Sukenik Naama, Iluz David, Amar Zohar, Varvak Alexander, Workman Vanessa, Shamir Orit, Ben-Yosef Erez
National Treasures Department, Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, Israel.
The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
PLoS One. 2017 Jun 28;12(6):e0179014. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0179014. eCollection 2017.
In this article, we focus on the analysis of dyed textile fragments uncovered at an early Iron Age (11th-10th centuries 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-11th centuries 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.
在本文中，我们着重分析在中央蒂姆纳山谷（CTV）项目于蒂姆纳山谷进行的新发掘中，在一个铁器时代早期（公元前11至10世纪）的铜冶炼遗址发现的染色纺织品碎片，以及由亚拉巴探险队在哈索尔神庙（200号遗址）发现的、可追溯至青铜时代晚期/铁器时代早期（公元前13至11世纪）的染色纺织品碎片。通过高效液相色谱 - 二极管阵列检测（HPLC - DAD）分析，从植物来源（可能是菘蓝）中鉴定出两种有机染料，即茜草和靛蓝。它们是染色工艺中已知最早的植物之一，并且主要为此目的而种植。这项研究提供了利用基于来自黎凡特地区工业染料植物的化学染色工艺对纺织品进行染色的最早证据。此外，我们的研究结果为当时运营铜矿的社会提供了新的线索，表明存在一个对这些高品质纺织品感兴趣并通过长途贸易努力获取它们的精英阶层。
