One of the ancient world’s most precious dyes, used in the fabrics of the biblical Tabernacle and the priestly garments, has been identified from a textile uncovered in a cave in the Judean Desert, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Thursday.

The 3,800-year-old textile, which is less than 2 cm. (0.8 inches) in size, was discovered in the “Cave of Skulls” in 2016 during excavations conducted to save heritage finds in the Judean Desert caves from theft, the state-run archaeological body said.

A laboratory analysis on the color of the tiny textile—which was dated to the Middle Bronze Age (1767-1954 BCE)—showed that it was produced from the oak scale insects that the researchers identify with the biblical scarlet worm.

The color “scarlet worm” is mentioned 25 times in the Bible, often alongside blue and purple, which were considered the most precious and prestigious colors in the ancient world.

“In the Bible, the dye extracted from oak scale insects is referred to as “scarlet worm,” said Professor Zohar Amar of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan.

“In ancient times, the dye was produced from the female scale insect, which lives on the kermes oak tree (Quercus coccifera),” explained 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 and 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 that can be produced from them for dyeing textiles, made their use highly prestigious,” Sukenik said.

Despite the wealth of written historical evidence about the widespread use in the ancient world of dyeing with scale insects, until today, very few textiles dyed with kermes insects that predate the Roman period have been found, the IAA said.

The red textile found in the Judean Desert cave is the earliest evidence of woolen textile dyed with kermes.

“Although it is difficult to know how this textile arrived in this desert cave, it is significant evidence of ancient knowledge in dyeing wool fibers using scale insects to achieve the red color as early as the Middle Bronze Age—about 3,800 years ago,” said Dr. Uri Davidovich, an excavation director on behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Sukenik added, “The important find bridges the gap between written sources and the archaeological discoveries, providing evidence that the ancient textile dyeing industry was, already at this stage, sufficiently established for dyeing using animals.”

The research, a joint collaboration among the Israel Antiquities Authority and Bar-Ilan and Hebrew universities, was published this week in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Image - JNS-Dafna Gazit/IAA