Israeli archaeologists discovered rare preserved lamp wicks believed to be some 4,000 years old during excavations for a new neighborhood in Yehud, in central Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Sunday.

The wicks, which are among the oldest discovered in the world, are a rare find, the IAA said in a study they published in ATIQOT on Tuesday, because wicks were either burned while in use or have decomposed in the soil, especially in Mediterranean climates.

When they do survive and are discovered in archaeological digs, they cannot be definitively classified as wicks unless they are found in lamps because they are otherwise indistinguishable from scraps of material.

Although wicks were a common product in the ancient world, IAA researchers Dr. Naama Sukenik and Dr. Yonah Maor said in the statement that it was “a unique discovery that we did not expect could ever be found in the moist Mediterranean climate,”........

© The Times of Israel