In this article, we focus on the analysis of dyed textile fragments uncovered at an early Iron Age (11th-10th centuries BCE) copper smelting site during new excavations in the Timna Valley conducted by the Central Timna Valley (CTV) Project, as well as those found by the Arabah Expedition at the Hathor Temple (Site 200), dated to the Late Bronze/early Iron Ages (13th-11th centuries BCE). Analysis by HPLC-DAD identified two organic dyestuffs, Rubia tinctorum L. and indigotin, from a plant source (probably Isatis tinctoria L.). They are among the earliest plants known in the dyeing craft and cultivated primarily for this purpose. This study provides the earliest evidence of textiles dyed utilizing a chemical dyeing process based on an industrial dyeing plant from the Levant. Moreover, our results shed new light on the society operating the copper mines at the time, suggesting the existence of an elite that was interested in these high quality textiles and invested efforts in procuring them by long-distance trade.

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Flax (Linum usitatissimum, 2n ¼ 30) is considered as the first fiber and oil crop of Neolithic Near Eastern agriculture and is often mentioned as one of the Near Eastern Neolithic "founder crops" assemblage. Wild flax fibers were recovered from a 30,000-year-old Upper Paleolithic site in Georgia, suggesting that the utilization of wild flax by Old World hunterÀgatherer societies pre-dates the Neolithic agricultural revolution. We examined the potential of a wild flax species (L. pubescens, 2n ¼ 18), an abundant element in open plant formations in Israel, as a source of fibers. Whole plants were pulled by hand in two sites in the eastern Galilee, Israel, during May 2006 and May 2007. The roots, stems and inflorescences of the collected plants were separated, dried and weighed. Fibers were extracted by retting and hammering the stems, dried, weighed and yarn was spun. Because Linum pubescens is not the wild progenitor of domesticated flax but rather a distantly related wild relative, the results of our experimental flax harvest are discussed in the context of both Levantine hunterÀgatherers' subsistence and the Neolithic recruitment of species as potential candidates for domestication.

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