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The earliest surviving textiles in East Asia from Chertovy Vorota Cave, Primorye Province, Russian Far East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Yaroslav V. Kuzmin ,
Charles T. Keally ,
A.J. Timothy Jull ,
George S. Burr  and
Nikolai A. Klyuev
Yaroslav V. Kuzmin
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology & Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia (Email: kuzmin@fulbrightmail.org)
Charles T. Keally
Affiliation:
Sophia University, Tokyo (retired), 549–15 Kumagawa, Fussa-shi, Tokyo 197–0003, Japan
A.J. Timothy Jull
Affiliation:
NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721–0081, USA
George S. Burr
Affiliation:
NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721–0081, USA Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Nikolai A. Klyuev
Affiliation:
Institute of History, Archaeology & Ethnography of the Far Eastern Nations, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok 690000, Russia
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Extract

Carbonised textiles were found in a burnt down building inside a cave 30km from the far eastern coast of Russia. The textiles were made from untwisted or hand-twisted blades of sedge grass to form ropes, nets and woven mats. Dated by AMS to c. 9400–8400 cal BP these are the earliest textiles so far known from East Asia.

Keywords

East AsiaRussiaJapanChinaearly Neolithictenth–ninth millennia cal BPradiocarbonAMStextiles
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 332 , June 2012 , pp. 325 - 337
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2012

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