A fragment of the rare 3,800-year-old textile, dyed with the Kermes vermilio. (Photo Dafna Gazit Israel Antiquities Authority.)
An archaeological project led by Dr. Naama Sukenik (Israel Antiquities Authority), Prof. Zohar Amar, and Prof. David Iluz (Bar-Ilan University), funded by the Israel Science Foundation, identified a 3,800-year-old bright red textile fragment dyed with kermes, a biblical color. The textile was found in the Judean Desert Caves. The findings were published this week in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
The textile was produced from the oak scale insects, which the researchers identify with the biblical “Tola‛at Hashani” (scarlet worm).
The scarlet-red color, mentioned in the Bible alongside royal blue (Tekhelet) and purple (Argaman), is considered one of the ancient world’s most precious and expensive dyes, which were used — according to the biblical commandment — to dye the fabrics of the Tabernacle and the priestly garments . This is the earliest evidence of textile dyed with kermes, which researchers identify with the “scarlet worm” in the source texts.
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The color “scarlet worm” is mentioned 25 times in the Bible, often alongside blue (Tekhelet) and purple (Argaman), which are considered the most precious and prestigious colors in the ancient world. It is mentioned in the context of luxurious clothing, in the use of Tabernacle textiles, and in other cultic contexts.
As part of an extensive project to identify dyes in archaeological textiles, led by Dr. Naama Sukenik from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Prof. Zohar Amar and Prof. David Iluz from Bar-Ilan University, and supported by the Israel Science Foundation, a piece of textile with a bright red shade produced by kermes was discovered. The research results were published this week in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
The rare textile, which is less than 2 cm in size, was discovered in 2016 in the “Cave of Skulls” during excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Hebrew University as part of a broad Heritage Project to save heritage finds in the Judean Desert caves from antiquities theft. The excavation, led by Dr. Eitan Klein, Dr. Uri Davidovich, Roi Porat and Amir Ganor, uncovered a tiny red textile, which was sent for further research along with dozens of other textiles found in the cave.
Despite its small size, the textile’s color caught the researchers’ attention. Using analytical equipment, they identified the origin of the dye, finding that oak-scale insects produced the red dye used for the woolen weft threads while the warp threads, made of linen, remained uncolored. The textile was dated to the Middle Bronze Age (1767-1954 BCE) using carbon-14 analysis.
“In ancient times, the dye was produced from the female scale insect, which lives on the kermes oak tree (Quercus coccifera),” explains Dr. Naʼama Sukenik, Curator of the Organic Material Collection at the Israel Antiquities Authority. “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. The short period in which the kermes could be collected, the difficulty in finding them due to their small size (between 3–8 mm), and their camouflage colors, that make it difficult to locate them, as well as the small amount of dye that can be produced from them — and on the other hand, the beautiful red hue (scarlet) that can be produced from them for dyeing textiles, made their use highly prestigious.”
According to Dr. Sukenik, “Identifying the dye in the ancient textile was achieved using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), a device commonly employed in biology and chemistry laboratories to separate and identify substances in minute quantities, and it also serves archaeology. This advanced analytical method enabled us to pinpoint the dye’s origin down to the exact species of scale insect. Thus, we can determine with high probability that in ancient times, the textile was dyed using a species of Kermes vermilio, which produces kermesic acid, imparting the distinctive red hue.”
Despite the wealth of written historical evidence about the widespread use of dyeing with scale insects in the ancient world, until today, very few textiles dyed with kermes insects that predate the Roman period have been found worldwide.
