Ancient Egyptians cultivated cotton and used it to create fine textiles for clothing thousands of years ago. Cotton fabrics found in Egyptian and Peruvian tombs from prehistoric times show the skill of weaving and dyeing cotton in ancient cultures of Egypt, India, China, and pre-Inca civilizations in Peru and Mexico. Arab traders introduced cotton cultivation and textile production to parts of Europe in the Middle Ages.

1. Pre- historic Egypt
By about 6000 BC a Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile
Valley.[17] During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures
developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt.
TheBadarian culture and the successor Naqada series are
generally regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt. The
earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merida, predates the
Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous
Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern
counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining
culturally distinct, but maintaining frequent contact through
trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian
hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic
period onNaqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC. [18]

2. Pre- Historic Egypt
The New Kingdom c. 1550–1070 BC began with the Eighteenth
Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international
power that expanded during its greatest extension to an
empire as far south as Tombos in Nubia, and included parts of
the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the
most well known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose
III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti,
Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first historically attested
expression of monotheism came during this period as Atenism.
Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the
New Kingdom. The country was later invaded and conquered
by Libyans, Nubiansand Assyrians, but native Egyptians
eventually drove them out and regained control of their
[20]

3. Ancient Egypt
A unified kingdom was founded c. 3150 BC by
King Menes, leading to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt
for the next three millennia. Egyptian culture flourished during
this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in
its religion, arts, language and customs. Thefirst two ruling
dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old
Kingdom period, c. 2700–2200 BC., which constructed
manypyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of
Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids.

4. Ancient textiles and clothing
The first actual textile, as opposed to skins sewn together, was
probably felt. Surviving examples of Nålebinding, another early
textile method, date from 6500 BC. Our knowledge of ancient
textiles and clothing has expanded in the recent past thanks to
modern technological developments.[14] Our knowledge of
cultures varies greatly with the climatic conditions to which
archeological deposits are exposed; the Middle East and the
arid fringes of China have provided many very early samples in
good condition, but the early development of textiles in
the Indian subcontinent, sub-Saharan Africa and other moist
parts of the world remains unclear. In northern Eurasia peat
bogs can also preserve textiles very well.

5. Ancient Near East
The earliest known woven textiles of the Near East may be
fabrics used to wrap the dead, excavated at a Neolithic site
at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia, carbonized in a fire and radio
carbon dated to c. 6000 BC.[15] Evidence exists
of flax cultivation from c. 8000 BC in the Near East, but the
breeding of sheep with a wooly fleece rather than hair occurs
much later, c. 3000 BC.[15]

6. Ancient Egypt
Cotton has been spun, woven, and dyed since prehistoric times. It clothed
the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before
the Christian era cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless
skill, and their use spread to the Mediterranean countries. In the 1st cent.
Arab traders brought fine Muslin and Calico to Italy and Spain.
The Moors introduced the cultivation of cotton into Spain in the 9th cent.
Fustians and dimities were woven there and in the 14th cent. in Venice
and Milan, at first with a linen warp. Little cotton cloth was imported to
England before the 15th cent., although small amounts were obtained
chiefly for candlewicks. By the 17th cent. the East India Company was
bringing rare fabrics from India. Native Americans skillfully spun and
wove cotton into fine garments and dyed tapestries. Cotton fabrics found
in Peruvian tombs are said to belong to a pre-Inca culture. In color and
texture the ancient Peruvian and Mexican textiles resemble those found
in Egyptian tombs."