Increasing evidence of cotton (Gossypium herbaceum/arboreum), both seeds of cotton and textile fragments in cotton, sheds light on the distribution of this tropical plant in the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. Some of these discoveries come from archaeological contexts dated between the 4th and 2nd mill. BC. They have been interpreted as early importation of textile products from India, where cotton (G. arboreum) is attested since the 6th-5th mill. BC, or early presence of African cotton (G. herbaceum). None of the evidence which exist so far is based on direct dating. The bulk of cotton finds belong to later archaeological layers, from Antique, Late Antique and Islamic times. A set of radiocarbon dating was obtained for cotton seeds and fibres coming from various archaeological contexts. The results show that cotton is definitely present from the end of the 1st century BC onwards in Nubia and Egypt and during the 1st century AD in Central Sudan. In Arabia, one textile fragment dates back to the end of the 1st c. BC-1st c. AD but most of the data is comprised between the end of the 1st c. and the 3rd c. AD. The examination of direct radiocarbon dating combined to the analysis of the distribution of the cotton finds and the textual evidence allow us to better characterise the trade routes and the introduction of cotton cultivation in local agrosystems.