Caveman / Cavewoman Costumes

What comes to mind when you think of cavemen? There were the TV ads for a car insurance company a few years ago. There was the Earth's Children series of books by Jean M. Auel. There were The Flintstones. 

The Flintstones were a lot of fun, but this "modern stone age family" was nothing like the actual earliest humans. For starters, early humans did not coexist with dinosaurs any more than modern ones do. The great saurians had been extinct for sixty million years before the first ancestral hominids appeared. The closest thing to a dinosaur that was still around when humans came along was a bird. (That's right. Birds are the most direct descendants of dinosaurs that still exist. They're even closer than modern reptiles.) 

Early humans may or may not have lived in caves. Some certainly did, but most probably did not. There is archaeological evidence of human occupation in a few caves, but also in many sites that are nowhere near a cave. Researchers have found examples of structures built of tree branches or mammoth bones that may have been covered with animal hides. 

What did prehistoric humans wear? Nobody really knows. The cave art that survives shows animals almost exclusively. Early humans didn't make selfies! Evidence at archaeological sites includes needles made of bone, and fragments of tanned leather. From that, anthropologists deduce that our distant ancestors sewed simple garments from animal hides. There is also evidence that humans made cloth from plant fibers by about 6000 years ago. But nobody can say for sure what any early garments may have looked like. 

So, if you're going to be a caveman (or woman) for your next costume, you can choose your favorite look and nobody can say you're wrong. Most of our caveman costumes use fabrics that look like leather or fur, and have jagged edges for a primitive look. If you want to be a generic cave dweller, choose a costume and a one-syllable name that has hard consonants and a schwa vowel sound. Add a spear or club for authenticity, and maybe dress your dog as a woolly mammoth.  

We also have licensed costumes for your favorite Flintstones characters in sizes for kids and adults. You can be Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, Pebbles or Bamm Bamm. We even have Dino costumes for your furry friend!