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A pair of trousers found in a Chinese graveyard might
just be the oldest ever found.
The clothing is thought to date back a staggering 3,000 years, and
despite the fact the ancient apparel has undergone considerable wear and
tear, it still looks remarkably intact.
The find was made along with a host of other clothing items in the
Yanghai tombs in China's vast Tarim Basin.
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The trousers, which could actually date up to 3,300 years old, are
thought to be the oldest ever discovered.
They signify a period when people needed new clothing for horse riding.
Older clothing such as robes and togas were not suitable for riding,
leading to the rise in popularity of trousers.
The finding was reported in a paper for the Quaternary International.
‘This new paper definitely supports the idea that trousers were invented
for horse riding by mobile pastoralists, and that trousers were brought
to the Tarim Basin by horse-riding peoples,’ linguist Victor Mair from
the University of Pennsylvania told ScienceNews.
Horse riding is thought to have begun up to 4,000 years ago, suggesting
that trousers, too, could have originated that far back.
The discovery at Yanghai were of two men thought to be 40 years-old,
wearing the trousers.
The clothing suggests they were herders - but they were likely warriors,
too.
Among the items recovered with the men were a whip, a wooden horse bit,
a battle-axe and a bow.
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The age of the trousers was estimated using radiocarbon dating and their
design, perhaps understandably, was fairly primitive compared to modern
standards.
In total. the two pairs were each made of three pieces of cloth - one
for each leg and one for the crotch.
A ‘belt’ of sorts had been fashioned from strings, while the garments
themselves were decorated with a woven design.
The Yanghai tombs are a vast ancient cemetery spanning approximately
580,000 square feet (54,000 square metres).
The hot and dry climate in the area known as the Tarim Basin has helped
to preserve corpses, clothing and other artefacts for thousands of
years.
Since digs at the site began in the 1970s, over 500 tombs have been
excavated with numerous finds made.
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