Excavations in Khorasan Province, Iran, have revealed an exceptionally well-preserved Parthian silk-dyeing workshop dating to the 1st century CE. The site features a series of interconnected stone vats and drainage channels, with residues of organic dyes like madder and indigo still clinging to the interior walls.
This discovery provides the first direct archaeological evidence of industrial-scale silk processing within the Parthian Empire. Archaeologists also found bundles of raw silk fibers and specialized combs, suggesting that the facility was a major production center for the elite textiles that were traded across the Silk Road to Rome and China.