Dyes of late Bronze Age textile clothes and accessories from the Yanghai archaeological site, Turfan, China: Determination of the fibers, color analysis and dating

A number of well-preserved garments from the ancient cemetery of Yanghai located in the Turfan Depression have been excavated from zone I and III of the burial ground of Yanghai and analyzed in this study. All textiles investigated in this study consist of keratinic fibers from animals. For selected samples an unambiguous dating has been performed by the radiocarbon method. The oldest textile object (wool trousers) from the tomb M157 is dated to 1261-1041 cal. BC with a 95% confidence and for several textile objects from the tomb M21 calendar ages are likely between 1074 and 926 cal. BC. Thus, they are among the oldest textile finds from the Xinjiang Region. The youngest analyzed textile piece from the tomb M18 is dated to 398-202 cal. BC with ∼95% confidence. Analyses of the fibers revealed the use of the colorants alizarin, purpurin, rubiadin, quinizarin, indigo, and indirubin. Thus, for the creation of red shaded textiles most likely locally grown madder has been used, whereas for the production of blue shaded textiles indigo might have been to be imported. This represents one of the oldest scientifically proved evidence for utilization of madder and indigo for textile dyeing in the Xinjiang Region.