Scratches of colored thread found in Israel dating back 3,000 years match the descriptions of the purple garments that would have worn a royalty as King Solomon in the Bible.
Israeli researchers found the remains of a cloth woven, tassel and woolen thread dyed in a so-called ‘royal purple’ from an excavation site in the Timna Valley.
The area – in the country to the south – is full of copper ore and has been mined since the 5th millennium BC. He belonged to the Biblical Kingdom of Edom.
This find represents the first time purple clothing was discovered from around 1,000 BC – and represents a scene at the wards of Biblical Kings.
Purple was famous for its vibrant and long-lived color – but it was originally, from being obtained from minutes from shellfish – making it expensive to use.
Scratches of colored thread (pictured) found in Israel dating back 3,000 years match the descriptions of the purple garments that would have worn a royalty as King Solomon in the Bible.
This find represents the first time purple clothing was discovered from around 1,000 BC – and represents a scene at the wards of Biblical Kings such as Solomon (pictured).
‘This is a very interesting and important find,’ said Israeli Antiquarian Authority curator Naama Sukenik.
‘This is the first piece of clothing ever found from the time of David and Solomon to be dyed with the iconic purple color.’
‘In antiquity, purple attire was associated with the nobility, with priests, and indeed with royalty.’
A direct radiocarbon date has confirmed that the finds date back to around 1,000 BC, according to the times of the biblical monarchs of David and Solomon in Jerusalem.
In the Old Testament, color is mentioned in ‘Song of Songs’, chapter 3, verses 9–10.
‘King Solomon made himself the chariot; he made wood out of Lebanon, ‘the scripture reads.
‘The posts he made with silver, his gold medal. His chair was adorned with purple, the interior decorated with love. ‘
A royal purple color – made from molluscs found in the Mediterranean Sea, more than 186 miles (300 km) north of Timna – is described in several Jewish and Christian texts.
However, this is the first time that Iron Age clothing in purple has been found in Israel – or, indeed, anywhere throughout the South Levant.
‘Purple is a beautiful shade, as it does not fade, and the difficulty of making the color – found in minute sizes in the body of molluscs – is all highly value the colors, ‘explained Dr Sukenik.
The color, he continued, often cost more than the same amount of gold.
‘Until its current discovery, we had only encountered molluscan shell waste and colored pots, which testified to the purple industry in the Iron Age. ‘
‘Now, for the first time, we have direct evidence of the colored materials themselves, preserved for about 3000 years.’
Other organic materials – including Iron Age clothing, cords and leather – have also been preserved at the Timna site due to the area’s extremely dry climate.
These objects – which also date back to the time of David and Solomon – provide a unique view of life in Biblical times, the researchers said.
Israeli researchers found the remains of a textile fabric (pictured), tassel and woolen thread dyed in so-called ‘royal purple’ from an excavation site in the Timna Valley
‘Our archeology tour has been continuously excavated at Timna since 2013,’ said Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University in Israel.
‘If we were to dig for another hundred years in Jerusalem, we would not find clothes 3,000 years ago.’
‘Timna has a special state of preservation and is similar to that at much later sites – such as Masada and the Judean Caves of the Desert.’
In the last few years, archaeologists have been excavating a relatively new site in the area, known as’ Slaves’ Hill ‘.
‘The name may be misleading because, far from being a slave, the workers were skilled metal workers,’ said Dr Ben-Yosef.
‘Timna was a production center for copper, the same as modern oil in the Iron Age,’ continued the archaeologist.
Copper smelting required advanced metallurgical understanding which was a secret of protection and those with this knowledge were the “high-tech” experts of the time, ‘he said.
In the last few years, archaeologists have been excavating a relatively new site in the area, known as ‘Hill Slaves’ (pictured). ‘The name may be misleading because, far from being a slave, the workers were skilled metal workers,’ said Dr Ben-Yosef. ‘Timna was a production plant for copper, similar to modern day Iron Age oil’
‘Slave Hill is the largest copper smelting site in the valley and is full of industrial waste such as slag from the smelting sites,’ said Dr Ben-Yosef.
One of these stacks yielded three pieces of colored cloth. The color immediately caught our attention, but we had a hard time believing that we had discovered true purple from such an ancient age.
According to the researchers, the purple color – which is thought to be referred to as argon in Hebrew – was derived from three species of mollusk native to the Mediterranean Sea.
These species included the Banded Dye-Murex, the Spiny Dye-Murex and the Red-Mouthed Rock-Shell.
The dye was made from a gland inside the body of the mole through a complex chemical process that lasted several days.
The colors Argaman (purple) and tekhelet (azure) are often mentioned together in ancient texts and have symbolic value and religious significance to this day. Temple priests, Kings David and Solomon (pictured) and also Jesus of Nazareth with purple are mentioned
Today, most experts agree that two different precious colors – the purple argon and the light blue tekhelet, or azure – have been extracted from the molluscs of the purple color, but using different levels of vision.
These two colors are often mentioned together in ancient texts and still have symbolic value and religious significance to this day.
Temple priests, Kings David and Solomon and also Jesus of Nazareth with purple robes are mentioned.
To rebuild the mollusc dyeing process, Professor Amar traveled to Italy where he smashed thousands of molluscs to extract raw materials from their pubs.
This was then used in hundreds of attempts to rebuild the old color.
The full results of the study were published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The Timna Valley – in the south – is full of copper ore and has been mined since the 5th millennium BC. He belonged to the Biblical kingdom of Edom