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This was not the diet of slaves but of highly regarded craftsmen with special skill sets and knowledge. These people ate well, including fish which likely came across the desert from the Mediterranean. This was also where the three textile fragments with purple dye were found.īut CTV’s excavation on Site 34 demonstrated it to be an important smelting site and the folks working there were living large! Beyond the expensive threads, excavation also revealed animal bones representing better cuts of meat. Slag piles on top indicate copper ore found in the area was smelted there inside those walls. Slave’s Hill plateau at Timna was a fortified Iron Age site with perimeter wall and gatehouse (arrow). The site, known to archaeologists today as “Site 34”, was so named by excavators in the 1930s because its isolated location suggested to them it would be the best place to keep control of the slaves who did the backbreaking daily work of the mines and smelting furnaces. But, considered to be the stuff of royalty – because of the costly purple-dyeing process – such material found at a place called “Slaves Hill” would not be anticipated.

In fact, any find of 2,000+ year old textiles is rare – yet over 100 textile fragments have been found in the arid region of Timna. This was the period of Kings David and Solomon.įinding purple-dyed textiles from the biblical world is an amazing discovery. The locus was tightly dated to the late 11th–early 10th centuries BC by both pottery and short-lived radiometric dating. In a shallow depression just above bedrock within a mixed locus of reddish sediments and crushed sandstone, wool yarn and fibers dyed with a purplish hue were found. Three dyed textile fragments were excavated at a site named “Slave’s Hill” by archaeologists in the 1930s within the Timna copper mining and smelting production district – once the territory of the ancient kingdom of Edom. Their report offered to the world – because this respected peer-reviewed research journal is available online to everyone – a special look into the world of the ancient Near East and the Bible. This particular article focused on three specific items found in the excavation. In January 2021, the Central Timna Valley (CTV) Project published in the online journal PLOS ONE the results of their excavations in the Timna Valley of southern Israel where they have been uncovering an ancient copper mining and smelting operation. Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Chronologies.People, Places, and Things in the New Testament.

People, Places, and Things in the Hebrew Bible.

Inspiration, Authority, Biblical Criticism and the Documentary Hypothesis.

Ancient Manuscripts, Translations, and Texts.

Amazing Discoveries in Biblical Archaeology.

Life & Ministry of Jesus & the Apostles.

Melqart immediately dyed a gown with the extract from the dog’s mouth and presented it to Tyros. When the dog bit into a large sea snail, its mouth was stained purple. According to the legend recorded by the Greek scholar Julius Pollux in the 2nd century CE, the dye was discovered by the Phoenician god Melqart while walking along the seashore with his dog and the nymph Tyros. Tyrian purple dye was first manufactured by the Phoenicians in the 16th century BCE.

Because the materials were smelly, the places where Tyrian purple dye was manufactured were usually located downwind of towns and cities.

The pot was heated slowly for about ten days until the mixture turned a reddish-purple color.

Next, the glands were extracted and placed in a lead pot filled with brine.

According to the Roman author Pliny the Elder, thousands of snails were needed to produce just one ounce of dye.

First, the sea snails had to be harvested.

The source of the dye was the mucus produced by predatory sea snails found in the Mediterranean Sea. Tyrian purple dye was so costly because it was difficult to make. In Rome during the 1st century CE, a pound of Tyrian purple dye cost about half a Roman soldier’s annual salary, or the equivalent of the cost of a diamond engagement ring today. The Greeks called this region "Phoenicia," a name that is believed to mean "land of purple." Purple was an expensive color. The finest purple dye came from the coastal city of Tyre in what is now Lebanon. Creating Purple Lararium (household shrine) from the House of the Vettii at Pompeii