Ancient fragments of fabric colored with red dye were found in a desert cave, and they serve as evidence of the oldest known piece of fabric made with insect dye.
They date back about 4,000 years ago and may have represented wealth and status in Middle Bronze Age societies.
The textiles were discovered in 2016 in Israel’s Cave of Skulls, located west of the Dead Sea in the Judaean Desert.
Excavations at the site have yielded over 430 textiles from various time periods. The finds were well-preserved due to the cave’s dry and relatively stable conditions.
Recently, a team of researchers conducted an analysis of a pair of red wool and linen fabrics from the cave.
The fragments of fabric were tiny, measuring no more than 0.6 inches, and dated between 1954 and 1767 B.C.E. The team used new techniques to examine the textiles, like High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography.
They determined that the fabric’s red dye was made from the dried bodies of a species of parasitic scale insect, Kermes vermilio.
The insect is known to burrow into oak trees and feast on their sap. In the ancient world, they were highly valued, as scarlet was one of the most precious and expensive dyes.
“Luxurious red dyes were derived from various species of scale insects, particularly those belonging to the Coccoidea superfamily,” wrote the researchers.
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“This superfamily includes species such as Kermes, cochineal, and lac-insects…all of which were well-known in the ancient world for their ability to produce vibrant red colors.”
The small insects are native to the Mediterranean region. They can produce a red color due to the presence of carminic acid or kermesic acid molecules in their bodies.
According to Na’ama Sukenik, the lead author of the study and curator of the Organic Material Collection at the Israel Antiquities Authority, the dye was produced from the female scale insect.
There was only a short window of time to collect the bugs for dye. They had to be collected during one month in the summer after the female laid her eggs but before they hatched. This was when the most amount of dye could be procured from them.
“The short period in which the Kermes could be collected, the difficulty in finding them due to their small size (between three to eight millimeters) and the 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.”
It is unclear what the textiles were used for or who brought them to the cave. Although these questions have been left unanswered, the discovery still provided a wealth of information on ancient textile dyeing.
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