Indigo dye
AI-drafted · awaiting admin review
Was indigo first used as a dye in India?
Earlier elsewhereTechnology & engineering
Indian claim
Indigo takes its name from the Greek 'indikon' ('from India'); India was the main source of indigo for the Greek, Roman and later European world, and Indian dyers used it for thousands of years.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- Classical writers such as Pliny the Elder named indigo as a product of India.
- Indigofera tinctoria, the main indigo plant of the Old World, was cultivated and processed in India on a large scale for export.
Commonly credited to
The oldest known indigo-dyed cloth was found at Huaca Prieta, Peru, dated to about 6,000 years ago (Science Advances, 2016); indigo was also used in ancient Egypt by about 2400 BCE.
Evidence for the other claim
- Jeffrey Splitstoser's team found indigo in cotton cloth from Huaca Prieta, Peru, about 1,600 years older than Egyptian examples.
- Indigo-producing plants grow in many parts of the world, and dyeing developed in several places.
What historians and scientists say
India gave indigo its name and was its great supplier for millennia, but the oldest known use of indigo dye so far is from Peru.