Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42490448›Full record

ArticleScience advances2026

Silkworm cultivation predating the Silk Road in southern Central Asia (2000 BCE).

Xinying Zhou, Hui Shen, Zhiqing Li, Robert N Spengler, Guanhan Chen, Huiyun Rao, Mutalibjon Khasannov, Keliang Zhao, Yan Wu, Jian Ma and 6 more

Erratum issuedAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

16 authors.

Xinying ZhouInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0001-5570-4863
Hui ShenInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0001-8223-3470
Zhiqing LiIntegrative Science Center of Germplasm Creation in Western China (CHONGQING) Science City & Biological Science Research Center, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.ORCID 0000-0001-8323-3245
Robert N SpenglerDomestication and Anthropogenic Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-5648-6930
Guanhan ChenInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0002-3065-000X
Huiyun RaoInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0001-7901-8243
Mutalibjon KhasannovNational Center of Archeology, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Keliang ZhaoInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0002-5802-9098
Yan WuInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0002-0290-4084
Jian MaCenter for Archaeological Cooperation Research along the Silk Road, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.
Jianxin WangCenter for Archaeological Cooperation Research along the Silk Road, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.ORCID 0009-0007-4118-0545
Akhmadali A AskarovNational Center of Archeology, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Farhod MaksudovNational Center of Archeology, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.ORCID 0000-0002-8492-0634
Qingyou XiaIntegrative Science Center of Germplasm Creation in Western China (CHONGQING) Science City & Biological Science Research Center, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.ORCID 0000-0002-9263-2886
Xinyi LiuDepartment of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4767-4737
Xiaoqiang LiInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Historical narratives hold that sericulture originated in China and spread along the Silk Road roughly two millennia ago. In questioning this assumption, we conducted micromorphological and proteomics analyses on three cocoons recovered from the Sapalli Tepe (approximately 2000 to 1500 BCE) site in Uzbekistan. We identified them as

Indexed as

BombyxSilkAnimalsAsia, CentralMorusProteomicsUzbekistanSilk

Identifiers

PMID42490448
PMCPMC13394462

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.