A 2800-year-old red and blue checked dress found in an Early Iron Age grave in the Netherlands might be the oldest double-colour woven garment in Europe.
The skeleton of the elite individual who once wore this striking outfit had completely decayed due to harsh, sandy soil. But through mineralisation underneath metallic jewellery, remnants of the much-decayed and now-brown wool dress provide evidence that the dyed textiles came from clothing, says at the Natural History Museum, Vienna.
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Ancient textiles are “rarer than gold” since they decay so easily, she says. And even when they are discovered, it isn’t always clear what purpose they served – as many appear to have been used to wrap grave goods or to be gifts themselves.
In 2015, Grömer and her colleagues studied that had undergone a natural conservation process through association with metals. The positioning under bracelets and anklets suggested that the textiles once formed part of a long-sleeved dress, or perhaps a long-sleeved top with an ankle-length skirt. Grömer recognised a chequered pattern of two shades, but lacked the technology to investigate further.
Now, working with at the University of Paris-Saclay, Grömer and her colleagues have performed high-resolution 3D imaging on 10 fragments from the four layers of fabric, measuring about 1 square centimetre each. They determined that the weave represented a classic eight-thread plaid formation known today as “shepherd’s check” – which required considerable skill to produce, says Grömer.
Molecular analyses revealed that the individual threads had been dyed prior to weaving. The blue dye probably came from a bush called dyer’s woad (Isatis tinctoria). As for the red colouring, it came from Polish cochineal insects (Porphyrophora polonica L) – the oldest example of insect-derived dye in the region.
The dress is the oldest bicoloured textile in the Netherlands – and possibly the oldest such garment in Europe, according to the researchers. “This is such an extraordinary find,” says Bertrand.
Other chequered garments from the Iron Age include a , and a , which was patterned in blue and red.
“It’s like forensic science, putting together all these clues,” she says. “We do our best to give an idea of what people looked like 2800 years ago.”
Journal of Archaeological Science
