Here's why. Women are credited with taming wolves (dogs), boars (pigs), bovines (cows) -- and eqquines (horses), too. The dudes were too busy hunting to worry about "taming" animals; it was the women who came into close contact with these animals on a day-in and day-out basis as they went about gathering eggs (but always being careful to leave some behind), wild rice, fish, berries, grains, roots, tender stalks and other assorted shoots, herbs and greens, the origins of which lay the ancient artcraft of medicine. I cannot imagine that most women would be able to resist trying to tend to infant animals found alone in a nest or a den.
Let us hoe that because the trousers (pants) were recovered from two ancient male burials in the Tarim Basin, it is NOT automatically assumed that all pants-wears MUST have been male. Such a gender biased assumption makes for bad science.
From ScienceNews.org
First pants worn by horse riders 3,000 years ago
Oldest known trousers originated in Central Asia
9:05am, May 30, 2014
Two men whose remains were recently excavated from tombs in western China put their pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us. But these nomadic herders did so between 3,300 and 3,000 years ago, making their trousers the oldest known examples of this innovative apparel, a new study finds.
With straight-fitting legs and a wide crotch, the ancient wool trousers resemble modern riding pants, says a team led by archaeologists Ulrike Beck and Mayke Wagner of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. The discoveries, uncovered in the Yanghai graveyard in China’s Tarim Basin, support previous work suggesting that nomadic herders in Central Asia invented pants to provide bodily protection and freedom of movement for horseback journeys and mounted warfare, the scientists report May 22 in Quaternary International.
“This new paper definitely supports the idea that trousers were invented for horse riding by mobile pastoralists, and that trousers were brought to the Tarim Basin by horse-riding peoples,” remarks linguist and China authority Victor Mair of the University of Pennsylvania.
Previously, Europeans and Asians wore gowns, robes, tunics, togas or — as observed on the 5,300-year-old body of Ötzi the Iceman — a three-piece combination of loincloth and individual leggings.
A dry climate and hot summers helped preserve human corpses, clothing and other organic material in the Tarim Basin. More than 500 tombs have been excavated in a graveyard there since the early 1970s.
Earlier research on mummies from several Tarim Basin sites, led by Mair, identified a 2,600-year-old individual known as Cherchen Man who wore burgundy trousers probably made of wool. Trousers of Scythian nomads from West Asia date to roughly 2,500 years ago.
Mair suspects that horse riding began about 3,400 years ago and trouser-making came shortly thereafter in wetter regions to the north and west of the Tarim Basin. Ancient trousers from those areas are not likely to have been preserved, Mair says. [Possibly not, but we know the weaving techniques and distinctive patterns weavers used to produce their materials came from the west, as did their blue eyes, pale skin, and red hair].
Horse riding’s origins are uncertain and could date to at least 4,000 years ago, comments archaeologist Margarita Gleba of University College London. If so, she says, “I would not be surprised if trousers appeared at least that far back.”
The two trouser-wearing men entombed at Yanghai were roughly 40 years old and had probably been warriors as well as herders, the investigators say. One man was buried with a decorated leather bridle, a wooden horse bit, a battle-ax and a leather bracer for arm protection. Among objects placed with the other body were a whip, a decorated horse tail, a bow sheath and a bow. [Oh please. These items do not, in and of themselves, indicate warfare. They do indicate a hunter and "battle ax?" Who the hell would these people have been "battling?" They lived in the Tarim Basin, for pete's sake! Not exactly the greatest population center of the known world. Gender biased assumptions make for bad science!]
Beck and Wagner’s group obtained radiocarbon ages of fibers from both men’s trousers, and of three other items in one of the tombs.
Each pair of trousers was sewn together from three pieces of brown-colored wool cloth, one piece for each leg and an insert for the crotch. The tailoring involved no cutting: Pant sections were shaped on a loom in the final size. Finished pants included side slits, strings for fastening at the waist and woven designs on the legs.
