New Evidence for Silk in the Indus Valley (original) (raw)
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THE CHINESE RESTIVENESS OVER SILK IN INDUS VALLEY
Recent archaeological findings from the Indus valley threaten the exclusivity of the origins of sericulture being a Chinese preserve. How this academic conflict pans out in the future will be very fascinating to see.
Nature Scientific Reports, 2022
Silk has been a luxurious commodity throughout modern human history and sericulture has played an important role in ancient global trade as well as technological and cultural developments. Archaeological findings suggest that prior to domestication of the mulberry silkworm (Bombyx mori) silks were obtained from a range of silk-producing moth species with regional specificity. However, investigating the origins of sericulture is difficult as classification of silks by species-type has proved technically challenging. We therefore investigated a range of methods for solubilising modern and archaeological silks and developed a mass spectrometry-based proteomics method that was able to successfully differentiate modern Bombyx, Antheraea, and Samia-produced silks down to the species level. We subsequently analysed archaeological silk materials excavated from the ancient city of Palmyra. Solubilisation behaviour and proteomic analysis provided evidence that the Palmyra silks were constructed from wild silk derived from Antheraea mylitta, the Indian Tasar silkworm. We believe this is the first species-level biochemical evidence that supports archaeological theories about the production and trade of Indian wild silks in antiquity.
On the Question of Silk in Pre-Han Eurasia
When was silk first brought across the steppe from far China towards the European world? There is silk from the Middle Bronze Age of Uzbekistan, in Scythian burials of Siberia and among the Hallstatt grave-goods of western Europe. Teasing out the story of silk depends on identifying the textile, and distinguishing its several varieties apart.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2002
The metallurgical analysis of a copper bead from a Neolithic burial (6th millennium ) at Mehrgarh, Pakistan, allowed the recovery of several threads, preserved by mineralization. They were characterized according to new procedure, combining the use of a reflected-light microscope and a scanning electron microscope, and identified as cotton (Gossypium sp.). The Mehrgarh fibres constitute the earliest known example of cotton in the Old World and put the date of the first use of this textile plant back by more than a millennium. Even though it is not possible to ascertain that the fibres came from an already domesticated species, the evidence suggests an early origin, possibly in the Kachi Plain, of one of the Old World cottons.
2014 - Integrating the Evidence: Historic Silk Production in Context
Consistent with the theme of this conference, my work involves a new direction in the study of weft-faced compound weave figured silks attributed to the Mediterranean region c. AD 600-1300. Known as samite and taqueté according to the binding structure, woven figured silks represent a highly recognizable, but poorly understood body of material. Figured silks are often described in terms of their association with the Byzantine Empire, based on representational and textual evidence. 1
Seri-Technics: Historical Silk Technologies
2020
At a time when the social and cultural importance of silk in the pre-modern global world is increasingly evident, this volume returns to the issue of technology and queries the ways in which actors determined the nature of silk by deploying, selecting, or pursuing certain set of technics, practices, or ideals (while dismissing or ignoring others). Drawing on the growing research on silk’s cultural, social, economic, and intellectual implications, these chapters provide a fresh look at how technical processes have been historically shaped to define the identity of silk. Calling the technical system that has generated ideas about silk a form of textile seri-technics, this volume presents historical case studies that, sampled from diverse cultural regions, exemplify major technological processes and practices of silk textile production. The contributions tackle five technical attributes and principles of action that have come to make- up historical seri-technics
2013
The project on indigenous technique of weaving in silk industries was conceived to trace out the history of origin and evolution of weaving technology in Eastern Uttar Pradesh including Varanasi. An attempt was also made to study the changes that occurred in different period in weaving and dyeing technology and processing of silk materials. In the process an effort was made to systematic documentation of various weaving and dyeing techniques of silk in Eastern Uttar Pradesh including Varanasi in different periods including other historical dimensions of silk industry.