#2nd millenium bce

Oracle Bone, Shang Dynasty, October 8, 2016

Oracle Bone, Shang Dynasty, Reign of Zu Geng, c. 1191-1181 B.C.E. (Shanghai Museum, China) Speakers: Dr. Kristen Chiem and Dr. Beth Harris.

Early evidence of royal purple dyed textile from Timna Valley (Israel)

The samples originated from excavations at the extensive Iron Age copper smelting site of “Slaves’ Hill” (Site 34), which is tightly dated by radiocarbon to the late 11th–early 10th centuries BCE. 

While evidence for the important role of purple dyes in the ancient Mediterranean goes back to the Middle Bronze Age (early 2nd millennium BCE), finds of dyed textiles are extremely rare, and those from Timna are the oldest currently known in the Southern Levant. In conjunction with other observations of the very high quality of the Timna textiles, this provides an exceptional opportunity to address questions related to social stratification and organization of the nomadic society operating the mines (early Edom), the “fashion” of elite in the region during the early Iron Age, trade connections, technological capabilities, and more.

Image by Dafna Gazit, 

Coffin of Nakhtkhnum - Unknown Egyptian Artist, ca. ca. 1802–1640 B.C. Wood, paint, L. 207.5 cm (81 11/16 in); W. 51.8 cm (20 3/8 in); H. 68 cm (26 3/4 in)

The brilliantly painted exterior of the coffin of Khnumnakht, an individual unknown except for his name, displays the multiplicity of texts and decorative panels characteristic of coffin decoration in the late Middle Kingdom. It has at least one feature—the figure of the goddess on the head end—that is rare before the late Middle Kingdom. The figures and hieroglyphs have been drawn by the confident hand of a skilled artist and each hieroglyph has been carefully painted in the prescribed manner of the time and place in which the coffin was made.