2016/09/02 by Jeffrey Splitstoser, Tom D. Dillehay, Jan Wouters +1 · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies #Latin American history and culture
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/sciadv.1501623
openalex publication_date 2016/09/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Archaeological research has identified the use of cultivated cotton (Gossypium barbadense) in the ancient Andes dating back to at least 7800 years ago. Because of unusual circumstances of preservation, 6000-year-old cotton fabrics from the Preceramic site of Huaca Prieta on the north coast of Peru retained traces of a blue pigment that was analyzed and positively identified as an indigoid dye (indigotin), making it the earliest known use of indigo in the world, derived most likely from Indigofera spp. native to South America. This predates by ~1500 years the earliest reported use of indigo in the Old World, from Fifth Dynasty Egypt [ca. 4400 BP (before present)]. Indigo is one of the most valued and most globally widespread dyes of antiquity and of the present era (it being the blue of blue jeans).