Editing Cotton (section)

===Early history===
====South Asia====
{{Further|Tree cotton}}
[[File:Mehrgarh pakistan rel96.JPG|thumb|Mehrgarh shown in a physical map of the surrounding region]]

The earliest evidence of the use of cotton in the [[Old World]], dated to 5500 BC and preserved in copper beads, has been found at the [[Neolithic]] site of [[Mehrgarh]], at the foot of the [[Bolan Pass]] in [[ancient India]], today in [[Balochistan]] Pakistan.<ref name="Mithen2006">{{citation|last=Mithen|first=Steven|title=After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NVygmardAA4C&pg=PA411|year=2006|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-01999-7|pages=411–412}} Quote: "One of the funerary chambers, dating to around 5500 BC, had contained an adult male lying on his side with legs flexed backward and a young child, approximately one or two years old, at his feet. Next to the adult's left wrist were eight copper beads which had once formed a bracelet. As such metal beads were only found in one other Neolithic burial at Mehrgarh, he must have been an extraordinarily wealthy and important person. Microscopic analysis showed that each bead had been made by beating and heating copper ore into a thin sheet which had then been rolled around a narrow rod. Substantial corrosion prevented a detailed technological study of the beads; yet this turned out to be a blessing as the corrosion had led to the preservation of something quite remarkable inside one of the beads – a piece of cotton. ... After further microscopic study, the fibres were unquestionably identified as cotton; it was, in fact, a bundle of both unripe and ripe fibres that had been wound together to make a thread, these being differentiated by the thickness of their cell walls. As such, this copper bead contained the earliest known use of cotton in the world by at least a thousand years. The next earliest was also found at Mehrgarh: a collection of cotton seeds discovered amidst charred wheat and barley grains outside one of its mud-brick rooms."</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1006/jasc.2001.0779| title = First Evidence of Cotton at Neolithic Mehrgarh, Pakistan: Analysis of Mineralized Fibres from a Copper Bead| journal = Journal of Archaeological Science| volume = 29| issue = 12| pages = 1393–1401| year = 2002| last1 = Moulherat | first1 = C. | last2 = Tengberg | first2 = M. | last3 = Haquet | first3 = J. R. M. F. | last4 = Mille | first4 = B. ̂T. | bibcode = 2002JArSc..29.1393M}} Quote: "The metallurgical analysis of a copper bead from a Neolithic burial (6th millennium bc) 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.</ref><ref name="JIAPAN2018">{{cite journal |last1=Jia |first1=Yinhua |last2=Pan |first2=Zhaoe |last3=He |first3=Shoupu |last4=Gong |first4=Wenfang |last5=Geng |first5=Xiaoli |last6=Pang |first6=Baoyin |last7=Wang |first7=Liru |last8=Du |first8=Xiongming |title=Genetic diversity and population structure of Gossypium arboreum L. collected in China |journal=Journal of Cotton Research |date=December 2018 |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=11 |doi=10.1186/s42397-018-0011-0 |bibcode=2018JCotR...1...11J |doi-access=free |quote=Gossypium arboreum is a diploid species cultivated in the Old World. It was first domesticated near the Indus Valley before 6000 BC (Moulherat et al. 2002).}}</ref>  Fragments of cotton textiles have been found at [[Mohenjo-daro]] and other sites of the [[Bronze Age]] [[Indus Valley civilization]], and cotton may have been an important export from it.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ahmed |first1=Mukhtar |title=Ancient Pakistan - an Archaeological History: Volume III: Harappan Civilization - the Material Culture |date=2014 |publisher=Amazon |isbn=978-1-4959-6643-9 |page=249 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3qvVBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA249 }}</ref>

