S22 - Session O1 - Keynote: Colour cultures : Dye plants and animals, a global intangible heritage with a future

Authors: Dominique Cardon *

Colour cultures : Dye plants and animals, a global intangible heritage with a future This lecture will first use case studies selected from the author's long-pursued research into groups of archaeological textiles and field missions in different parts of the world, to demonstrate how deeply rooted in peoples' cultures certain colour-giving plants and animals are. While the link between a plant, the colour some part of it gives, and the effect it produces on a person who uses this colour on one's body, adornments or clothes, has largely been forgotten in modern industrial and post-industrial societies, such link can now be related to the chemical composition and biological activities of many dye plants, insects and marine molluscs. Concurrently, recently gained scientific knowledge on an increasing number of colouring plants, both traditionally used and newly identified, is raising important issues concerning their sustainable production, processing techniques, and prospects for diverse applications. It seems proper to start this symposium with a review of the historical and present contexts of the immensely rich world of natural dyes.