By By Sonia D'Costa Jun 4, 2014 in Science Riding horses and wearing pants are closely related, suggests a recent archaeological discovery. A German research team found the world’s oldest known pair of trousers while working in an ancient graveyard in Tarim Basin in China. The tomb hosting the bodies also contained a bow, a whip, a wooden horse bit, and a battle-ax, indicating that wearing trousers was a practice developed to make horse riding easier. The trousers that the archaeologists found also suggest that humans had not just invented trousers some 3,000 years back, but had known about them for such a long time that they had begun customizing them according to individual preferences. Each pair of trousers comprised a piece of material for each leg and a piece for the crotch. They also had belts of strings and decorative stitches. The research team, led by Mayke Wagner, is from Berlin’s German Archaeological Institute, and their findings have been published in the Located in the western part of China, the Tarim Basin is home to burial grounds that are several thousands of years old. So far, archaeological research teams have excavated more than 500 graveyards, and recently, one such team found two adult males, who could have died in their forties, wearing trousers. Carbon dating showed that the trousers are around 3,000 years old, which makes them the oldest known trousers in the world.The tomb hosting the bodies also contained a bow, a whip, a wooden horse bit, and a battle-ax, indicating that wearing trousers was a practice developed to make horse riding easier. The trousers that the archaeologists found also suggest that humans had not just invented trousers some 3,000 years back, but had known about them for such a long time that they had begun customizing them according to individual preferences. Each pair of trousers comprised a piece of material for each leg and a piece for the crotch. They also had belts of strings and decorative stitches. Historians have long suspected that humans invented trousers to make horse riding easier. Before inventing trousers, both men and women wore robes, tunics, gowns, and similar garments. Since horse riders found it very uncomfortable to ride in these garments, trousers were invented and later became very popular. They were later changed and modified to make them more comfortable for wearing on all occasions, not just for riding. The history of trousers could date back to 4,000 years as humans began riding horses at around that time.The research team, led by Mayke Wagner, is from Berlin’s German Archaeological Institute, and their findings have been published in the Quarterly International . In their research paper, the team noted : “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.” More about 3000yearold trousers, China, oldest trousers, horse riding 3000yearold trousers China oldest trousers horse riding