In 2016, they found in the judean desert, Israel, a small textile that was dyed using a tiny insect mentioned in ancient sources.
Based on the discovery, a group of scientists from the Hebrew University, the Bar-Ilan University and the Israel Antiquities Authority carried out a study, the results of which were published this week in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
The cloth fragment is less than 2 centimeters wide, and was found in the so-called “Cave of Skulls” in the Tze'elim stream near Masada.
Given the dark red of the fabric, the researchers used carbon dating, and determined that it was made in the Middle Bronze Age (20th-18th centuries BC) and used high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), a technique to identify ingredients from mixed solutions, to trace the origin of the dye to a scale insect called Kermes vermilio.
It is an insect from the Mediterranean region, which appears in the Bible as "scarlet worm", and is one of the most precious colors in the ancient world. In the biblical text the Israelis are commanded to use the scarlet worm to dye the fabrics of the Tabernacle and the priestly vestments.