Fabrics from King David's time offer glimpse of biblical fashion - CNET

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What would have graced the cover of Vogue in ancient Israel?

An extensive collection of fabrics uncovered in the country's southe desert copper mines offers a tangible glimpse. The textiles, excavated by a team from Tel Aviv University, mark the first discovery of materials from the era of Kings David and Solomon some 3,000 years ago, according to Israel's Foreign Ministry.

"No textiles have ever been found at excavation sites like Jerusalem, Megiddo and Hazor, so this provides a unique window into an entire aspect of life from which we've never had physical evidence before," Erez Ben-Yosef, the Tel Aviv University archaeologist who led the excavation in late January and February, said in a statement Wednesday. "We found fragments of textiles that originated from bags, clothing, tents, ropes and cords."

Far from the drab undyed sheep's wool of many a biblical reenactment, the fabrics vary in color, weaving technique and oamentation to present a more complex, runway-compatible picture of the day's fashion. One wool fragment is dyed red and blue, for example, with natural animal hair of different colors adding other rich shades for stylish decorative bands that would have no doubt looked chic skimming a pair of bygone Birkenstocks.