Men and animals formed large caravans that plied the trade routes of the ancient world. The men wore woven kilts, shirts and shawls until the invention of trousers, which came after they started riding the domesticated horse. Animals carried their burdens in woven bags and wore protective, decorated woven harness and coverings.
The most valuable wares in the caravan packs were tin ore, semi-precious stones and woven fabric. One of the famous trade routes is named for the woven treasure that was transported across its expanse: The Silk Road. The legendary silk garments woven in China even before the Christian era began were already high art: damask and brocade were ornamented in gold and silver embroideries and made into robes and undergarments.
Though woven silk and spun silk thread were important for garments that proclaimed the wearer's high status, it was wool that made merchants of textile artists. The growing, processing and weaving of wool was carried out chiefly in the centers of civilization in the Eastern Mediterranean and certain inland areas of that region. Wool supported a cottage industry which was often managed by the woman of the household of an extended family. The males of the family grazed the sheep and the male head of the extended family was often the entrepreneur who took the goods onto the trade routes.
Woven woolen bags, hangings and floor coverings as well as garments were valuable items and the woman in charge of her own cottage industry kept the members of the large family and their servants engaged in spinning and weaving while men harvested and prepared fibers, whether of wool or flax (linen).
In the warmer coasts and in the Nile Delta, linen garments were more in demand than woolen ones. Even in the colder climates, linen was used for clothing worn next to the skin. In Women's Work: the First 20,000 Years, Elizabeth Wayland Barber tells of the interesting relationship between our word "tunic" and the name for linen in some ancient languages. The word apparently developed from the word for linen in the very old language of Sumeria: "gada."
It was borrowed by the Akkadians (where it became "kitinnu), and by the Hebrews (kutton-eth). The Greeks began to use the word for linen to name their garments made of linen: khiton.
Then in the early Roman period, they called their linen garments "ktuni-ka," which became "tunica" in later Latin speech. It is an easy transition from the Latin word to the English word: tunic.
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