The oldest pair of trousers has been discovered by a team of researchers in a Chinese tomb, the Telegraph reported.
The wool trousers were discovered in the Yanghai graveyard in China's Tarim Basin and are thought to date back approximately 3,000 years, according to radiocarbon dating.
Two adult males, believed to be herders and warriors, both about 40 years old at the time of death, were wearing the trousers, Press Trust of India reported.
A horse bit made of wood, a whip, a bow and a battle-axe were some other items discovered along with the bodies in the tomb.
Two tombs, dating between the 13th and the 10th century BC., was the location where the fragments of woolen trousers were found, according to a research paper published in the scientific journal Quaternary International.
These artifacts along with the cut of the pants, suggest the trousers were created and worn to allow for easier horse riding over long periods of time.
The creation of the trousers also suggests that the piece of clothing had matured to a level that allowed for custom tailoring.
As riding for a long time can cause skin irritation and discomfort, many historians believe that trousers were invented as a means of riding horses, the report said.
"The trousers were made of three independently woven pieces of fabric, one nearly rectangular for each side spanning the whole length from waistband to hemline at the ankle and one stepped cross-shaped crotch-piece which bridged the gap between the two side-pieces," Mayke Wagner at the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin and her colleagues wrote in the journal Quaternary International.
Since the threads for final sewing and the yarns of three fabrics match both in color and quantity, the theory of the weaver and tailor being the same person or both working with cooperation in a highly coordinated manner is suggested, researchers said.
"Together with horse gear and weapons as grave goods in both tombs our results specify former assumptions that the invention of bifurcated lower body garments is related to the new epoch of horseback riding, mounted warfare and greater mobility," researchers wrote.