Beck and Wagner’s team calls the ancient invention of trousers “a ground-breaking achievement in the history of cloth making.” That’s not too shabby for herders who probably thought the Gap was just a place to ride their horses through.
The design of these trousers/pants sounds like unisex to me -- both genders could have worn them comfortably. Let's talk anatomy for a moment. Women have a much wider pelvic base than males do, and women also don't have a penis, since I do not have one, I assume could potentially be quite uncomfortable after a certain amount of time on horseback, particularly on long treks. Or when galloping... OUCH!
Hmmmm.... Did horseback riding lead to the invention of a form of cod's piece/??
With straight-fitting legs and a wide crotch, the ancient wool trousers resemble modern riding pants, says a team led by archaeologists Ulrike Beck and Mayke Wagner of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. The discoveries, uncovered in the Yanghai graveyard in China’s Tarim Basin, support previous work suggesting that nomadic herders in Central Asia invented pants to provide bodily protection and freedom of movement for horseback journeys and mounted warfare, the scientists report May 22 in Quaternary International.
“This new paper definitely supports the idea that trousers were invented for horse riding by mobile pastoralists, and that trousers were brought to the Tarim Basin by horse-riding peoples,” remarks linguist and China authority Victor Mair of the University of Pennsylvania.
Previously, Europeans and Asians wore gowns, robes, tunics, togas or — as observed on the 5,300-year-old body of Ötzi the Iceman — a three-piece combination of loincloth and individual leggings.
A dry climate and hot summers helped preserve human corpses, clothing and other organic material in the Tarim Basin. More than 500 tombs have been excavated in a graveyard there since the early 1970s.
Earlier research on mummies from several Tarim Basin sites, led by Mair, identified a 2,600-year-old individual known as Cherchen Man who wore burgundy trousers probably made of wool. Trousers of Scythian nomads from West Asia date to roughly 2,500 years ago.
Mair suspects that horse riding began about 3,400 years ago and trouser-making came shortly thereafter in wetter regions to the north and west of the Tarim Basin. Ancient trousers from those areas are not likely to have been preserved, Mair says. [Possibly not, but we know the weaving techniques and distinctive patterns weavers used to produce their materials came from the west, as did their blue eyes, pale skin, and red hair].
Horse riding’s origins are uncertain and could date to at least 4,000 years ago, comments archaeologist Margarita Gleba of University College London. If so, she says, “I would not be surprised if trousers appeared at least that far back.”
The two trouser-wearing men entombed at Yanghai were roughly 40 years old and had probably been warriors as well as herders, the investigators say. One man was buried with a decorated leather bridle, a wooden horse bit, a battle-ax and a leather bracer for arm protection. Among objects placed with the other body were a whip, a decorated horse tail, a bow sheath and a bow. [Oh please. These items do not, in and of themselves, indicate warfare. They do indicate a hunter and "battle ax?" Who the hell would these people have been "battling?" They lived in the Tarim Basin, for pete's sake! Not exactly the greatest population center of the known world. Gender biased assumptions make for bad science!]
Beck and Wagner’s group obtained radiocarbon ages of fibers from both men’s trousers, and of three other items in one of the tombs.
Each pair of trousers was sewn together from three pieces of brown-colored wool cloth, one piece for each leg and an insert for the crotch. The tailoring involved no cutting: Pant sections were shaped on a loom in the final size. Finished pants included side slits, strings for fastening at the waist and woven designs on the legs.
Beck and Wagner’s team calls the ancient invention of trousers “a ground-breaking achievement in the history of cloth making.” That’s not too shabby for herders who probably thought the Gap was just a place to ride their horses through.
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| Source: M. Wagner/German Archaeological Institute. |
The design of these trousers/pants sounds like unisex to me -- both genders could have worn them comfortably. Let's talk anatomy for a moment. Women have a much wider pelvic base than males do, and women also don't have a penis, since I do not have one, I assume could potentially be quite uncomfortable after a certain amount of time on horseback, particularly on long treks. Or when galloping... OUCH!
Hmmmm.... Did horseback riding lead to the invention of a form of cod's piece/??
