Disciplines
Sericulture
SEH-rih-kul-cher
Also Known As Silk Farming
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Silk farming: raising silkworm caterpillars on mulberry leaves until they spin a cocoon of one continuous filament nearly a thousand yards long, then unreeling it before the moth inside can break the strand. The domesticated silk moth no longer exists in the wild; roughly 2,500 silkworms are needed for a single pound of raw silk. The practice spread from China to the Indus region by 2450 to 2000 BCE, reached India by around 140 CE, and stayed a jealously guarded Byzantine monopoly, protected by imperial decree, until smuggled eggs and captured Byzantine weavers carried it to Sicily and Western Europe after 1147. China and India together still produce over 60 percent of the world's raw silk.
Facts
Disputed
Central QuestionChinese tradition credits the legendary Empress Leizu with discovering silk cultivation around 2700 BCE by finding a cocoon in her tea, but the practice's true origin is unresolved. 1 The 2700 BCE Leizu account is a much later literary tradition; the oldest hard evidence, a carved ivory silkworm figure from Nancun in Hebei and silk residues at other Neolithic sites, is dated to roughly 5,400 to 5,500 years ago, centuries before any written record, so archaeologists and textual historians disagree on how much weight the legendary account deserves. See the paired open question on this entity for what would resolve it. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The domestic silk moth no longer exists in the wild; it is entirely a product of selective breeding under cultivation
Includes
Sources
1. Sericulture (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead section; History sectionQuote, Lead section; History section
Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk.
Open Questions (1 open question)
Did silk cultivation in China begin with a single discovery or develop gradually over the Neolithic?
The legendary account credits Empress Leizu with discovering silk cultivation in one moment around 2700 BCE, while archaeological finds, a carved ivory silkworm figure at Nancun and silk residues at other Neolithic sites, push evidence of the practice back roughly 5,400 to 5,500 years, centuries before any written record, leaving no way to confirm whether a single origin event occurred or the practice simply accumulated.
What would resolve this Additional dated archaeological finds of silkworm cultivation across Neolithic Yellow River sites, or genetic dating of the domesticated silk moth's divergence from its wild ancestor, could narrow the window and test whether a single domestication event or several gradual ones occurred.
Archaeology and archaeogeneticsSericulture (Wikipedia)
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Central Question
Physical evidence, including a carved ivory silkworm figure recovered at Nancun in Hebei and silk fibers identified at other Neolithic sites, pushes the origin of silkworm cultivation to roughly 5,400 to 5,500 years ago, centuries before any textual record. These archaeologists read the finds as evidence that sericulture developed gradually across the Neolithic rather than beginning with any single figure's discovery, and treat the Leizu account as a much later literary tradition layered onto an already-old practice.
A dissenting reading, from Archaeologists studying Neolithic silk remains in ChinaSericulture (Wikipedia), Wikimedia Foundation
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