Chapter 11 The second section warp and weft silk hemp

The most basic needs of human life, in addition to the above-mentioned housing and food to be discussed later, there is also clothing, which is also one of the most concentrated manifestations of human culture. The main reason for the invention of clothes is for practical purposes.Some people think that it is out of shame and beautification, but it is speculated that this kind of psychology only appeared in the late primitive society, and has no direct relationship with the origin of clothing.The main reason for the origin of clothes is the need to keep out the cold, and it may also be due to the need for sun protection in tropical areas.The earliest raw materials for clothes were nothing more than bark, leaves and wild animal fur, which could be worn on the body after simple conjugation.

The Cave Man who lived 20,000 years ago was able to make exquisite bone needles for sewing, which shows that the tailoring technology for clothes was available at that time, and the nakedness of human beings for millions of years has been fundamentally changed.After the Neolithic Age, not only bone needles were widely used, but also a spinning wheel for spinning threads was invented. As many as 270 perforated bone needles were unearthed from the Banpo site.There are also primitive looms, which can weave light and thin cloth and cut out well-fitting clothes. Residents of Cishan and Peiligang cultures have begun to use spinning wheels, which are processed from pottery fragments. The pottery fragments are polished into a circle and a hole is drilled in the middle.Later, when firing pottery containers, spinning wheels were also fired. The number of pottery spinning wheels discovered in the Yangshao Culture is quite considerable, and 50 pieces were unearthed from the Banpo site.The most exquisite pottery spinning wheels are made by Qujialing people, with symmetrical lines painted on the surface, which have a sense of movement.

The technology of spinning and weaving may have been invented at the same time, or the technology of spinning may have appeared slightly earlier.The invention of weaving technology is estimated to be as early as the early Neolithic Age, starting with needle weaving, and then developed to primitive machine weaving.According to the analysis of the remains of unearthed wooden utensils, the Hemudu people have invented the original waist loom, which is a kind of hand-loom machine with one end of the warp fixed on the wooden post and the other end fixed on the waist. There is not much difference between looms.The appearance of the loom ushered in an unprecedentedly colorful era, and it played an accelerating role in the process of human beings finally getting rid of barbaric life.From then on, human beings no longer rely mainly on natural objects to keep out the cold, but began to own textiles that they wove at will.

The fiber raw materials of prehistoric fabrics mainly include kudzu, ramie, hemp and silk, etc. Most of them are wild fibers, and artificial breeding of silkworms may have begun.Traces of cloth patterns have been seen on the bottom of Neolithic pottery such as Yangshao and Dawenkou, which is a proof of the development of textile technology.There are also many examples of prehistoric textiles discovered by archeology. For example, the Liuzi Town site in Huaxian County, Shaanxi Province of the Yangshao Culture, where remnants of linen fabrics were unearthed in 1958; Fragments of wild kudzu fiber fabrics; the Qianshanyang site in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province of the Liangzhu Culture, many fabric fragments were found in 1958, including ramie cloth pieces, silk pieces, ribbons, etc.Liangzhu people have a long tradition of silk weaving technology with a history of more than 5,000 years, which is the origin of the highly developed silk weaving technology in civilized China. Beautiful words such as "splendid" and "beautiful" all originate from the developed textile technology.Without the original textile achievements in prehistoric times, there would be no advanced textile technology in the civilized age, nor would there be the famous Silk Road that opened to the outside world, nor would there be such a colorful world today.

Although archaeologists have never unearthed even a piece of clothing left over from the prehistoric period, we can learn relevant information from some pottery works at that time.Unearthed in Shangsunjiazhai, Datong County, Qinghai Province, there is a painted pottery basin with dance pattern of Majiayao culture. Inside the basin is painted three groups of five people dancing hand in hand. The dancers seem to be wearing sleeveless long clothes, and there is a tail-shaped decoration on the back of the clothes.It is speculated that the clothes in the early days were relatively simple, with no collar and sleeves. A hole was dug in the center of a piece of animal skin, and the head was put through the hole. The animal skin was divided into two pieces to wrap the body, and a rope was tied around the waist. , is a very nice leather jacket.This actually became a kind of gown or skirt, and some researchers called it "the headgear".With the development of sewing technology, two sleeves were added to the tunic, and it became a more practical standard garment.With cloth and silk fabrics, the sewing of clothes is more refined, more convenient, and there are more styles.

Residents of the Neolithic Age not only tailored well-fitting clothes, but also sewed hats and shoes, trying to dress up their entire bodies.A half-length pottery figure wearing a thick hat was unearthed at the Dengjiazhuang site in Lintong, Shaanxi.It shows that Yangshao people may have fur hats to keep out the cold in winter.Residents of the Xinkailiu culture in Mishan, Heilongjiang fashioned a pointed leather hat, which is also seen on unearthed pottery figurines (Fig. 5).At the Majiayao Cultural Site, painted boot-shaped wares can be seen. Majiayao people must have made boots, otherwise there would be no such realistic painted pottery art.