It doesn’t look like much, but this tattered piece of clothing found buried in an ancient Egyptian cemetery has been confirmed as the world’s oldest dress as well as the oldest woven garment known to archaeologists.

　　虽然看上去其貌不扬，然而这件发现于古代埃及墓穴中的褴褛衣裳已经被考古学家确认为世界上最古老的裙装，也是最古老的纺织工艺成衣。

　　Called the Tarkhan dress, the remarkable garment has now officially been dated by University College London researchers to between 5,100 and 5,500 years old. That places it way back to the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt, and possibly even earlier.

　　这条裙子被称作达拉罕裙。据伦敦大学学院的研究者测定并公布，这件令人惊叹的裙衫制造于公元前5100年到5500年之间，即古代埃及的第一王朝，可能甚至更早。

　　The Tarkhan dress was originally discovered in 1912 in an ancient Egyptian cemetery just south of Cairo. Archaeologists didn’t think much of it at the time, letting it languish in a “great pile of linen cloth.” Then, upon its rediscovery in 1977, it was sent to the Victoria and Albert Museum for conservation. Scientists knew it was old, but its exact date has been a matter of controversy. But new radiocarbon analysis, performed by UCL’s Alice Stevenson and Michael W. Dee, finally confirm the item’s antiquity.

　　达拉罕裙最初是在1912年开罗南部的一座古代埃及墓地中发现的。考古学家们当时并没有在意它，直接把它扔进了“一大堆亚麻布”之中。然后在1977年，它又重见天日了，于是被送到维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆以作保存。科学家们知道它历史悠久，但是具体悠久到什么年代一直是个存在争议的问题。伦敦大学学院的Alice Stevenson和Michael W. Dee通过放射性碳素分析，最终确定了这件物品的年代。

　　“The survival of highly perishable textiles in the archaeological record is exceptional,” write the researchers，“The survival of complete, or almost complete, articles of clothing even more so.”

　　“在考古发现中，纤维织物是极易损坏的，能够留存下来的少之又少。”研究人员在文章中写道，“留存下来的完整或近乎完整的服饰更加是凤毛麟角。

　　Indeed, the Tarkhan dress is offering unique insights into the fashion of the times. Though it looks like a shirt, similar clothing from a few centuries later suggest the garment was once a floor-length dress; the original garment was likely much longer. It features tailored sleeves, a V-neck, and narrow pleats. The dress also exhibits signs of wear, which means it was used in real life and was not some sort of fancy ornamentation. ”

　　事实上，达拉罕裙的出土让我们得以洞见古代各时期的流行时尚。虽然它看起来像一件上衣，然而稍晚几世纪出土的服饰证明，这件衣服曾是一件修长及地的长裙。所以说完好的衣服可能比现在要长许多，它的典型特征是剪裁讲究的袖子，V字领，窄小的褶子。这件衣服上还有被人穿过的痕迹，这意味着它曾在人们的生活中发挥过实际作用，而非无实际价值的装饰品。

（编辑：何莹莹）