A team of Chinese and Uzbek archaeologists discovered at the site of Sapalli Tepe in Uzbekistan the oldest known evidence of silkworm cultivation outside of China. During excavations at this Bronze Age settlement, they recovered three well-preserved cocoons that confirmed the presence of the species Bombyx mori.
Protein analyses of silk extracted from these cocoons, combined with radiocarbon dating, place the finding around 2000 B.C. As explained by archaeologist Xinyi Liu from Washington University in St. Louis, this is the oldest and most reliable archaeological record of preserved silkworm cocoons with direct dates.
Liu highlighted an interesting fact: even in China, where the silkworm was originally domesticated, no cocoons this old have been preserved. The challenges of archaeological preservation in that territory partly explain the absence of equivalent remains.
Until this discovery, most researchers believed that silk products and the associated technology arrived in the Central Asian region about two thousand years later, coinciding with the development of the Silk Road. The new finding forces a reevaluation of that timeline.
A Change in the History of Silk
The presence of Bombyx mori cocoons at Sapalli Tepe suggests that silkworm breeding was practiced in the area much earlier than previously thought. This is not just about remains of imported fabrics, but direct evidence of local cultivation or technical knowledge already established in the region.
