The export of textiles was one of the sources of wealth for Meroe. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, and traded with fishing villages along the coast for large supplies of fish. 4200 BC,[15] and was the backbone of the development of coastal cultures such as the Norte Chico, Moche, and Nazca. The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times; fragments of cotton fabric dated to the fifth millennium BC have been found in the Indus Valley Civilization, as well as fabric remnants dated back to 6000 BC in Peru. The word entered the Romance languages in the mid-12th century,[5] and English a century later. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and wearing clothing made of it. Arabia The Greeks and the Arabs were not familiar with cotton until the Wars of Alexander the Great, as his contemporary Megatheres told Seleucids I Nicator of "there being trees on which wool grows" in "Indica".[c...