Posted on 01/16/2016 11:42:45 PM PST by SunkenCiv
...A team of scientists have identified a nearly 7,000-year-old reed mat discovered in east China, offering a rare glimpse into a very early stage of the civilization's textile making.
Objects such as baskets woven from plants are among the oldest human technologies. Their origin is believed to be related to the rise of agriculture, which fueled the need for grain and seed containers. Yet a lack of surviving items has long hampered studies.
According to an article published in the journal Scientific Reports, Zhang Jianping and his colleagues dated the remains of a woven mat unearthed at a Neolithic settlement site in Tianluoshan, Zhejiang Province, and put its age between 6,645 and 6,775 years, the oldest woven object to be discovered and dated in China.
It is more than 2,000 years older than silk textiles from Qianshanyang in Zhejiang Province and 1,000 years older than the Kudzu fabric from Caoxieshan in Jiangsu Province, the article said.
The yellow textile piece is 50 cm long, 20-40 cm wide with a thickness of 0.2 cm. Judging from its flat shape and a lack of grain residue detected on it, it was more likely used as a mat, rather than a food container, Zhang, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua...
By examining its phytoliths (a microscopic structure found in rotten plants), Zhang's team concluded the mat was made of reeds, rather than bamboo or bulrush, all commonly used in mats in ancient and modern-day China.
Items made of plants are prone to decay after being buried, which explains why many ancient weaves were only identified by their imprints on other items, but Zhang said the mat was luckily placed in an oxygen-free environment filled with underground water that helped it survive...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.xinhuanet.com ...
Invented weaving? I believe it, I've seen 'em drive. /ducks /runs
And of course, prehistoric weave reveals ancient Chinese baldness patterns.
I think it's is a safe bet that "our ancestors" put a flat, reed mat either over or under something.
Ancient Chinese secret! (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist)
How come the stuff China makes now doesn’t last 7 years, let along 7000? Someting wong.
Hunh...Made in China for Walmart....
It also makes me wonder about the antiquity of reed vessels.
Picture your reed basket as a rectangle with the short sides stitched together (a cylinder). Add a circle on one end (the base). What do you get when this object deteriorates? After 7,000 years, probably a rather tattered rectangle.
If there is kudzu fabric, why aren't we rich?
I suppose it could be the long sides of the rectangle that are attached, for an elongated rather than stubby cylinder.
Because nobody’s making fabric from your kudzu?
Have you tried it?
Kudzu’s supposedly ideal for making alcohol fuel, and as you probably know, it’s actually possible to take a nap in a chaise lounge and wake up with vines having grown visibly closer (up to a foot a day).
Picture myself in a reed boat, on a river, with short sides stitched up, and a circular base...
LOL!
making fabric is woman’s work
but then there is NC State and perhaps the best of the textile schools. Then in the western part of the state there are thousands of acres being assaulted by Kudzu.
I have no recollection of kudzu fabric being a course when NC was blessed with so much of it. The ag department pushed Christmas trees as a crop when kudzu thrived in the exact same growing environment
This information suggests that there are much better materials for making fabric than kudzu. P.J. O’Rourke, in his study of Bangladesh, observed the same thing about jute.
As if a picture were too hard to include.
One of the best Halloween costumes I ever witnessed was a guy that came as a bush. He took very long Kudzu vines and tied them together at the top of his head and had someone cut them at floor length. He walked around like a green Cousin It all night.
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