
6,000-year-old fabric reveals Peruvians were dyeing with indigo before Egyptians - Thevet
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-oldest-indigo-dye-20160915-snap-story.html
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runesoerensen
_> It turns out it is not easy to definitely detect ancient indigo. Indigo
molecules break down over time and can get washed out of fabrics. It takes
extremely sensitive equipment to detect it._

Tell me about it! Speaking as someone who has spent the better part of a
decade wearing, caring, freezing, airing, soaking and meticulously washing
indigo dyed raw denim jeans, I can only empathize with the efforts this
must've taken on 6,000-year-old fabrics :)

Thanks for sharing - Peruvians definitely just earned a point in my book for
pioneering this fine, still-fashionable art.

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dominotw
Makes no difference to textbook writers in the west who want to claim
Egyptians were the first to do everything.

I was reading an article earlier this week from university of chicago claiming
egyptians were the world's first urban planners [1] as if Indus valley didn't
have grids, sanitation systems.

1.[https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2016/06/17/book-
chronicles...](https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2016/06/17/book-chronicles-
rise-urban-planning-ancient-egypt)

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jalayir
Isn't it usually the Greeks who are claimed to have come up with something,
which is then passed down in a long, unbroken chain of Western Civilization to
the present day?

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B1FF_PSUVM
> unbroken chain of Western Civilization

Usually the chain includes the Islamic Middle East ...

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walter_bishop
> Usually the chain includes the Islamic Middle East ...

Until the Islamic world turned its back on Neoplaton thought under the
guidance of theologian Al-Ghazali in the 11th century.

