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Color has fascinated humankind for eons, and we have tried to wield the power of color in our own hands for almost as long. For tens of thousands of years, the colors of jewels, fabrics, and plants have dictated our ideas of health, wealth, and everything in between. Eventually, we learned how to extract the colorful essence of the natural world, and redirect it into our own sewn and woven creations using dyes. Today, it's possible to replicate just about every color perceptible to the human eye, but where did the deep purples and vibrant crimsons of the past come from?
Read on to learn about the natural origins of the dyes of the ancient world.
The first cave paintings found 17,000 years ago used clays and pigments ranging from black to red and yellow, as we attempted to document our surroundings for the first time.
Our control of color has come a long way since then, as we go around wearing brightly colored clothing with brightly colored hair in brightly colored cars.
Our ancient ancestors paved the way for the vibrantly dyed world we find ourselves in today. The earliest evidence of textile dyeing found thus far comes from the Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, during the 3rd century BCE. Those dyes were simple reds and browns, but as time went on, more and more colors were unlocked from the natural world.
Red was one of the earliest and most common colors used in the ancient world. Many clays, roots, and other natural materials easily produce colorfast red hues.
Ocher is possibly the first material ever used as a dye. This reddish clay can be found all over the world, and gets its color from the mixture of iron and hematite.
Cochineals are small, scaly insects native to modern-day Armenia that were highly prized from ancient times and through the Middle Ages for the bright, dazzling crimson dye they produced. They were at one point the most sought-after insect in all of Europe and the Near East, and the effects of this high demand can still be seen in the insect's dwindling populations today.
Madder was a much less expensive and more common source of red. The roots of the madder plant have been used since at least the 3rd century BCE to dye textiles in India and beyond.
Another prized and precious dye that was reserved almost exclusively for nobility was kermes, a crimson dye derived from kermes insects that could be found on trees across the Mediterranean region. While there is evidence suggesting that kermes was used sparingly in ancient times, it was used extensively by the Church during the Middle Ages in the production of holy vestments and curtains.
Blue has been a commonly used and adored color across the world since antiquity. Almost all of the original sources of blue came from the same genus of plant: Indigofera.
The plant known as "true indigo" is native to the Indian subcontinent, where it was produced en masse and traded with great ease across Europe and the Near East.
Chinese indigo, referred to as Japanese indigo on the island of Japan, is a plant belonging to the buckwheat family that has been used for blue dye since at least the the beginning of the Zhou dynasty in 1045 BCE.
In the pre-Columbian Americas, indigo was mostly derived from the Mayo indigo plant, also known as anil. Anil was used extensively in dyeing processes across ancient Mesoamerica.
Before the arrival of true indigo via trade routes with India, Europe found its blue in the dried and crushed leaves of the woad plant.
Purple has long been considered a color of luxury and royalty, and for good reason. To produce a strong, vibrant, and colorfast purple dye proved to be no easy task for our ancient ancestors.
The most expensive and sought-after dye in history was Tyrian purple, discovered by the Phoenicians around 1200 BCE inside tiny murex snail shells. Murex snails were so tiny that it took over 10,000 snails to produce just one gram of purple dye. In the late Roman Empire, its production and sale was so strictly controlled that only the emperor himself could wear Tyrian purple.
Mulberries have been found across the Iberian Peninsula of Europe for time immemorial, and have proven a far cheaper, although far less vibrant, option for purple dye.
In North America, the forest lichen known as Lobaria oregana is abundant in the Pacific Northwest and can often produce a soft purple pigment than can be used as a dye.
Green, despite being such a prominent color in our natural landscape, was notoriously hard to find in natural pigments of the past. Most greens were made by mixing natural blue and yellow dyes.
One of the most famous shades of green in the Middle Ages was Lincoln green, named after the town where it was first produced. This deep and sturdy green was made by overdyeing wool with woad blue and weld yellow, and was made famous for being the color of choice of the famous folk hero Robin Hood.
What today might seem like nothing more than an obnoxious weed that bites at one's heels, in fact actually has a number of uses. Not only can stinging nettle be eaten, but it can also be steeped and boiled to produce a light green dye.
Pale greens were also once created by boiling yellow fabrics in iron bowls and cauldrons, causing the iron to react with the yellow dye in order to change the color into a soft green.
Yellow has caused the dyers of the past far less trouble than purple or green. Abundant and easily sourced pigments can be found all around the world.
Red saffron is famous for being the most expensive spice in the world, but a simple extraction process can also make this flowering plant useful as a vibrant yellow dye.
Turmeric, the miracle root in the ginger family that is used extensively throughout India, has long been used as a dye for traditional sari robes.
Mignonette, or weld, is abundant all across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Its roots were one of the primary sources of cheap yellow dye in Europe until synthetic substitutes were invented in the 20th century.
Tribespeople in pre-Columbian North America often used the rinds of butternut tree acorns to dye their fabrics and clothing.
Browns are common across the globe, but finding one that will adhere is a bit tougher. There have, however, been at least a few natural materials that produce strong, colorfast shades of earthy brown.
The mazari palm, native to India, is to thank for all of our khaki pants. The sturdy dye that is a staple of so many school and military uniforms is a byproduct of this plant's roots.
Cutch, or Catechu, is extracted from the wood of acacia trees and has been used since antiquity as a brown dye.
Sources: (United States Forest Service) (History) (Marasim)
See also: How colors affect our mood and emotions
The most dazzling natural dyes of the ancient world
How our ancestors extracted the vibrant colors of the earth
LIFESTYLE Colors
Color has fascinated humankind for eons, and we have tried to wield the power of color in our own hands for almost as long. For tens of thousands of years, the colors of jewels, fabrics, and plants have dictated our ideas of health, wealth, and everything in between. Eventually, we learned how to extract the colorful essence of the natural world, and redirect it into our own sewn and woven creations using dyes. Today, it's possible to replicate just about every color perceptible to the human eye, but where did the deep purples and vibrant crimsons of the past come from?
Read on to learn about the natural origins of the dyes of the ancient world.