A large systematic dye investigation of prehistoric Danish and Norwegian bog textiles was carried out

using high performance liquid chromatography with photo diode array detection. After the selection of

the most suitable protocol for dye extraction and HPLC analysis for this specific group of archaeological

samples, the second part included the characterisation of the dyes detected in the whole series of the

Early Iron Age textiles and the interpretation of the dyeing technology. Natural organic dyes were found

from the three main categories of natural dyes, hence throwing new light on the use of biological dye

sources in Early Iron Age Scandinavia. The results clearly indicate that most Scandinavian peat bog

textiles originally were dyed and that already during the 1st millennium BC, the populations in Scandinavia

were familiar with the dyeing technology.