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Diverse
Reuters
A “surprising” discovery of “royal dye” fabrics from the era of King David in Israel
Israeli researchers announced that they had found purple-dyed fabrics dating back to the era of King David and King Solomon at Tal Al-Manea, on the border with Egypt, in an indication of the wealth of the region’s inhabitants at the time. .
The Israel Antiquities Authority and the universities of Tel Aviv and Bar Ilan said: “Investigators were surprised to find remnants of woven fabrics, tassels and wool fibers dyed royal purple.”
In a joint statement this week, the three bodies indicated that the discovery was made during an examination of colored textiles taken from Wadi Al-Manea, an area that was once rich in copper production.
The statement noted that “direct radiocarbon dating confirms that the history of the discoveries goes back approximately 1,000 BC, that is, in the Biblical era of the reign of Kings David and Solomon.”
This is the first time that purple-dyed textiles from the Iron Age have been found in Israel or the Levant, according to the statement.
The color purple was associated with kings, nobles and priests, and the dye “often costs more than gold,” said Naama Sukenik of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
She added: “Only remains of mollusk scales and dye-stained ceramic pieces were found prior to this discovery, which provided evidence of the manufacture of purple in the Iron Age. Now, for the first time, we have direct evidence of the same dyed tissues, preserved about three thousand years ago. “.
This dye, also called Orjouan Tire, after the southern Lebanese coastal city, which was known for producing purple dye in Phoenician times, is still highly valued today.
“The dye, made from mollusks, is found in the Mediterranean, more than 300 kilometers from Timna, and is mentioned repeatedly in the Bible and appears in various Jewish and Christian contexts,” the statement said.
Erez Ben Youssef, from the Department of Archeology at Tel Aviv University, said the discoveries should “revolutionize our perceptions of nomadic societies in the Iron Age,” noting that they “reinforce our assumption that there is an elite in Timna who attests to the existence of a social class structure. “
Source: AFP
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