Dye

Dyes have been used for thousands of years. Cave paintings from the Upper Palaeolithic period (35,000 to 10,000 years ago) show that people already knew how to reproduce colours. But whereas cave artists used mainly colors derived from plants for their  clothes.

The first dyes were probably made several thousand years ago. People discovered a number of plants that would give bright-coloured dyes when they were boiled in water. Woad gives blues and purples; saffron and safflower give yellws; madder, which has been grown for oveer 2,000 years, makes red.

Other sources of dye include the cochineal beetle, a type of insect that produces a red colouring. This is one of the most ancient dyes, and can still be who lived in the eastern Mediterranean around 1500 BC, used a purple color from molluscs called Murex. This costly dye was also prized by the Romans, who used it for their emperors’ garments.