Early evidence (late 2ndmillennium BCE) of plant-based dyeing of textiles from Timna, Israel

Naama Sukenik; David Iluz; Zohar Amar; Alexander Varvak; Vanessa Workman; Orit Shamir; Erez Ben-Yosef

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179014

Early evidence (late 2^ndmillennium BCE) of plant-based dyeing of textiles from Timna, Israel

Naama Sukenik, David Iluz, Zohar Amar, Alexander Varvak, Vanessa Workman, Orit Shamir, Erez Ben-Yosef

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this article, we focus on the analysis of dyed textile fragments uncovered at an early Iron Age (11^th-10^thcenturies BCE) copper smelting site during new excavations in the Timna Valley conducted by the Central Timna Valley (CTV) Project, as well as those found by the Arabah Expedition at the Hathor Temple (Site 200), dated to the Late Bronze/early Iron Ages (13^th-11^thcenturies BCE). Analysis by HPLC-DAD identified two organic dyestuffs, Rubia tinctorum L. and indigotin, from a plant source (probably Isatis tinctoria L.). They are among the earliest plants known in the dyeing craft and cultivated primarily for this purpose. This study provides the earliest evidence of textiles dyed utilizing a chemical dyeing process based on an industrial dyeing plant from the Levant. Moreover, our results shed new light on the society operating the copper mines at the time, suggesting the existence of an elite that was interested in these high quality textiles and invested efforts in procuring them by long-distance trade.

Original language	English
Article number	e0179014
Journal	PLoS ONE
Volume	12
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179014
State	Published - Jun 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Sukenik et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding

The authors would like to thank Raisa Vinitzky from the Artifact Treatment Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority, for her help in the conservation laboratory and to Yael Barschak, Head of photographic Archives in Israel Antiquities Authority, for help in photography. The authors also thank Willie Ondricek, Ilana Peters and Mark Cavanagh for their help in the field. Thanks are also due to the CTV Project staff, students and volunteers for their work during the excavation seasons, and to Hagit Gal and the Timna Park managements for their support. This research was partially supported the Israel Antiquities Authority and by the Marie Curie FP7-PEOPLE-2012-CIG grant #334274 to E.B.-Y.

Funders	Funder number
Israel Antiquities Authority
Marie Curie FP7-PEOPLE-2012-CIG
Seventh Framework Programme	334274

Access to Document

10.1371/journal.pone.0179014

Cite this

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abstract = "In this article, we focus on the analysis of dyed textile fragments uncovered at an early Iron Age (11th-10thcenturies BCE) copper smelting site during new excavations in the Timna Valley conducted by the Central Timna Valley (CTV) Project, as well as those found by the Arabah Expedition at the Hathor Temple (Site 200), dated to the Late Bronze/early Iron Ages (13th-11thcenturies BCE). Analysis by HPLC-DAD identified two organic dyestuffs, Rubia tinctorum L. and indigotin, from a plant source (probably Isatis tinctoria L.). They are among the earliest plants known in the dyeing craft and cultivated primarily for this purpose. This study provides the earliest evidence of textiles dyed utilizing a chemical dyeing process based on an industrial dyeing plant from the Levant. Moreover, our results shed new light on the society operating the copper mines at the time, suggesting the existence of an elite that was interested in these high quality textiles and invested efforts in procuring them by long-distance trade.",

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