Around 7,000 years ago, arrived a person in a prehistoric village in today’s northern Isra*el with a luxurious novelty “cotton.” Cotton was not known to the earliest civilizations rising in the Near East because it is not indigenous to the region. Where and when it was first domesticated, remains a mystery.
Traces of this alien plant with its exquisitely soft bolls have recently been detected in Tel Tsaf. According to the researchers, the traces found date back to the early centuries. It is believed that cotton first originated in the Indus Valley but the question that arises is how did it get to Tel Tsaf 7,000 years ago? Perhaps through trading.
Cotton isn’t likely to have been grown locally in Tel Tsaf because it is happiest in tropical and subtropical regions with ample water. It therefore apparently didn’t grow in prehistoric Isra*el. The cultivation of cotton arose independently around the world, including the Indus Valley and later North Africa.
For instance, the earliest archaeological evidence of the use of cotton is in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period at the Mehrgarh burial site in central Balochistan, Pakistan, about 8,500 to 7,500 years ago. Cotton threads in those times were used to string copper beads. Moreover, the earliest known cotton fabric is a tiny fragment of actual cloth. It was discovered at Mohenjo-Daro, Pakistan, from 5,000 to 4,750 years ago
Today, cotton production in Pakistan is integral to the economic development of the country. The nation is largely dependent on the cotton industry and its related textile sector. The crop has therefore been given a principal status in the country.
