A thin but intact square of old fabric removed from a Highland peat bog four decades ago is likely the oldest tartan ever found in Scotland, a new battery of tests has revealed. It is estimated that...
Back in 2014, a pair of pants were discovered in the Tarim Basin in China. Believed to be the oldest pair of trousers in the world, they were made between 3,000 and 3,300 years ago. Dating back to...
A piece of textile fabric from a grave, dated to the Viking Age, has been found in southern Norway, dated to 850-950 AD. The grave of a woman was uncovered at Hestnes in southern Trøndelag county,...
Rare 3,000-year-old samples of “royal purple” have been discovered at Timna dating to the biblical reigns of King David and Solomon. A team of researchers led by the Israel Antiquities Authority was...
The Viking Age in Europe brought a lot of key events and innovations, and greatly shaped the future of things that were to come. But there is a popular misconception that the Vikings were all about...
Byssus is an extremely fine, rare, and valuable fabric of animal origin. It is a sort of natural silk with golden and sparkling reflections that is obtained from the filaments secreted by a large...
The colorful threads, strings, yarns, twines, and ropes that wove together the Neolithic world have greatly rotted back to whence they came, leaving archaeologists and anthropologists only grey stone...
An ancient ‘stripy sock’ discovered in Egypt is informing scientists about how clothes were dyed and made. Evidence of ‘feet coverings’ have been found in the Stone Age when crude animal pelts or...
A new study published this week in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences has identified that the earliest plant fibre technology for making thread in Early Bronze Age Britain and...
In 2009, what is believed to be the world’s largest and rarest piece of cloth made entirely from the silk of the golden silk orb-weaver was exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History in New...
Spider webs are sticky, somewhat creepy, and generally not something you like to see in your house. But they are also intricate and beautiful when the right light hits them. Even more intriguing than...
There is a very intriguing inscription on the back of the Pokotia Monolith. What makes it stand out is that it was written in linear Sumerian. Even more exciting is that it provides further evidence...
When archaeologists found a cache of medieval mummies in a Lebanese cave, the amazing discovery took their breath away. The remarkably well-preserved bodies of eight people who were buried in Qadisha...
Preparations for two new Cambridgeshire housing development projects have uncovered a fine collection of precious ornamental items and weaponry from Anglo-Saxon times and rare Roman era domestic...
Although denim jeans in their modern form are an invention from the late 1800s, the process of dying cotton with indigo is a technique that dates back thousands of years. Previously acknowledged as...
Thanks to a recent discovery in Nepal, it is now believed that the historic trade route known as the Silk Road extended further South than originally believed. The Silk Road extended from China to...
The Sudarium of Oviedo, also known as the Shroud of Oviedo is one of the most important relics of Christianity. It is believed to be a cloth which was wrapped around Jesus’ head after his death. The...
A team of archaeologists has discovered a collection of textiles of diverse dye colors and designs about 3,000 years old in an Edomite tin mine in Israel. Textiles this old are rare because they are...
A piece of clothing found buried in an ancient Egyptian cemetery has been identified as the oldest known dress and the oldest woven garment in the world. The item is known as the Tarkhan dress. It...
Different types of embroidery are known in the history of every single civilization. It seems that people liked to create beautiful personal adornments almost since the beginning of time. Cutwork is...
Weaving colorful cotton fabric was an art form among high ranking ancient Mayan women. The Mayas cultivated cotton and used natural dyes from plant, animal and mineral sources. They used spinning...