The first known dress was recently identified this week. It provides a glimpse of what early life was like in ancient Egypt thousands of years ago. It is currently named “The Tarkhan Dress.” The cloth was found in 1977, but only now did scientists realize that it was a real piece of clothing from millennia ago.
Radiocarbon dating tests were done by the University of Oxford recently confirmed all information about the dress. The dress dates to around 3,482 B.C, making it around 5,000 years old. Right now, it barely looks like a dress. It looks more like a worn-out T-shirt. However, back then, the dress may have even looked stylish today. New tests show that the linen was beautiful stitched and pleated, showing off wealth and power to those in the kingdom of Egypt.
Alice Stevenson, a member of the faculty of the University College London (UCL) Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, had this to say in a press release: "The survival of highly perishable textiles in the archaeological record is exceptional, the survival of complete, or almost complete, articles of clothing like the Tarkhan Dress is even more remarkable."
The dress consists of a skirt connected to the waist which connects to the sleeves. The sleeves are made of two pieces of material joined to the top of the shirt, which meet at the center of the dress, giving a v-shaped neckline at the top. The fabric has an irregular grey stripe as decoration and the sleeves are still intact.
So what does this mean for historians and people today? According to Michael W. Dee, “Along with other textile remains from Egypt, it has the potential to provide further insights into craft specialization and the organisation of textile manufacture during the development of the world’s first territorial state.”
The fact that this type of material has survived for so long will make historians question the craftsmanship of the creators. The dress will reveal what design can do to durability as well as how the craftsmanship can apply to our modern work today.
According to New Historian, The Tarkhan Dress is currently on display at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at the University College London.
