Red-Stained Human Bones from Qumran

Examination of red-stained human bones, excavated in the cemetery of the Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, showed that the pigmentation was due to alizarin. Its characteristic anatomical location on the extremities and in the medullary cavities was consistent with the location of intravital staining due to a diet containing madder root.
The ingestion of madder root, whose main dye component is alizarin, was apparently motivated by a belief that it had magic properties. Madder is still used for this purpose by Arabs in the Middle East, indicating a cultural pattern retained over a period of twenty centuries.