Kermes is a red dye derived from the dried bodies of the females of a scale insect in the genus Kermes, primarily Kermes vermilio. The Kermes insects are native to the Mediterranean region and are parasites living on the sap of the host plant, the Kermes oak (Quercus coccifera) and the Palestine oak (Quercus calliprinos). These insects were used as a red dye since antiquity by the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Indians, Greeks, Romans, and Iranians. The dye also served a number of ritual and practical purposes in the Hebrew Bible. The kermes dye is a rich red, a crimson. It has good colour fastness in silk and wool. It was much esteemed in the medieval era for dyeing silk and wool, particularly scarlet cloth. Following the Columbian exchange it was superseded by the similar, and more easily obtained, cochineal.
Etymology Kermes ultimately derives from the Sanskrit word कृमिज or kṛmija meaning "worm-made". This was adopted into Persian and later Arabic as قرمز qermez. The modern English word kermes was borrowed from the French term kermès.
History Kermes dye is of ancient origin; jars of kermes have been found in a Neolithic cave-burial at Adaouste, northeast of Aix-en-Provence. The early Egyptians made use of the kermes dye. In the Middle Ages, rich crimson and scarlet silks dyed with kermes in the new silk-weaving centers of Italy and Sicily exceeded the legendary Tyrian purple "in status and desirability". The dyestuff was called "grain" (grana) in all Western European languages because the desiccated eggs resembled fine grains of wheat (or sand), and they were mistaken for plants; so textiles dyed with kermes were described as dyed in the grain. Woollens were frequently dyed blue with woad before spinning and weaving, and then piece-dyed in kermes, producing a wide range colours from blacks and grays through browns, murreys, purples, and sanguines. One source dated to the 12th-century notes that kermes dye adheres best to animal-based fibers (e.g. wool, silk, etc.), rather than to plant-based fibers (e.g. cotton, linen, etc.). By the 14th and early 15th century, brilliant full grain pure kermes scarlet was "by far the most esteemed, most regal" colour for luxury woollen textiles in the Low Countries, England, France, Spain and Italy. Following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Mexican cochineal, which produced a stronger dye and could thus be used in smaller quantities, replaced kermes dyes in general use in Europe. In 2016, an archaeological excavation in the "Cave of Skulls" in the Judaean Desert uncovered a woven fabric that potentially used Kermes scarlet dye. Dated to the Middle Bronze Age, it is the earliest example found in Israel. In 2024, researchers, joined by Hebrew University, Bar-Ilan University, and the Israel Antiquities Authority published a paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science that this artifact was confirmed to be colored by the dye from the Kermes vermilio.
In culture
The biblical scarlet (tolaʻat šanī) In the Bible, scarlet was one of three principal pigments used in the Temple curtain, appurtenances, and sacred vestments. In some cases scarlet wool threads were woven together with threads of other colors; elsewhere a purely scarlet fabric was required. In addition, scarlet-dyed yarn was thrown as an adjunct into the burning ashes of the Red heifer, and was used as an adjunct in the purification ritual of lepers who had been healed. The English word for the biblical "scarlet" (Exodus 25:4, etc.) is a literal translation from the Septuagint (Koine Greek: κόκκινον = kókkinon, meaning "scarlet"). The original Hebrew text (tola'at shani) translates to "scarlet worm", indicating that the scarlet color is derived from an insect, a requirement which was formalized in the Jerusalem Talmud (Kila'im 9:1 [32a]). This insect, generally mistaken for a plant, was known in the Roman world as grani coccum = "the grain of scarlet." While production of the crimson or scarlet dye from the kermes scale insect had, traditionally, been an art preserved with medieval dyers, the practice seemed to have been lost for many centuries. Late exponents of Jewish law were baffled by the Tosefta's ruling that tola'at shani (scarlet colored ritual wool) may only be made from the tola'at (worm-like aphid) which lives in the mountainous regions. The dye's crimson or scarlet-orange tinge is alluded to in an early rabbinic source, Pesikta Rabbati, where tola'at shani is said to be "neither red, nor green," but of an intermediate color. Biblical exegete Saadia Gaon (882–942) wrote that the scarlet colored fabric was qirmiz (Arabic: قرمز), derived from the kermes insect and which produced a color ranging from Venetian scarlet to crimson. According to Saadia, the dye was applied to silk yarns. A rare 10th-century Arabic document was retrieved by Zohar Amar, from which he was able to reproduce the dye extract, using antique methods.
Hebrew Bible In the Hebrew Bible, scarlet was considered a striking and lively color, and was used in priestly garments and other ritual items, but could also symbolize sin.
Judaism Scarlet was one of the chief colors used to decorate the bridal chamber in Jewish weddings, in which large colored sheets of scarlet overlaid with gold were hung. As part of the Yom Kippur Temple service, a scarlet thread was tied to the horns of the scapegoat, before it was sent to the desert.
Dye production
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