Archaeologists have discovered a rare artifact mentioned 25 times in the Old Testament.
A 3,800-year-old piece of cloth dyed with “red worm,” a dye mentioned 25 times in the Bible, was discovered in the “Cave of Skulls” in the Judean Desert in Israel. The Daily Mail writes that the dye is made from insect carcasses and eggs that are ground up and then used to dye clothing.
According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the size of the cloth discovered in the cave was no more than two centimeters and this cover had been hidden in the cave for several thousand years when the scientists discovered it. The scientists examined the piece and found that the red dyed wool threads were intertwined with the undyed linen threads, forming a lattice pattern.
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According to the researchers, the red dye was produced by a scale insect that lives on oak trees. The females and eggs of this species produce carminic acid, which gives the dye its red color. Thousands of years ago, people collected the insects, sprayed them with vinegar and dried them. These were then ground into a powder that was used to dye fabric. The hue is known to range from orange to pink to red and has “historical symbolism and meaning.”
Scientists studied scale insects and found that their colors were based on molecules such as kermesic acid and carminic acid, which made the color more stable and beautiful, making them more prestigious than vegetable dye sources in ancient times.
Red dye is known in Hebrew as shani or tolaat shani, meaning red worm. It also appears in the Old Testament, either alone or in combination with other valuable dyes, including blue and purple hues obtained from sea snails.
The authors note that the deep red color is also mentioned several times in the Stockholm papyrus Exodus, which contains 154 recipes for dyeing gemstones, cleaning pearls, and imitating gold or silver. This manuscript dates to between 200 and 100 BC. Archaeologists have also discovered mentions of red dye derived from kermes in trade documents dating back to 1425 BC; evidence of this is mentioned in cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia.
The amazing ancient fabric discovered by scientists in the Cave of the Skulls is a striped fabric with about 50 threads per centimeter in the weft system and 10 threads per centimeter in the warp. The weft threads are close together, while the warp threads are farther apart. Scientists discovered that dyed red threads are woven between undyed warp threads.
The study authors used a high-performance liquid chromatography analysis method to separate compounds dissolved in a liquid sample. As a result, they were able to identify the components in the mixture. The scientists then compared the results with a database of standards with known chemical components and discovered cermesic acid, which is derived from insects.
Scientists then analyzed the carbon-14 and were able to determine the age of the piece of tissue, dating it back to the Bronze Age, 1767-1954 BC. According to study co-author Dr. Naam Sukenik, he and his colleagues were able to accurately determine the origin and age of the paint using modern analytical methods.
Professor Zohar Amar of Bar-Ilan University explains that the name “red worm” comes from the fact that in ancient times the term “worm” was actually applied to all insects and their stages of development. At the same time, the association of this color with a biblical creature reveals impressive zoological knowledge, given that female scale insects had no legs or wings, to the point that some Greek and Roman naturalists mistook them for plant pellets.
Despite extensive ancient records showing widespread use of scale insect dye in the ancient world, scientists have only discovered a few pieces from the pre-Roman period. The authors of the study hope that their new findings and analysis can fill in gaps in what science knows about the red dye, its production and use in ancient times.
Previously Focus He wrote that a lost piece of a 1,750-year-old Bible translation had been found in the Vatican library.
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.