Dyes and dyeing in ancient Mesopotamia

Abstract

This journal article identifies Sumer as a center for the bleaching, dyeing and weaving of wool. According to accounts clothing was brightly colored and patterned. Variegated hues were obtained by substantive, vat and mordant dyes. Black was derived directly from iron oxide or from plants such as Cassia bark used with iron sulphate. Blue likely came from Indigo prepared perhaps with lime or potash. Woad may have been used. Saffron and Tumeric provided rarer yellow dyes. Red was favored in many shades. Sumerian and Akkadian texts refer to blood red, rose color and russet. Kermes is identified as one red dye. Murex brandaris and Murex arunculus yield purple. The dyeing process as practiced by the Mesopotamians is little known. Scant information is provided by the Talmud and from comparison with Babylonian tablets on tanning. Fat, alum and gall were used as mordants for tanning and dyeing. Thread or yarn was dyed in vats. These vats and winding bobbins are described from archaeological finds in Palestine. Wooden vats were likely used in Mesopotamia.