The Hem of the oldest dress is missing

 Archaeologists Discover 5,000 Years Old Egyptian Dress – The Oldest Dress In The World

In 1913, archaeologists dug up a 5,000 years old Egyptian dress, in a town called Tarkhan. The dress was beautifully stitched, to the surprise of the archaeologists who expected clothes of that era to be wrapped around the body. The complete carbon dating of the dress itself was carried out 5 years ago, using the latest radiocarbon dating technology. From the reports of the carbon dating, the researchers found that the linen dress dates to between 3482 and 3103 B.C

The Tarkhan Dress, named for the Tarkhan cemetery south of Cairo in Egypt where it was excavated in 1913, is an over 5000 year old linen garment that was confirmed as the world's oldest piece of woven clothing.[2][1]

The dress was discovered in 1913 during the second season of Sir Flinders Petrie's excavations of the Tarkhan necropolis.[1][3] During the excavation of Mastaba 2050, the dress was found alongside other linen outside of the Mastaba. It is theorised that these linens may have been thrown out later in antiquity and sanded over, which preserved the artefacts.[3] The linen was sent to the University College London for analysis, where it lay untouched for sixty five years.[4]

The dress was rediscovered in 1977 by conservationists at the Victoria and Albert Museum who were sorting through and cleaning 'funerary rags'.[3]

The dress has a weave of 22–23 warps per centimetre, and 13–14 wefts per centimetre creating a grey stripe in the warp, possibly for a decorative effect.[5] The main body of the dress was 76 centimetre wide straight piece of material. The hem of the dress is missing, leaving the original length unknown.  The dress itself is made from three pieces of sturdy hand-woven linen with a natural pale grey stripe with knife-pleated sleeves and bodice. The hem is missing so it's not possible to know the precise length of the dress, but the dimensions indicate that it fitted a young teenager or a slim woman. Although the exact context of its use remain unclear, there are visible signs of wear indicating that it was worn in life.