====Americas====
Cotton bolls discovered in a cave near [[Tehuacán, Puebla|Tehuacán]], Mexico, have been
dated to as early as 5500 BC, but this date has been challenged.<ref>Jonathan D. Sauer, ''Historical Geography of Crop Plants: A Select Roster'', Routledge (2017), [https://books.google.com/books?id=moZHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT115 p. 115]</ref> More securely dated is the domestication of ''[[Gossypium hirsutum]]'' in Mexico between around 3400 and 2300 BC.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Huckell|first=Lisa W.|title=Plant Remains from the Pinaleño Cotton Cache, Arizona|journal=Kiva, the Journal of Southwest Anthropology and History|volume=59|issue=2|year=1993|jstor=30246122|pages=147–203}}</ref> During this time, people between the Río Santiago and the Río Balsas grew, spun, wove, dyed, and sewed cotton. What they did not use themselves, they sent to their Aztec rulers as tribute, on the scale of ~{{convert|116|e6lb|t|abbr=off}} annually.<ref>Beckert, S. (2014). Chapter one: The Rise of a Global Community. In Empire of Cotton: A global history. essay, Vintage Books.</ref>

In [[Peru]], cultivation of the indigenous cotton species ''[[Gossypium barbadense]]'' has been dated, from a find in Ancon, to {{Circa|4200 BC}},<ref>{{Google books|FauFCwAAQBAJ|New World Cotton|page=117}} in {{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-27096-8_4 |chapter=Genetic Improvement of Cotton |title=Gene Pool Diversity and Crop Improvement |series=Sustainable Development and Biodiversity |year=2016 |last1=Manickam |first1=S. |last2=Prakash |first2=A. H. |volume=10 |pages=105–161 |isbn=978-3-319-27094-4 }}</ref> and was the backbone of the development of coastal cultures such as the [[Norte Chico civilization|Norte Chico]], [[Moche culture|Moche]], and [[Nazca culture|Nazca]]. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, and traded with fishing villages along the coast for large supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and wearing clothing made of it.

====Arabia====
The Greeks and the Arabs were not familiar with cotton until the [[Wars of Alexander the Great]], as his contemporary [[Megasthenes]] told [[Seleucus I Nicator]] of "there being trees on which wool grows" in "Indica."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Simon |first=Matt |date=8 August 2013 |title=The Most Bonkers Scientific Theories (Almost) Nobody Believes Anymore |url=https://www.wired.com/2013/08/the-most-bonkers-scientific-theories-and-why-you-should-be-thankful-for-them/ |access-date=2024-06-12 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US}}</ref> This may be a reference to "tree cotton", ''[[Gossypium arboreum]],'' which is native to the Indian subcontinent.

According to the ''[[Columbia Encyclopedia]]'':<ref name=ce>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140923071411/https://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/cotton "cotton"] in ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', Sixth Edition. 2001–07.</ref>

{{Blockquote|Cotton has been spun, woven, and dyed since prehistoric times. It clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, and their use spread to the Mediterranean countries.}}

====Iran====
In Iran ([[Persia]]), the history of cotton dates back to the [[Achaemenid]] era (5th century BC); however, there are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. Cotton cultivation was common in [[Merv]], [[Ray, Iran|Ray]] and [[Fārs Province|Pars]]. In [[Persian poetry|Persian]] poems, especially [[Ferdowsi]]'s [[Shahname]], there are references to cotton ("panbe" in [[Persian language|Persian]]). [[Marco Polo]] (13th century) refers to the major products of Persia, including cotton. [[John Chardin]], a French traveler of the 17th century who visited [[Safavid dynasty|Safavid Persia]], spoke approvingly of the vast cotton farms of Persia.<ref>[[Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation]] {{Cite web |url=http://www.encyclopaediaislamica.com/madkhal2.php?sid=2820 |title=پنبه |access-date=28 February 2009 |archive-date=30 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090630080822/http://www.encyclopaediaislamica.com/madkhal2.php?sid=2820 |url-status=bot: unknown }}, Retrieved on 28 February 2009.</ref>

