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[[File:Skythian_archer_plate_BM_E135_by_Epiktetos.jpg|thumbnail|200px|left|Scythian archer drawing an arrow from his quiver as he turns to shoot at the enemy. Shown wearing pants. Inscriptions in small and neat letters: to the left of the figure: Επικτετος; on his right: εγρασφεν (sic). Interior from an Attic red-figured plate. From Vulci. Between 520 and 500 BCE]]
Who invented pants? The simple answer is that we do not who invented pants. Pants developed in multiple cultures around the world. The better question is: Why did humans start wearing pants? To answer this question, it’s important to understand two things - first, what were the earliest forms of clothing and how they evolved into pants, and secondly, why did a need for pants develop? It is also helpful to define what is meant by pants - specifically a bifurcated garment for the bottom half of the body covering from waist to the lower leg.
This definition helps to differentiate from the earlier leggings that were often pieces of cloth or skins wrapped around the legs and then tied on with straps. Leggings were comprised of two separate garments. Ötzil the Ice Man, perhaps the most famous archaeological find of prehistoric human remains from the northern regions, was wearing leggings.
From archaeological evidence, it is known that the earliest types of clothing were wrapped skirts or aprons for both genders. The oldest known woven example is a fragment made from woven reeds found in Armenia and approximately 2900 BCE. While this is just a fragment the construction hints at what the complete style would have looked like with a waistband woven in the opposite direction from the skirt. This is likely stylistically based on earlier versions made from hides that do not survive modern times.
Even earlier examples were of so-called string skirts comprised of a waistband with strings or pieces of grass hanging down - these skirts often tied like an apron and depictions can be found in art dating back nearly 20,000 years. In the present day, this style is still seen in Southeast Asian Asia and other countries, for example, the sarong, a traditionally unisex garment. In colder climates, these could be paired with the previously mentioned leggings and a T-shaped tunic. These are all effortless garment that requires limited construction and materials. <ref>Douglas A. Russell, <i>Costume history and style</i> (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983), 2</ref>
== Did the Domestication of horses led to Pants? ==
On the other hand, Brummell's style brought to the forefront with both its looser long trousers and flat boots and shoes allowed the wearer to participate in more activities matching a social change in the concept of masculinity. He also preferred dark colors, normally black with a white shirt, over the bright colors worn previously. This style was adopted by upper-class men and became the norm for western society through to the modern-day.<ref>Brian Dillon, "Inventory/A Poet of Cloth," <i> Cabinet</i>, Spring 2006.</ref>
The development of pants allowed for a greater range of freedom and movement. While this initially was just for the warrior and lower classes, specifically the males in many societies, over history, the wearing of pants has come to symbolize not only a necessity of movement (as seen when worn by warriors or working peasants) but the choice to be active and to enjoy physical freedoms. Wearing pants showed cultural and societal changes in the ideas of what is masculine and what is feminine and what is expected of all members of society.
