World’s Oldest Pants Unearthed in China

[Syt]

http://archaeology.org/news/2157-140602-china-yanghai-pants

World's Oldest Pants Unearthed in China

BERLIN, GERMANY—Science News reports that the remains of two men wearing trousers have been recovered from the Yanghai graveyard in China's Tarim Basin by Ulrike Beck and Mayke Wagner of the German Archaeological Institute. They say that the trousers are the oldest known examples of their kind. Dated to between 3,300 and 3,000 years ago, the pants have straight-fitting legs and a wide crotch. They were sewn together from three pieces of wool cloth that had been woven on a loom to the correct size, and fashioned with side slits, strings at the waist for fastening, and designs on the legs. One of the men had been buried with a decorated leather bridle and a wooden bit, a battle ax, and a leather bracer for arm protection. The other man was accompanied by a whip, a decorated horse tail, a bow sheath, and a bow. "This new paper [in Quaternary International] definitely supports the idea that trousers were invented for horse riding by mobile pastoralists, and that trousers were brought to the Tarim Basin by horse-riding peoples," commented Victor Mair of the University of Pennsylvania.

They made shit to last back in the day. How long does a good pair of jeans last these days?

[KRonn]

They made shit to last back in the day. How long does a good pair of jeans last these days?

Maybe Levi's company can copy those trousers, make them to last for a few thousand years! 

[Pedrito]

They were creamed after the announcing of Szechuan Universalis IV.

L.

[Ed Anger]

They were creamed after the announcing of Szechuan Universalis IV.

L.

Occupy Tibet DLC

[jimmy olsen]

Not nearly as old as I was expecting. This isn't impressive at all. I'd expect pants to have been invented soon after the needle 60,000 years ago.

[Malthus]

Not nearly as old as I was expecting. This isn't impressive at all. I'd expect pants to have been invented soon after the needle 60,000 years ago.

The problem is that, unless conditions are just right and remain just right, textiles do not survive for long.

Maybe pants were invented 60K YA, but chances are a pair that old would never be found. That would imply the pants, for example, survived the last round of ice ages, which is unlikely; climate change will most likely have put them through at least one wet spell.

[jimmy olsen]

With a title like that I was expecting some Otzi style iceman frozen in a glacier or Siberian permafrost.

[Malthus]

With a title like that I was expecting some Otzi style iceman frozen in a glacier or Siberian permafrost.

Otzi wasn't wearing pants, but rather leggings. 

But yeah - he's remarkable for his state of preservation, which is very, very unusual. Also, he's not orders of magnitude older - he is aprox. 5K YA, these pants 3K.

[jimmy olsen]

40,000 year mammoths in similar condition have been found.

[Malthus]

40,000 year mammoths in similar condition have been found.

To date, as far as I know, no clothes that old have survived and been found. It isn't impossible, of course, but it would appear that preservation of clothes older than about 5,000 years is very, very unusual.

[Brazen]

Good "world's oldest" reference here. They have a 5,900 year old skirt and 5,500 year old shoes.

http://www.oddee.com/item_98628.aspx

[The Brain]

My pants are going on three weeks.

[Jacob]

40,000 year mammoths in similar condition have been found.

But they weren't wearing pants, now were they?

[mongers]

40,000 year mammoths in similar condition have been found.

But they weren't wearing pants, now were they?

Shush, you'll confuse him.

[The Brain]

40,000 year mammoths in similar condition have been found.

But they weren't wearing pants, now were they?