A 3,500-year-old twined cotton loincloth, an exciting find from the Kilometer 4 site. Photograph by Karen Wise.

Textiles that are similar to this cotton piece but constructed with fibers from wild plants, such as reeds, are found on the coasts of Chile and Peru at sites up to 9,000 years old. Cotton was first cultivated between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago, and people soon began using it rather than the wild fibers for finer textiles and for fishing nets.