Period: Bronze Age and Iron Age (1700 BC - 700 AD)
Project titel: Naturlige og organiske farvestoffer i bronze- og jernaldertekstiler
Researcher: Maiken Petersen, Archaeologist, University of Copenhagen
Email: admiralinden(at)brnet.dk
Year: 2008
Research Problem:
The latest research have shown, that the technology of dieing wool with plant based dies, goes as far back as the Bronze Age. Previously it was believed that Bronze Age people only fabricated textiles by combining the natural colours in the wool, that is to say brown, grey, white and black. It has now been discovered, that 3000 year old cloth was died, using natural dies won from particular flowers, leaves, nuts, roots, fungi and other organic materials. Add a prehistoric chemical, distilled from urine, wine, minerals or metals and the ancient people were able to produce long lasting colours from the whole range. But was it also possible to exploit the natural colours of the wool - from white to black - to create different colours in combination with the plant dies? The newest analysis also shows that dying was carried out on woven cloth, and that the colours could be added in different tempi, as primary or secondary dies.
Conclusion:
Archaeologist Maiken Petersen carried out a series of scientific experiments to ascertain whether plant dyes on white and naturally coloured wool would result in different colours. 45 dying samples were made, which created the same number of different colours or nuances.
Dying on white wool created the expected colour result. Dying on grey wool however resulted in surprising and unpredictable colours. The brown wool stayed brown, when coloured, but retained a tinge of the expected colour. This would mean that surprisingly colourful results could be achieved be weaving a chequered fabric, with natural wool colours and then dying the fabric. Aside from being part of the Lejre archives the results of the experiments will be part of the research project "Textiles and Costumes from Bronze Age and Iron Age in Danish Collections" for the Danish Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen. In relation to the project, the samples produced in this experiment will be used as reference material for future strontium- and DNA- analysis, as well as future analysis of the botanical origin of plant dyes. It will thus be possible to classify which plants - and hence colours - were used in prehistory.
Reference nummer HAF 05/08