Tarkhan Dress (World’s Oldest Dress), University College London Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London

The Tarkhan Dress, named for the Tarkhan cemetery south of Cairo in Egypt where it was excavated in 1913, is an over 5000 years old linen garment that was confirmed as the world's oldest piece of women clothing. The dress coded UC28614B is currently in the collection of the University College London (UCL) Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Radiocarbon testing conducted in 2015 by the University of Oxford affirms, with 95% accuracy, that the dress dates from between 3482 and 3102 BCE.

Researchers have confirmed that a 5,000-year-old linen shirt is the world's oldest known woven garment ever found. The dress was excavated at Tarkhan, an ancient Egyptian cemetery dating back to about 3,000 B.C. In 1913, the shirt, which became known as the Tarkhan dress, lay among a pile of textiles recovered from Egypt's First Dynasty cemetery located 50 kilometers south of Cairo. It was discovered only in 1977, among the filthy bundle of cloth pieces during conservation and cleaning work by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The cloth piece was carefully conserved, stitched onto Crepeline (a fine silk material used in textile conservation), and mounted so it could be seen the way it was worn in life.

The Tarkhan dress was sent to the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London in the early 1990s after being found in an Egyptian tomb. The linen garment, with V-neck, pleated sleeves and bodice, is understood to be made by a specialized craftsman for a wealthy person.

Alice Stevenson, the museum’s curator, said: “The early date of the Tarkha dress is unsurprising. “Textile fragments made of flax are known from at least Egyptian Neolithic times, while weaving on horizontal looms is evidenced from at least the early fourth millennium.”

Ms Stevenson said that linen garments, like the Tarkhan, are particularly good to radiocarbon date as they consist of flax fibres that grow over a relatively short time.