Archaeologists revealed a potentially-Biblical discovery in a cave in the Judean Desert, shedding light on a more than 3,800-year-old practice.
A unique piece of red-dyed textile was uncovered by a team of researchers working at the Nahal Hemar Cave (Cave of Skulls) in the Judean Desert and it was made using a pretty bizarre ingredient, according to a study published online July 13 in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Analysis determined “with a high degree of certainty” that the dye was made from Kermes vermilio, which is derived from an insect that feeds on oak trees.
The dye is extracted by drying out the bodies of the female bug and crushing it into a type of powder, according to the North Carolina Museum of Art. It’s one of the oldest ways of making red cloth. And the fact it survived some 3,800 years is impressive.
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References to kermes as the “scarlet worm” are made some 25 times in the Bible, the Jewish Press reports.
“In ancient times, the dye was produced from the female scale insect, which lives on the kermes oak tree (Quercus coccifera),” Israel Antiquities Authority’s Curator of the Organic Material Collection Dr. Naama Sukenik told the outlet. “Collecting these kermes was done in a very short window of time – one month out of the year, in the summer, after the female laid her eggs but before they hatched— when the amount of dye was greatest.”
Kermes can only be collected for a short period of time and they are very hard to find due to their tiny size (around 3 to 8 millimeters). Only a small amount of dye can be produced, making it quite sought after, he suggested. (RELATED: Researchers Claim They’ve Deciphered An Ancient Tablet That Confirms A Biblical Narrative)
The research sheds light on the overlap between the archaeological and Biblical record.
