MINDING THE GAP: A METHODOLOGICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL REASSESSMENT OF EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN PURPLE‐DYE PRODUCTION IN THE BRONZE AND IRON AGES

Abstract

Summary Purple dye was an iconic status symbol in the ancient Mediterranean, yet tracing the expansion and shift of production from the Aegean to the Levant encounters substantial methodological difficulties. Using Tel Shiqmona – a unique industrial centre with a continuous Iron Age sequence – as an archaeological benchmark, this study defines detailed and granular criteria for identifying production. Applying these criteria reveals a 300‐year ‘gap’ ( c .950–650 BC), when Shiqmona remains the sole site with significant production evidence. This paper argues the gap represents a consolidation: a shift from dispersed crafts into centralized, state‐controlled production, first attested at Shiqmona in the ninth century BC. By providing a chronologically sensitive database for the Levant, this study lays foundations for examining broader Mediterranean‐wide trajectories. The centralized and specialized production attested at Shiqmona offers a plausible template for understanding the industry’s seventh century BC resurgence in the Levant, as the wider adoption of the ‘Shiqmona model’ under Neo‐Assyrian hegemony.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 2026 · DOI ↗