Study: Chemical Dyes Used At Least 3,000 Years Ago

Fabric fragments discovered in the deserts of southern Israel suggest that chemical textile dyes were in use earlier than previously thought.

The pieces of wool and linen, which researchers estimated are at least 3,000 years old, were found near a copper smelting site and nearby temple in the Arabah desert.

Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University said the samples reflected the existence of a sophisticated textile industry — including unprecedented evidence of plant-based dyeing in the region as early as the 13th to 10th centuries BCE.

Chemical analyses of the samples identified molecules from the madder plant and woad plant to create red and blue colors, respectively.

Researchers said that textile workers would cook plants in water, then add fleece fixed with alum to bond the fabric to the dye — and create a wash-resistant color.

"We know that these plants were used to create elaborate costumes during the Roman period, more than a thousand years later," said Tel Aviv University's Erez Ben-Yosef. "Now we have evidence in the region of an Edomite society wearing textiles produced the same way, versus an earlier 'primitive' smearing of color on fabric."

The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, also noted that the samples meant that the region featured a strongly hierarchical society in which well-dressed elites could command the workforce needed to mine for copper in harsh desert conditions.

The fabric also indicated that the region was connected to long-distance trade routes.

"These plants require a lot of water and probably hail from the Mediterranean regions," Ben-Yosef added. "The dyeing required special craftspeople, an entire industry that could not have subsisted in the desert."