When Was Dye First Used? — Chromatography Investigates

Pieces of fabric unearthed in Peru suggest that man has been using dyes for much longer than previously thought. Fabric found in Egypt — dyed with a blue dye — was dated to around 4400 years old, and the oldest written record of dye use is about 4600 years ago in China. But the findings in Peru have pushed the use of dye back to over 6200 years ago according to The George Washington University researcher — Jeffrey Splitstoser — who identified the fabric.

The find shows that it is not just in China and the Middle East — areas usually associated technological discoveries — but that the Americas were also at the forefront of scientific advances. In a press release, Splitstoser states

“Some of the world’s most significant technological achievements were developed first in the New World. Many people, however, remain mostly unaware of the important technological contributions made by Native Americans, perhaps because so many of these technologies were replaced by European systems during the conquest. However, the fine fibers and sophisticated dyeing, spinning and weaving practices developed by ancient South Americans were quickly co-opted by Europeans.”

Pristine preservation

The fabric was discovered in a dig at Huaca Prieta, a desert area on the north coast of Peru offering pristine preservation of archaeological artefacts. It is thought that the site was a temple occupied between 14,500 and 4000 years ago, and that textiles and other offerings were placed as part of a ritual. The site was first excavated in the 1940s and various textiles artefacts were found — probably the oldest known fabrics in the world.

The dyed fabric pieces were made from cotton and were found embedded in layers made from an ancient concrete type material of ash, shells and sand on a ramp leading up into the temple. They probably represented a ‘ritual’ killing — objects were viewed as living by people living in the Andes at the time. Ceramics, fabrics and other objects were broken or shredded as part of the ‘killing’ and then buried. The reason for the rituals is unknown — but the colour of the fabric was blue, denim blue.

Blue jeans from Peru?

The pieces of fabric were dirty when they were found, but surprisingly well preserved for 6000-year-old cloth. After careful washing, an indigo colour was seen in a striped pattern. To confirm that the dye was indigo the team used high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) — establishing that the samples were the world’s oldest indigo dyed fabric.

Unlike some other dyes, indigo doesn’t just come from squashing a few berries. Indigo dye is made from leaves that have to be fermented and aerated — a complex process that couldn’t have happened by chance. The use of indigo dyes in modern chemistry is discussed in the article, Kinetics Measurements with High Sensitivity Spectroscopy ‘Chemical Stoplight’ Reaction Monitoring.

So without the ancient Peruvians skill at dye extraction — would blue jeans exist today?