We look at two burnt textiles that reveal something new and blue about Bronze Age textiles in Anatolia. In this post, you will find the YouTube video exploring these artifacts, and a full video transcript (with relevant sources and links).

YouTube Video

YouTube Video Transcript

Here, you will find the complete transcript of the video in the previous section with hyperlinked references/citations.

Intro

In 2016, archaeologists working at the site of Beycesultan in Türkiye uncovered a burnt artifact that turned out to be a piece of fabric. Finding textiles in the archaeological record is rare. So this was a fortunate find. However, in 2018, another burnt textile fragment was uncovered at the site, but in a different building. This is like winning the archaeology textile lottery – twice. 

The discovery of these objects was just the beginning. These two burnt artifacts also reveal something new and blue about Bronze Age textiles in Anatolia. 

Hi! I’m Dr. Smiti Nathan, and I’m an archaeologist. In this video, we’re going to explore these two burnt artifacts and how they are changing what we know about Bronze Age textile history in Anatolia.

Overview

As we mentioned, these two burnt artifacts were excavated in 2016 and 2018 from the 35ha site of Beycesultan. To understand why these fragments matter, it helps to know a little about the site they came from.

Beycesultan is located on a mound in the southwestern Denizli Province of Türkiye.

The overall site appears to date between the Late Chalcolithic (5th millennium BCE aka starting around ~5000 BCE) and the end of the Bronze Age (1100 BCE). One major finding was a large structure now known as the “Burnt Palace,” – given that it was destroyed by a huge fire. This large building dates to the second millennium BCE.  In addition, there were other types of buildings that included religious spaces, houses, and shops. 

But here’s what makes these textile artifacts land differently than they might at another site. You see, Beycesultan appears to have been a production center for a Bronze Age textile industry in this region.

In addition to the burnt fabric fragments, the sheer number and range of textile tools archaeologists found are the main reason we think it was a textile production center. Archaeologists have found loom weights, spindle whorls, needles, and awls throughout the site. These tools indicate that both spinning and weaving were happening here and at scale. 

So the site was already telling us a textile story. However, these two burnt fragments introduced new plot twists no one expected.

Textiles

So let’s take a look at these two artifacts. 

The first textile fragment, known as Tx1, was excavated from a Middle Bronze Age (1915-1745 BCE) area that had been destroyed by fire. Scholars aren’t sure if this particular area was a courtyard, but  Tx1 was discovered in the western part of a room, which was probably used as a workshop. 

When it was excavated, the fabric fragment was found stuck to the floor and spanned around 0.45m. There was a stone weight on it, and next to it were four postholes. A posthole is an archaeological feature where a timber post originally stood, but the wood has since deteriorated, but you know it was once there because you can see a difference in the soil texture and color between the posthole and the surrounding soil. Archaeologists think these postholes were originally part of a loom. So in summary, Tx1 was found in a building alongside various textile production tools.

If we now look at Tx2, the second textile fragment, it came from a different building entirely. It was discovered in a large Middle Bronze Age (1700-1595 BCE) house that had also been destroyed by fire. It was found near a hearth and while exact measurements of Tx2 have not been offered, it seems to stretch to around 130mm according to the photograph in the publication. There were also a lot of different textile-related artifacts near theTx2 For example, 47 different types of spindle whorls were discovered, as well as baked-clay loom weights shaped like crescents, pyramids, and hooves. This led scholars to propose that this area was a possible textile workshop.

So even before the researchers analyzed the textiles themselves, the rooms that they came from were already crafting a compelling story about what was happening at Beycesultan.

But researchers decided to go deeper and what they found changed the story significantly.

Analysis

So, what did they find that’s changing what we previously thought about ancient Anatolian textiles? 

Well, apparently a lot.

When researchers analyzed both fragments under a scanning electron microscope, they found something interesting. The fibres of Tx1 resembled hemp fibers. Tx2’s fibres were not as clear given its preservation, but it was most likely made from plant or bark fibers, which could be something like linen or hemp. When it comes to hemp, it comes from the Cannabis sativa plant and its fibers have been used for making textiles for millennia. Now we do have examples of hemp use in past textiles, but what makes this detail potentially groundbreaking has to do with how Tx2 was made.

Researchers learned it was made using a “tabby weave”. So what does this mean? This means that the weft goes over a warp and then under the next. Warp and weft are the most basic components of weaving. The warp is the yarn that is held stationary and taut on a loom, and the weft is the yarn that is pulled through the warp by going under and over. So if Tx2 was made with hemp, it would be the first example of Late Bronze Age tabby weave made from hemp in the region.

So you might be wondering, if Tx2 was made using a tabby weave, what was happening with Tx1?

Well, Tx1 doesn’t show warp and weft, so it was most likely not woven. Instead, it shows the use of a continuous thread, which likely indicates the use of the nålbinding technique. Nålbinding is a fiber technique where there’s a single needle with an eye, kind of like in sewing, and the entire length of the yarn is pulled through each loop as you nålbind. It’s actually thought to pre-date knitting and crocheting. Nålbinding was common in many places across the world, especially Scandinavia, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and Western Asia. In fact, Tx1 demonstrated the earliest use of the nålbinding technique in Anatolia.

And the discoveries for Tx1 don’t stop there. Researchers applied a technique called high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (HPLC-PDA). This was used to detect possible dyestuffs in the artifacts. Using this technique, researchers found the use of indigotin dyes. This means that this textile fragment would have been colored indigo blue!

Now, indigo was a popular organic dyestuff in the past. It’s been found in archaeological contexts in Anatolia, Crete, and the Indus Valley. To achieve the indigo blue color, several plants could have been potential sources in the past. In the case of Tx1, researchers think that the biennial flower Isatis tinctoria L., also called woad, would have been fermented to extract the blue-colored dye, as it grows in the region. The researchers analyzing these textiles argue that this fabric is the oldest known blue fabric discovered in Bronze Age Anatolia! This is huge. According to other artifacts and textual sources from ancient Southwest Asia, blue was a popular color choice during this time period. In fact, blue fabric was worn by elite folx, used to pay taxes, and it’s even been found in royal tombs. So the fact that this color is being produced here gives us an idea of some of the people that Beycesultan might have been making textiles for. 

Outro

So the discovery and analysis of these two burnt textile artifacts are changing what we know about ancient Anatolian textile practices. Tx1 gives us the earliest nålbinding example in Anatolia and the earliest indigo-dyed fabric in a Bronze Age Anatolian context. Tx2 potentially gives us the first Late Bronze Age hemp tabby weave in the region. Together, they tell us what Beycesultan was producing. The fire that initially destroyed the buildings in which these artifacts were found, actually preserved some of the only direct evidence we have of what was being made inside of them, making this a rare and fortuitous find.

Now if you’re curious to learn more about other textile discoveries, we have a video on socks, as well as knitting, both of which we will link below.

This video is part of our artifact of the day series, where we take a quick look at one intriguing object from the past. If you’re interested in watching another artifact of the day video, check out the video here.

Credits

Brooke Norton: Series Lead, Co-Producer, Researcher, Scriptwriter

Noor Hanania: Lead Video Editor, Peer Reviewer, Logo Designer

Anya Gruber: Peer Reviewer

Sneh P. Patel: Peer Reviewer

Smiti Nathan: Director, Co-Producer, Support Video Editor, Researcher, Scriptwriter

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