Alatzomouri Pefka: A Middle Minoan IIB Workshop Making Organic Dyes

One of the most important sites for the early history of dyeing ever found in Minoan Crete was discovered in 2007. A Middle Bronze Age (Middle Minoan IIB) workshop for making natural dyes and using them to color fabrics included several basins carved into the soft limestone bedrock. Excavations uncovered pottery and stone vessels, stone tools, animal bones, and botanical remains among other types of artifacts. Pefka is of great importance for the history of Bronze Age technology as well as for the light it sheds on what was clearly a major Minoan industry. The evidence provides information both for the manufacture of dyes and for the broader issue of the economic foundation for Minoan trade in textiles during the period of the Old Palaces.