How secrets of ancient Egyptian child’s stripy sock were unravelled using new imaging technology

The 1,800-year-old knitted sock, found in a rubbish dump from the Roman era in Egypt, was examined using a new, less destructive technique that yielded details of how it was dyed

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The sock belonged to a child in Roman-era ancient Egypt and showed clever use of dyes. Photo: courtesy British Museum

Published: 10:33am, 9 Oct 2018Updated: 11:55am, 9 Oct 2018

The ancient Egyptians famously gave us paper and the pyramids, but were also early adopters of the stripy sock.

Scientists at the British Museum have developed pioneering imaging technology to discover how enterprising Egyptians used dyes on a child’s sock, recovered from a rubbish dump in ancient Antinopolis in Roman Egypt, and dating from AD300.

New multispectral imaging can establish which dyes were used – madder (red), woad (blue) and weld (yellow) – but also how people of the period used double and sequential dyeing and weaving, and twisting fibres to create myriad colours.

Crucially, the imaging is non-invasive. Previously, studying ancient textiles using radiocarbon dating and dye analysis required physical samples to be taken.

Joanne Dyer from the British Museum was part of the team that developed the imaging technology.

Dr Joanne Dyer, a scientist in the museum’s department of scientific research who developed the approach, said: “It was exciting to find that the different coloured stripes found on the child’s sock were created using a combination of just three natural dyes.”