Archaeologists have found out from what people weaved clothes 8.5 thousand years ago
In one of the most famous ancient cities, cloth for clothing was discovered, and scientists figured out what it was made of.
Fossil textiles were discovered in the ancient city of Chatal Huyuk, which was founded 9 thousand years ago in the territory of modern Turkey. Previously, scientists suggested that local residents made the fabric for clothing from wool or flax. But the new study suggests a very different composition, according to Phys.
Chatal Huyuk is one of the most famous ancient cities in the world, dating back to the Neolithic era. According to archaeologists, it was founded more than 9 thousand years ago and people lived here for about 2 thousand years. Scientists have been arguing about what clothes the locals wore thousands of years ago since 1962, when the first pieces of fabric were discovered. Some assumed that the ancient people sewed clothes from wool, others said – from flax. Only after so many years there is an unequivocal answer to this question: not from wool, and not from flax.
Fabric samples
During new excavations, which ended in 2017 in Chatal Huyuk, several new pieces of fabric were discovered. Subsequently, scientists learned that their age is from 8500 to 8700 years. Using these fabrics, scientists have found the answer to the question: what were they created from?
The tissue research was carried out by Lise Bender Jorgensen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Antoinette Ras Eicher and the University of Bern.
The answer to a long-standing question
“The locals preferred to use bast fiber to create fabrics. This is the conclusion we made as a result of the analysis,” says Bender Jorgensen.
Scientists found that the fiber sample in the found fabric was made from oak bast fiber. And it is the oldest surviving woven fabric in the world. Bast fiber is found between the bark and wood of trees such as willow, oak or linden. People used oak wood to build houses and collected bast fibers to make clothes, scientists say.
There was no flax here
Also, according to the researchers, local residents did not grow flax, because they did not find a large amount of flax seeds here. Scientists concluded that residents of the city of Chatal Huyuk did not import linen from other places, as was previously believed, but used the resources to which they have access on the spot.
Photo: phys.org | Fabric sample from Chatal Huyuk
