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Woad is native to the steppe and desert zones of the Caucasus, Central Asia to eastern Siberia and Western Asia (Hegi), but is now found in southeastern and some parts of Central Europe as well. It has has been cultivated throughout Europe, especially in Western and southern Europe since ancient times.
Until the 19th century woad, the indigo plant (Isatis indigotica), source of the indigo, dyer's knotweed (Polygonum tinctorium) in Japan and Korea and Strobilanthes flaccidofolius in mainland Southeast Asia were the only blue dyes available in Europe and Asia.
The first finds of woad seeds date to the Neolithic and have been found in the French cave of l'Audoste, Bouches du Rhone (France). In the Iron Age settlement of the Heuneburg, Germany, impressions of the seeds have been found on pottery. The Hallstatt burials of Hochdorf and Hohmichele contained textiles dyed with woad.
Caesar tells us (de Bello Gallico) that the Britanni used to dye their bodies with woad (vitrum), which made them look terrible in battle. The Picts got their name ( LatinAlternative meanings: See Latin (disambiguation Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and ma Picti which means painted folk or possibly tattooed folk) from their practice of going into battle naked except for decorations made with woad war paint.In Viking age levels at YorkThis article is about the English city. For other meanings, see York (disambiguation). York is a city in the north of England built at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss. In 1991 the city had a population of 123,126. Its geographic coordinates are, a dye shop with remains of both woad and madderMadder is the common name of the plant genus Rubia ( Rubiaceae). The genus contains about 60 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and sub-shrubs native to the Old World, the best known of which are Common Madder Rubia tinctoria Wild Madder Ru dating from the 10th century have been excavated.
In Medieval times, centres of woad–cultivation lay in Lincolnshire and Somerset in England, Gascogne, Normandy, the Somme, Toulouse and Britanny in France, JülichThis page is a translation of the article in the German language Wikipedia. Sidenote START Julich is a medium-size town in the district of Duren, in the federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, in Germany. Geography Julich is situated in the Rur valley on th, the ErfurtErfurt [ˈɛrfʊrt] is a city in central Germany. It is the capital of the state of Thuringia, a manufacturing centre with a population of 196,500. Erfurt was first mentioned in 742 under the name of "Erphesfurt". It was an important tra area in ThuringiaState Service Flag Civil Flag Statistics Capital: Erfurt Area:16,171 km² Inhabitants:2 392 000 2003 pop. density:148 people/km² Homepage: ISO 3166-2:DE-TH Politics Minister-President: Dieter Althaus ( CDU) Ruling party: CDU Map The Free State of Thuringia in Germany and Piedmont and Tuscany in Italy. The citizens of the five Thuringian woad-towns of Erfurt, Gotha, Tennstedt , Arnstedt and Langensalza had their own charters. In Erfurt, the woad-traders gave the funds for the foundation of the University Erfurt .