old world, new skool

Is your cotton Asian, African or American?

Is it Old World or New World?

Is it the same variety that they were using in Peru in 4300 BC? Or the Indus Valley in 5000BC? Or the Middle Nile in the Sudan, that might have been brought to Europe by our friend Tariq ibn Ziyad when he came over from North Africa to conquer the Iberian peninsula in the 8th Century AD?

In today’s installment of I, Quilt…

miles and miles and miles

I’m in my studio holding a piece of fabric I bought on my last trip to Australia from Liz Dawes who runs Woven Stories.

This cotton has already clocked some serious miles.

Woven and dyed in India, it came to Perth, Australia before I picked it up and brought it with me to Sydney, Australia, and then home to Italy via Dubai.

But where did this cotton start its journey?

And how much does its origin tell us about the type of cotton it is?

For that we need to go back several thousand years to the Indus Valley region, where this cotton was most likely grown.

where the river runs

Cotton has been grown in the region inhabited by the Indus Valley Civilization spanning Northern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan since approximately 3300BC.

Why here?

Climate, soil, and abundance of water supply are obvious answers, but also labour. A fertile region able to provide food to sustain a large population.

Once human civilisation reached that tipping point between survival and surplus, that extra labour no longer needed solely to produce food to stay alive was siphoned off into innovation and farming cash crops – crops that could be transformed into tradable goods, like cotton fabric.

Labour intensive from its seeding to its harvest, to its ginning, spinning, weaving and dying or printing, cotton requires some serious resources.

But what kind of cotton are we talking about here?

Was this the same cotton we use today?

Or has there been some evolution in the cotton plant across the last 5000 years or so?

east side, west side

India is currently among the top producers of cotton in the world. And remarkably is the only country which still grows the same variety of cotton found in the archaeological digs that inform us about the bronze age Indus Valley Civilisation.

Here we begin to talk of the varieties of cotton, genus Gossypium.

The longevity of cotton cultivation means there are simultaneous events that inform its history in different parts of the world, with two distinct cotton varieties that originate in the Old World:

G.herbaceum from Africa – the Sudan and Middle Nile, a low bush type of cotton.

This would have been the variety brought to Europe by Tariq ibn Ziyad’s successors as they controlled the Iberian peninsula.

G.arboreum from Asia – the Indus Valley region, a taller tree type variety, one tat could possibly be the one I’m holding in my hand…

the interloper

While remarkably these two varieties are still cultivated in India today, 90% of the world’s cotton production is the variety G. hirsutum which had an entirely different means of coming to light.

Enter Cristoforo Colombo AKA Christopher Columbus – a sailor from Genoa, Italy – who brought G. hirsutum to its present day notoriety.

G. hirsutum has archaeological evidence that places it in the Tehuacan Valley in modern day Mexico as early as 3500BC. But it wasn’t until 1492 and Columbus’ voyage through the Caribbean that this type of cotton became known to the wider world.

Some sources note Columbus found this cotton variety growing on the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) while others note it as the Bahamas. Its genome has also been traced to areas in Florida.

new skool

Of course, the plants Columbus found have since been modified genetically for today’s modern crop varieties, honed for pest resistance, and pesticide and insecticide resistance as well as higher yield through advancements in biotechnology.

How far we have come from a lone cotton tree in the Indus Valley…

With India being just one of the top producers of cotton, along with China, Brazil, the USA, and Pakistan, there’s still the question to answer… where does our cotton actually come from?

next week in I, Quilt…

I hope you enjoyed this week’s installment of I, Quilt. ​ ​

RESOURCES:

Cotton Production: USDA

​ ​Woven Stories Perth, WA

Varieties grown in India

Wiki: Gossympium hirsutum

YOUR TURN: drop me a comment and let me know…

what did you find most curious this week?

what would you like to know more about?

​

​