Purple from sea snails was the most expensive dye of the ancient Mediterranean, and its importance goes back to the early second millennium BCE. Dyed textiles almost never survive, so the evidence is mostly written. Then three samples of prestigious fiber turned up in the textile collection from Timna Valley, an Iron Age copper smelting site in the Israeli desert. What was in the dye?
Genuine murex purple, from the oldest such textiles known in the region. Two bromine-bearing components identified by chromatography are considered unequivocal evidence of murex-derived purple dyestuff. The samples came from , a copper smelting site radiocarbon-dated to the late eleventh and early tenth centuries BCE, which makes these the oldest dyed textiles currently known in the .
Textile dyeing is prehistoric, and purple from murex sea snails occupied the top of the ancient Mediterranean’s hierarchy of colors. Evidence for its importance goes back to the Middle Bronze Age, in the early second millennium BCE. What almost never survives is the cloth itself, so the record is mostly documentary.
In the course of a broad study of dyeing technologies in the Timna textiles collection, three samples of prestigious fibers dyed with murex were identified. The identification rests on two bromine-bearing indigoid components detected by chromatography, which is considered unequivocal evidence for the use of murex-derived purple dyestuff rather than a plant imitation.
The authors went further than identification. By comparing their analytical results against a series of controlled dyeing experiments, they were able to say more about the specific snail species used and to glean insights into the ancient dyeing technology itself.
The provenance is the part that reframes the find. The samples came from excavations at the extensive Iron Age copper smelting site known as Slaves’ Hill, tightly dated by radiocarbon to the late eleventh and early tenth centuries BCE. They are the oldest dyed textiles currently known in the Southern Levant. Together with the very high quality of the Timna textiles generally, the authors treat this as an opening onto social stratification among the nomadic society that operated the mines. The fashion of regional elites and their trade connections come into view with it. Three samples is the whole basis for it.
wat. The oldest murex-dyed cloth in the Southern Levant turned up at a desert copper camp, not a palace.
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The find location is what makes it interesting rather than the dye. Elite purple at a smelting camp speaks to social stratification among the nomadic society that worked the mines, and to its trade connections.
How do we know?
Sukenik and colleagues identified the dye components by chromatographic analysis and compared the results against a series of controlled dyeing experiments to narrow down the snail species and the ancient technique.
What is still unknown
Three samples. The radiocarbon dating is of the site rather than of the textiles directly, and the inferences about elite fashion and social organization are interpretation built on a very small find.
Learn something?
Where to next
Can you tell who made a prehistoric hand stencil from the hand?archaeology
Why did a purple cloak in antiquity take thousands of sea snails?purple
What did a meal from the past leave between the teeth?archaeology