Archaeologists unearth 3,800-year-old ‘scarlet worm’ piece of fabric mentioned in the Bible in Israel’s ‘Cave of Skulls’

ARCHAEOLOGISTS person uncovered a 3,800-year-old portion of cloth dyed successful a vivid scarlet hue heavy wrong Israel’s Judean Desert.

Found successful the Cave of Skulls, this tiny textile fragment is believed to person been coloured utilizing dye from oak standard insects, a substance thought to beryllium the “scarlet worm” referenced successful the Bible.

The find gives unprecedented insights into past textile accumulation and its links to priestly garments described successful biblical texts.

The squad of Israeli researchers down the bonzer find included experts from the Israel Antiques Authority, Bar-Ilan University, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Their findings, precocious published successful the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, item the humanities and taste value of the tiny artefact, which measures little than 2 centimetres successful size.

Naama Sukenik, curator of the Organic Material Collection astatine the Israel Antiquities Authority, explained the process down the instauration of the fabric’s scarlet color.

“In past times, the dye was produced from pistillate standard insects, which unrecorded connected kermes oak trees,” she said.

“Collecting these insects was a highly specialised process, done successful a abbreviated model of clip — 1 period each summer — erstwhile the magnitude of dye was astatine its peak.”

This challenging process, combined with the rarity of the dye-producing insects, made scarlet a prestigious and invaluable colour successful past times.

The “scarlet worm” is mentioned 25 times successful biblical scripture, often alongside different prised colours similar bluish (tekhelet) and purple (argaman), which were likewise associated with wealthiness and status.

Professor Zohar Amar of Bar-Ilan University highlighted the precocious cognition of earthy dyeing reflected successful these past texts.

“The biblical notation to a colour derived from a surviving carnal shows awesome zoological understanding.

Female standard insects are tiny, immobile, and easy mistaken for works material.

In fact, immoderate past Greek and Roman naturalists thought they were works granules.”

The researchers utilized precocious techniques, specified arsenic High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), to place the circumstantial taxon of insect utilized successful the dye.

Sukenik confirmed: “We tin accidental with precocious certainty that this textile was dyed utilizing Kermes vermilio, a taxon of standard insect that produces kermesic acid, which gives the cloth its distinctive reddish hue.”

Interestingly, Kermes vermilio is not autochthonal to Israel, but is recovered successful different Mediterranean regions, indicating long-distance commercialized networks that apt existed during the Middle Bronze Age.

Uri Davidovich from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem noted, “This fabric, recovered successful a godforsaken cave, speaks to the blase cognition of wool dyeing successful the past world.

It besides hints astatine extended planetary commercialized that connected antithetic regions arsenic aboriginal arsenic 3,800 years ago.”

The textile provides tangible grounds of a vibrant textile manufacture and hints astatine an elite nine with entree to specified prestigious materials.

As Sukenik noted: “This uncommon find offers a span betwixt past written sources and archaeological evidence, revealing the complexities of past commerce and craftsmanship.”

The discovery, made arsenic portion of a broader effort to support Judean Desert artefacts from antiquities theft, underscores the value of continued exploration successful these historical caves.