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Ultra-rare archaeological evidence of cloth coloured royal purple has for the first time ever been found. Archaeologists have now estimated the small samples date as far back as legendary royalty King David and King Solomon.
Experts were surprised to uncover fragments of woven fabric, a tassel and fibres of wool dyed royal purple from the Timna Valley.
This is a very exciting and important discovery
Dr Naama Sukenik
This has long been recognised to have once been an ancient copper production district in southern Israel.
Cutting-edge radiocarbon dating proceeded to confirm how the extraordinary discovery did in fact date to roughly 1,000 BC.
As a result, this directly corresponded to the biblical monarchies of David and Solomon in Jerusalem.
The dye was produced from a type Mediterranean mollusk, found approximately 185 miles (300km) from Timna.
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This specific dye is frequently mentioned in the Bible and appears in several Jewish and Christian contexts.
For example, the Old Testament’s Song of Songs 3:9-10 reads: ”King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon.
“Its posts he made of silver, its base of gold. Its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior inlaid with love.”
The news marks the first-ever occasion that purple-dyed Iron Age textiles have been unearthed in the entire Southern Levant.
Dr Naama Sukenik, the Israel Antiquities Authority’s curator of organic finds, said in a statement: “This is a very exciting and important discovery.
“This is the first piece of textile ever found from the time of David and Solomon that is dyed with the prestigious purple dye.
“In antiquity, purple attire was associated with the nobility, with priests, and of course with royalty.
“The gorgeous shade of the purple, the fact that it does not fade, and the difficulty in producing the dye, which is found in minute quantities in the body of mollusks, all made it the most highly valued of the dyes, which often cost more than gold.
“Until the current discovery, we had only encountered mollusk-shell waste and potsherds with patches of dye, which provided evidence of the purple industry in the Iron Age.
“Now, for the first time, we have direct evidence of the dyed fabrics themselves, preserved for some 3,000 years.”
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Professor Ben-Yosef, of Tel Aviv University’s Archaeology Department, has identified the copper-production centre at Timna to be part of the biblical Kingdom of Edom.
And he suspects the dramatic fabric may well revolutionise archaeological ideas of nomadic Iron Age societies.
He said: “The new finds reinforce our assumption that there was an elite at Timna, attesting to a stratified society.
“In addition, since the mollusks are indigenous to the Mediterranean, this society obviously maintained trade relations with other peoples who lived on the coastal plain.
“However, we do not have evidence of any permanent settlements in the Edomite territory.
“The Edomite Kingdom was a kingdom of nomads in the early Iron Age.
“When we think of nomads, it is difficult for us to free ourselves from comparisons with contemporary Bedouins, and we therefore find it hard to imagine kings without magnificent stone palaces and walled cities.
“Yet in certain circumstances, nomads can also create a complex socio-political structure, one that the biblical writers could identify as a kingdom.”
And he also believes this research could have surprising ramification for archaeologists searching for King David’s palace.
He added: “[King] David may not have expressed his wealth in splendid buildings, but with objects more suited to a nomadic heritage such as textiles and artefacts.
“It is wrong to assume that if no grand buildings and fortresses have been found, then biblical descriptions of the United Monarchy in Jerusalem must be literary fiction.
“Our new research at Timna has showed us that even without such buildings, there were kings in our region who ruled over complex societies, formed alliances and trade relations, and waged war on each other.
“The wealth of a nomadic society was not measured in palaces and monuments made of stone, but in things that were no less valued in the ancient world—such as the copper produced at Timna and the purple dye that was traded with its copper smelters.”
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