When did Hominids first begin wearing cool hats?

Corwin
Corwin: There's not much talk about prehistoric hats among paleontologists.

Now, this could be because hats would be unlikely to leave behind evidence in the fossil record... unless these hats were fashioned out of bone... but I imagine bone hats would be uncomfortable, and not as fashionable as hats made of animal skins or weaved textiles.

Could there have been Modisterial stone tools specific to hat-making that the paleontologists might recognize? As I am neither a hat-maker, nor a paleontologist, I could not begin to guess... which is one of the reasons I bring this up here.

But this does have me pondering this, and whether it could be an important stage of Human Evolution that the field of Paleontology has overlooked.
And could also branch into specific fields of study... such as Archeomillinermorphology or even Paleohaberdashery.
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near50ohoh
near50ohoh: I think it was when put a on his head
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Aura
Aura: My guess would be once someone realized getting whacked on the head with a stick was more pleasant if the head was covered?
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near50ohoh
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Geoff
Geoff: "Cool"?

Around 1920.

Hats like yours? - which under modern rules are "cool" - around 1760
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Corwin
Corwin: Apparently, the oldest depiction of a Human wearing a hat dates back to 3200BC, seen on the walls of a Thebes tomb... a straw "coolie" hat it seems. So, although it may not have been "cool", it was at least a "coolie" hat.

But what I'd really like to see is something in the fossil record... if we can see impressions of dinosaur feathers, surely they could possibly come across some sort of hat impression in early Hominid fossil remains... which would not only give us a more accurate date of the first appearance of hats, but we might also then decide whether they were cool or not.
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Geoff
Geoff: Well... it wasn't a fedora
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Geoff
Geoff: Did dinosaurs formulate a basic language, and culture?

We will, probably never know.
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near50ohoh
near50ohoh: fossils
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Geoff
Geoff: Fossils are rare - and full of corruptions.

You switch carbon for calcium and silicon, you lose some detail.

//Edit - only just spotted my typo. :/
(Edited by Geoff)
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Corwin
Corwin: True. The Fedora is a pretty damn cool hat.

But this also brings up the question... is making the hat "cool" an instinctive biological function, or was it a cultural phenomenon?
If the first hats worn by say, Homo Erectus, or Homo Neandertaalus appear in the fossil record at the same time that Hominids first began to wear the skins of animals, and it turns out that this prehistoric hat is pretty cool, it may suggest the former rather than the latter.
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Corwin
Corwin: Hey... wait a minute.... was Geoff insulting my hat?!

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near50ohoh
near50ohoh: We do know that it's an evolutionary process to want to attract your mate so pretty colours would help and to appear young so they would cover balding heads... Sooner or later they would pretty much have to cover their heads.
Then they would also cover their heads as a form of reverence or supplication to a higher authority. In religious or monarchal groups this would be a factor.
Sooner or later they would have to add flourishes so they would stand out as unique in the group.
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near50ohoh
near50ohoh: Then like clothes or tartans they would start to wear belonging emblems on their hats too.
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Corwin
Corwin: That's very good reasoning, Near.

But of course without tangible fossil or other evidence this will still remain only a theory.

I wonder if the Creationists will come into this thread and insist that the first hats were created by God?
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near50ohoh
near50ohoh: um don't call the devil's name if you don't want him to show up j/s
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Corwin
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near50ohoh
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near50ohoh
near50ohoh: actually we see the men in the animal world are beauty-full while the women folk are drab to protect the nest. I would imagine then that man may have taken the step to mimic the animal world. It's not a grand leap anyway
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near50ohoh
near50ohoh: and some of the religious texts do mention covering your head before God
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Geoff
Geoff: Unless your hat is older than 10,000 years, it's not a fossil.

Your hat is awesome.
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DawnGurl
DawnGurl: The government knows all about how aliens introduced hats to the human race circa 30,000 BCE. To this very day, aliens belonging to The Illuminati and funded by Seth are bestowing Three Cornered hats to "the elect" of the human race. One such special individual is US Army Sgt Hieronymous Fogsworth. He is quoted as saying," Dem dam alien thangs done plopped a weird hat on my haid then stared at me. Then they applauded and vanished in a puff of smoke. I swear on my dead cat's grave this is all true!"
And there ya have it.
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DawnGurl
DawnGurl: Corvin.....unbeknownst to most there is an uncanonical text of Genesis in which Adam does not use a fig leaf to cover his nakedness but rather Eve hands him a hat to cover his sinful baldness. Hence The Lord did indeed introduce hats to an unsuspecting audience.
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Aura
Aura: So God is an alien. Yes, that makes more sense than some other schools of thought actually
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Corwin
Corwin: Have you noticed that the aliens themselves are never seen to be wearing hats? Nor is God ever wearing hats in pictorial portrayals.
Hmmmm... I wonder if the hat may be some form of mind-control device, with the brim acting as some kind of "dish" of some kind...

I think a tin-foil lining may be in order.

Now... off to my paleontology dig next to the oak tree in my backyard to look for hat fossils.
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Aura
Aura: Damn it, Deb, he's on to you. Hide the transmitter.
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