Coloured dyes were essential commodities in the Mediterranean region during the Late Bronze Age.
Berger and his colleagues unearthed a purple dye factory at site K10 (marked in red) outside Colonna, Aegina, during the Bronze Age. Image courtesy of Berger others., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304340.
of The small island of Aegina It is located in the middle of the Saronic Gulf, between Attica, the Peloponnese and the central Aegean Sea.
The island has played an important role in the cultural history of the Aegean for thousands of years.
From the Neolithic to the Byzantine period (6th millennium BC to the 10th century AD), Aegina's main settlement was located on a small, well-protected promontory on the northwest coast called Cape Colonna.
During the 2nd millennium BC, this densely built and heavily fortified settlement reached the height of its economic prosperity and culture.
Representative monuments, outstanding finds and rich tombs indicate an economically stable and complex social system integrated into inter-regional trade networks and emerging cultures in the Middle and Late Bronze Age Aegean.
in New paper In the journal PLoS OneDr. Lydia Berger from the Université Paris-Lodron de Salzburg and her colleagues describe the remains of a 16th century BC purple dye workshop at Aegina Colonna.
The existence of this workshop is inferred from three main pieces of evidence: purple pigment preserved on pottery shards believed to be remnants of dye containers, dyeing tools such as grinding stones and waste pits, and crushed shells of marine snails harvested for the pigment.
Analysis of the chemical composition of shells and pigments indicates that the workshop mainly produces Mediterranean snails. Murex striped dye (Hexagonal column trunk).
Excavations at the site also uncovered numerous burnt bones of young mammals, mainly piglets and lambs.
Archaeologists hypothesize that these may be the remains of animals that were ritually sacrificed as sacred offerings to protect the dye-producing areas. This practice is known from other cultural sites, but the exact relationship of these bones to dye production is not yet entirely clear.
The site provides valuable insight into the tools and processes of Mycenaean purple dye production.
Further investigations may reveal more information about the scale of dye production at Aegina Colonna, details of procedures at the site, and the use of this dye in regional trade.
“The discovery for the first time of a remarkably large amount of well-preserved pigment, a large amount of crushed mollusc shells and several functional installations allows detailed insights into the production of purple dye on the Greek island of Aegina around 3,600 years ago,” the researchers said.
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L. Burger others2024. More than just a colour: Archaeological, analytical and procedural aspects of Late Bronze Age purple dye production at Cape Colonna, Aegina. PLoS One 19(6):e0304340;doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0304340
Source: www.sci.news
