and 14ft ceilings.
There’s a show you can watch called “Alone.”
It shows modern survivalists surviving arctic winters with no modern resources.
They use a hatchet to cut down trees and make cabins and pit houses. They insulate those cabins with moss, and put a fire pit and chimney in them to keep warm.
It’s great fun; I highly recommend it. (And they also hunt, fish, and forage their own food.)
I mean modern clothing by comparison doesn’t keep you warm at ALL.
Back then before the vegans came along humans would kill animals and use their fur and leather and that stuff KEEPS YA WARM.
If it was warm enough to keep the animals alive in cold early humans reasoned if we kill said animal and wear it’s skin around us, it’ll likely keep us warm too!
Also amongst other things is the humans body ability to keep itself warm. If you’re ever cold at night for example? Eat a small slice of cheese or a cracker and some olive oil (something fatty) and you’ll be scoring hot from the heat produced by your body digesting the fatty substance.
They shared housing with their animals. My ancestors were crofters (Scotland) half the croft was human space the other half the cows. Smells better than pigs!
Thatch and stone have reasonable insulation properties
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