BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Earliest Example of “Biblical Scarlet” Discovered

Rare dyed textile uncovered near Masada

A fragment of the 3,800-year-old textile, dyed with Kermes vermilio: biblical scarlet. Courtesy Dafna Gazit, IAA.

Translated into English as “scarlet,” biblical Tola‛at Hashani was one of three colors that decorated the tabernacle during Israel’s desert wanderings (Exodus 26:1). Obtained from a certain species of scale insect, the dye that produced the reddish color, also known as kermes, was poorly attested before the Roman period. Now, Israeli archaeologists have found evidence the dye was used to color a 3,800-year-old piece of woolen textile discovered in a cave near Masada.

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The Scarlet Worm

According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the small textile, which is less than 1 inch in size, was recovered from the Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert, not far from Masada. Using high-performance liquid chromatography, a team of Israeli researchers identified the substance used to color the textile as kermes, one of the most luxurious dyes in the ancient world. The dye is named after the insect from which it is made, Kermes vermilio, one of many species of scale insects. Carbon-14 testing dated the woolen textile to 1954–1767 BCE, during the Middle Bronze Age, making it the oldest example of kermes ever discovered. The researchers published their findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Excavation in the Cave of Skulls. Courtesy Yoli Schwartz, IAA.

Kermes, alongside royal blue (tekhelet) and purple (argaman), was one of the three dyes used to color the tabernacle (Exodus 26:1) and is mentioned a total of 25 times throughout the Hebrew Bible, often in association with luxury. Outside of the Bible, the reddish dye is mentioned in numerous documents, including cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia that date back to the mid-second millennium BCE.

The Kermes vermilio on the oak tree. Courtesy Suzanna Tamar Dekel.

“In ancient times, the dye was produced from the female scale insect, which lives on the kermes oak tree,” explained Naʼama Sukenik, curator of the IAA’s Organic Material Collection. “The short period in which the kermes could be collected, the difficulty in finding them due to their small size, and their camouflage colors, 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.”

Interestingly, however, the exact species of scale insect used to produce the dye is not native to the Levant but rather comes from the central and western Mediterranean. “The rare textile is a testament to broad international commercial networks functioning already at this time and indicates the presence of an elite society,” said Sukenik. “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.”

According to Uri Davidovich, one of the directors of the excavation that uncovered the textile, “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.”

Related reading in Bible History Daily:

The Royal Purple of David and Solomon

Ancient Fabric Dyed Biblical Blue?

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:

Archaeological Views: The Great Tekhelet Debate—Blue or Purple?

The Search for Biblical Blue