The world's oldest pants stitched together cultures from across Asia
Move over, Versace. These 3,000-year-old pants were stylish, functional and multicultural
This pair of approximately 3,000-year-old pants, the oldest ever found, displays weaving techniques and decorative patterns that were influenced by cultures across Asia, researchers say.
M. WAGNER ET AL/ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN ASIA 2022
By Bruce Bower
FEBRUARY 18, 2022 AT 7:00 AM
What little rain that falls on a gravelly desert located in western China’s Tarim Basin evaporates as it hits the blistering turf. Here, in this parched wasteland, lie the ancient remains of people who made one of the biggest fashion splashes of all time.
Herders and horse riders who buried their dead in the Tarim Basin’s Yanghai graveyard pioneered pants making between roughly 3,200 and 3,000 years ago. Their deft combination of weaving techniques and decorative patterns — displaying influences from societies across Eurasia — yielded a pair of stylish yet durable trousers now recognized as the oldest such garment known in the world (SN: 5/30/14).
Now, an international team of archaeologists, fashion designers, geoscientists, chemists and conservators has untangled how those trousers were made and painstakingly created a modern replica. The vintage slacks weave a tale not only of textile innovation but also of how cultural practices fanned out across Asia, the researchers report in the March Archaeological Research in Asia.
“A diversity of textile techniques and patterns of different local origins, traditions and times merged into something new in this garment,” says archaeologist and project director Mayke Wagner of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. “Eastern Central Asia was a laboratory where people, plants, animals, knowledge and experiences from different directions and sources came … and were transformed.”
. . .
A woven reproduction of Turfan Man’s outfit, worn here by a model, includes a belted poncho,
pants with braided leg fasteners and boots.
M. WAGNER ET AL/ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN ASIA 2022
More:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/pants-oldest-ancient-horseman-asia-culture-origin
= new reply since forum marked as read
Another great find, JL! Not only interesting and educational, the writer has filled the piece with weaving and sewing related puns so it's entertaining, too.
I'm trying to figure out the purpose of the braided leg fasteners though. Any ideas? I'll definitely be reading this one again. I have too many questions.
I hope you are doing well. Thanks again! ❤
