Posted on 09/14/2016 8:25:25 PM PDT by Red Badger
George Washington University researcher has identified a 6,200-year-old indigo-blue fabric from Huaca, Peru, making it one of the oldest-known cotton textiles in the world and the oldest known textile decorated with indigo blue. Credit: Lauren Urana
The discovery marks the earliest use of indigo as a dye, a technically challenging color to produce. According to Jeffrey Splitstoser, lead author of a paper on the discovery and assistant research professor of anthropology at the George Washington University, the finding speaks to the sophisticated textile technology ancient Andean people developed 6,200 years ago.
"Some of the world's most significant technological achievements were developed first in the New World," said Dr. Splitstoser. "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."
The textile was discovered during a 2009 excavation at Huaca Prieta, a desert area that offers nearly pristine archaeological preservation on the north coast of Peru. Experts believe the site was likely a temple where a variety of textiles and other offerings were placed, possibly as part of a ritual. The well-preserved artifacts give a glimpse into ancient civilization and lifestyle and offer an unexpected connection to the 21st century.
The development of indigo dye was critical for future trends in fashion, fabrics and textile arts, Splitstoser said.
"The cotton used in Huaca Prieta fabrics, Gossypium barbadense, is the same species grown today known as Egyptian cotton," Dr. Splitstoser said. "And that's not the only cotton connection we made in this excavation – we may well not have had blue jeans if it weren't for the ancient South Americans."
The textile is now in the Cao Museum collection in Peru. The paper, "Early Pre-Hispanic Use of Indigo Blue in Peru," published in Science Advances on Sept. 14.
Was the blue from a shell? The early Hebrews had a special shell to dye the holy blue threads.
“The cotton used in Huaca Prieta fabrics, Gossypium barbadense, is the same species grown today known as Egyptian cotton,”
Interesting!
No indication on how the date was established. Was it exactly 6,200 years ago, to the hour?
Cash crop in the southern US until synthetic dyes were invented.
“Was it exactly 6,200 years ago, to the hour?”
The universe did not even exist 6,000 years ago. Okay, 6,016 years, 258 days, 23 hours, and 39 minutes. If you live in the Eastern timezone.
Carbon dating most likely. I think is accurate to +/- 50 years........
Indigo dye comes from the indigo plant.......
Denim= de Nimes (France) also has an reference from the tomb of Egyptian king Khafre, heiroglyphics translated by the Levites as:
‘Her beauty lies
Between her thighs.
It makes my Levis
Rise.’
“Carbon dating most likely.”
I was fine with out-of-wedlock dating. Heck, I am even tolerant of homosexual dating. But this carbon dating? NEVER!
From the linked paper http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/9/e1501623.full
The earliest textiles decorated with blue at Huaca Prieta were excavated from stratum 44 in J. Bird’s HP-3 trench. Although not decorated with indigo, the earliest cotton yarn is from stratum 52, which is radiocarbon-dated at 6882–6657 cal BP [sample AA82121; see the study by Dillehay et al. (3)]. The next radiocarbon-dated level is stratum 35 at 5848–5585 cal BP (sample AA86948 on charcoal from an intact hearth), suggesting that the two textiles from stratum 44 are about 6200 to 6000 years old.
(BP = before present)
Do they do BP so that they can avoid using the BC Before Christ acronym?
No it means before present. It’s a fancy way of saying x,xxx years ago, so us lazybones don’t have to strain ourselves adding 2000 to a BC date to get a sense of how old something is. ;)
My aunt bragged she had a rocking chair that went back to Louis the 16th. I told her I had stove that went back to Sears the 12th.
Another clue to their being of the Siberian hunter groups is their lack of an enzyme that allows them to process liquor the way NON-Oriental Asians and other human groups can. "American Indians" never existed.
In fact, the first humans here hunted the mammoth. They dug deep pits and "herded" one into it, then jumped in and killed the beast.
SOME of the hunters were occasionally killed by the mammoths. Their bone remains show them to have OVAL skulls. Oriental Asians have ROUND heads. Thus, conclusive evidence that Caucasians were in the Americas first.
You WILL note that THAT story was not to be published by ANY media here. :o) WAY too non-p.c. Native American Indians
LOL. Good one.
The Solutreans were European. They were the first peoples to reach the Americas roughly 22,000 years ago.
The Siberians came later, but for unknown reasons displaced the Solutreans.
keyboard spew alert
The Byzantines added up the numbers in Genesis differently than Archbishop Ussher and put the creation more than 5700 years B.C., so the textile could be 6200 years old.
Perhaps the Solutreans were too few in number. It IS a mystery.
There are some that simply don't believe the fact that Europeans were the FIRST Americans. Hurts their agenda too much, perhaps.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.