[gleeaikin]

“Amazing to think that any piece of cloth has endured...”

6,000 years, is this the oldest piece of fabric that has been found? I seem to recall some fairly old pieces from the frozen Siberian finds, and from the Andes ancient cultures, but I thought they were only 2 to 3 thousand years old. Anyone have more precise information?

[Swordmaker]

According to this, the oldest known cloth is about 9,000 years old.

Before carbon dating, we thought cloth was 7000 years old. We've gradually pushed that date back. Now we've found a half-fossilized scrap of cloth stuck to a piece of antler near the headwaters of the Tigris River. It is 9000 years old.

Wilford, J. N., Site in Turkey Yields Oldest Cloth Ever Found. New York Times, Science Times, Tue., July 13, 1993, pp. B5, B8.