- Archaeological News
-
Image Credit:
Zhou et al., Science Advances (2026)
Silk Production Reached Central Asia Nearly 2,000 Years Before the Silk Road
Archaeological evidence from southern Uzbekistan indicates that communities in Central Asia were cultivating domesticated silkworms and mulberry trees around 2000 BCE—nearly two millennia before the period traditionally associated with the rise of the Silk Road.
The findings come from Sapalli Tepe, a Bronze Age settlement belonging to the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, also known as the Oxus Civilization. Excavations at the site recovered three preserved silkworm cocoons from an ash-rich archaeological deposit. One cocoon was directly radiocarbon dated to between 1940 and 1765 BCE.
Researchers examined the specimens using microscopy and protein analysis. Although the ancient cocoons were smaller than those produced by modern domesticated silkworms and closely resembled wild forms in shape, their preserved proteins matched those of Bombyx mori, the domesticated mulberry silkworm.
The identification is particularly significant because Bombyx mori depends on mulberry leaves for food and is closely connected with organized silk production. Until now, the spread of this form of sericulture beyond China was generally associated with trade and cultural exchanges beginning around the late second century BCE.
Evidence from Sapalli Tepe suggests that this process began much earlier.
The cocoons were recovered during the flotation of archaeological sediments, a method used to separate small plant and organic remains from soil. Two of the specimens showed openings that may have formed when adult moths emerged. This could indicate that the cocoons were allowed to hatch before their fibers were spun into yarn, rather than being processed as continuous silk threads.
Additional evidence strengthens the case for local silk production. Archaeobotanical investigations identified mulberry charcoal at Sapalli Tepe and at two other Bronze Age settlements in the same region: Djarkutan and Molleli. These remains represent the earliest currently documented archaeological evidence for mulberry trees in Central Asia.
The proportion of mulberry charcoal increased across the sites over time, reaching more than half of the identified wood remains in some samples from Molleli. Researchers interpret this pattern as evidence that mulberry trees became an important element of the region’s managed landscape and agricultural economy.
A previously excavated textile fragment from Sapalli Tepe may provide further support. Archival records describe it as a plain-weave fabric made from spun fibers in a manner consistent with silk manufacture. However, direct scientific analysis of the textile was not possible because of conservation restrictions.
The settlements also yielded numerous tools associated with textile production, including spindle whorls and needles. While such tools could have been used to process wool or plant fibers, their abundance demonstrates that textile manufacture was a substantial activity within these communities.
The wider plant assemblage reveals a highly diverse agricultural system. Archaeologists identified wheat, barley, broomcorn millet, foxtail millet, lentils, flax, grapes, plums, pistachios and apples. Charcoal from fig and citrus trees was also found. Several of these plants originated outside Central Asia, suggesting that the Oxus Civilization participated in extensive networks of crop exchange and horticultural knowledge.
These exchanges began long before the historically documented Silk Road. During the third and second millennia BCE, crops and domestic animals moved across Eurasia in several directions. East Asian millets reached Central and western Asia, while wheat, barley, sheep, goats and cattle spread eastward.
The newly identified silkworm and mulberry remains place sericulture within this earlier phase of interregional contact.
The precise route by which domesticated silkworms and mulberry cultivation reached southern Central Asia remains uncertain. Researchers consider a southern route along the Himalayan foothills and through regions connected with the Indus Civilization to be plausible. Mulberry and citrus evidence from South Asia, combined with well-established contacts between the Indus region and the Oxus Civilization, supports this possibility.
A northern route through western China and the Inner Asian mountain corridors, however, cannot be excluded. The present evidence comes from a limited number of archaeological contexts, and additional discoveries will be required to clarify how the technology spread.
The study therefore does not redefine the Silk Road as a formal historical network beginning in the Bronze Age. Instead, it demonstrates that some of the technologies and biological resources later associated with that network circulated across Asia far earlier than previously recognized.
Together, the domesticated silkworm cocoons, mulberry charcoal and possible silk textile from Sapalli Tepe provide the earliest known evidence for mulberry-based sericulture outside China. The discovery presents southern Central Asia not simply as a later recipient of Silk Road goods, but as an active participant in prehistoric systems of agricultural innovation, craft production and long-distance cultural exchange.
Published on: 25-07-2026
Edited by: Abdulmnam Samakie
Source: Science Advances