==== Near East ====
Microremains of cotton fibers, some dyed, have been found at [[Tel Tsaf]] in the [[Jordan Valley]] dated 5,200 BCE. They may be the remnants of ancient clothing, fabric containers, or cordage. Researches suggest the cotton might come from wild species in South Asia, and trade with the [[Indus Valley Civilisation|Indus Valley]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Li |last2=Levin |first2=Maureece J. |last3=Klimscha |first3=Florian |last4=Rosenberg |first4=Danny |date=2022-12-08 |title=The earliest cotton fibers and Pan-regional contacts in the Near East |journal=Frontiers in Plant Science |volume=13 |doi=10.3389/fpls.2022.1045554 |doi-access=free |issn=1664-462X |pmc=9772618 |pmid=36570915|bibcode=2022FrPS...1345554L }}</ref>

====Kingdom of Kush====
Cotton (''Gossypium herbaceum'' Linnaeus) may have been domesticated 5000 BC in eastern [[Sudan]] near the Middle Nile Basin region, where cotton cloth was being produced.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/ancient_egyptian_cotton/|title=Ancient Egyptian cotton unveils secrets of domesticated crop evolution|website=www2.warwick.ac.uk|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref> Around the 4th century BC, the cultivation of cotton and the knowledge of its spinning and weaving in [[Meroë]] reached a high level. The export of textiles was one of the sources of wealth for Meroë. Ancient Nubia had a "culture of cotton" of sorts, evidenced by physical evidence of cotton processing tools and the presence of cattle in certain areas. Some researchers propose that cotton was important to the Nubian economy for its use in contact with the neighboring Egyptians.<ref name="Yvanez & Wozniak 2019">{{cite journal |last1=Yvanez |first1=Elsa |last2=Wozniak |first2=Magdalena M. |title=Cotton in ancient Sudan and Nubia: Archaeological sources and historical implications |journal=Revue d'ethnoécologie |date=30 June 2019 |issue=15 |doi=10.4000/ethnoecologie.4429 |s2cid=198635772 |doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Kingdom of Aksum|Aksumite]] King [[Ezana]] boasted in his inscription that he destroyed large cotton plantations in Meroë during his conquest of the region.<ref>{{cite book | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=gB6DcMU94GUC&q=cultivation+cotton+Meroe&pg=PA310 | title= Ancient civilizations of Africa |author= G. Mokhtar | publisher= Unesco. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa |page= 310 |via = Books.google.com |access-date= 2012-06-19 |isbn= 978-0-435-94805-4|date= 1981-01-01}}</ref>

In the Meroitic Period (beginning 3rd century BCE), many cotton textiles have been recovered, preserved due to favorable arid conditions.<ref name="Yvanez & Wozniak 2019"/> Most of these fabric fragments come from Lower Nubia, and the cotton textiles account for 85% of the archaeological textiles from Classic/Late Meroitic sites.<ref name=Yvanez2018/> Due to these arid conditions, cotton, a plant that usually thrives moderate rainfall and richer soils, requires extra irrigation and labor in Sudanese climate conditions. Therefore, a great deal of resources would have been required, likely restricting its cultivation to the elite.<ref name=Yvanez2018>{{cite journal |last1=Yvanez |first1=Elsa |title=Clothing the Elite? Patterns of Textile Production and Consumption in Ancient Sudan and Nubia |journal=Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae |date=2018 |volume=31 |pages=81–92 |doi=10.23858/FAH31.2018.006 |url=https://rcin.org.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?showContent=true&id=67584 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> In the first to third centuries CE, recovered cotton fragments all began to mirror the same style and production method, as seen from the direction of spun cotton and technique of weaving.<ref name=Yvanez2018/> Cotton textiles also appear in places of high regard, such as on funerary stelae and statues.<ref name=Yvanez2018/>

====China====
During the [[Han dynasty]] (207 BC - 220 AD), cotton was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of [[Yunnan]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/textilesofsouthe0000maxw|url-access=registration|title=Textiles of Southeast Asia: tradition, trade and transformation|author=Maxwell, Robyn J. |year=2003|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|edition=revised|isbn=978-0-7946-0104-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/textilesofsouthe0000maxw/page/410 410]}}</ref>