500-Year-Old Bowls Show How Aztec Women Made and Colored Textiles

Small clay bowls used centuries ago by Aztec women to spin cotton also held a secret ingredient for coloring textiles, new research shows.

Scientists studying artifacts from a Late Postclassic site near Xochimilco, in the Basin of Mexico, found traces of a red dye called cochineal inside the bowls.

The discovery suggests these vessels served […] ...