1500-Year-Old Lamp Wick Shines Light on Jewish Law
A recent reassessment of artifacts discovered in the Negev desert town of Shivta in the 1930s yielded a very rare 1500-year-old flax lamp wick. According to Dr. Naama Sukenik of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the tiny wick is one of only a few in the world. It was preserved for over a millennium and a half in a dry environment inside a bronze copper tube used for lighting a glass Byzantine era lamp.
Analysis of the minute wick revealed it was made of linen fabric derived from flax. Flax was first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent region and is mentioned in the Bible several times, including in Joshua 2:6 about Rahab: But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them in the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof.
Some of the earliest examples of flax garments and textiles were discovered in the Cave of Letters at Nahal Hever, near Qumran. During the Bar Kochba revolt rebels hid in the cave with their most valued possessions: rugs, tunics, thread, a child’s shirt. None of which were made of mixed fibers, revealing that the weavers followed the Jewish law in Leviticus 19:19.
You can read more about the ancient flax lamp wick in this article by The Times of Israel.
Photo credit: Clara Amit for IAA.