Kazakh and Chinese researchers analyzed the fabric remnants found in the Early Iron Age burial of Karatum in 2010. This analysis established that fragments of natural wild silk were present in the burial of a young woman whose death dates back to the 5th–3rd centuries BCE.
Most likely, this silk was imported from China. According to information presented in the journal Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, tussah silk finds matching the age of this artifact have previously been discovered in Altai.