Subscribe to Print Edition | Fri., July 04, 2008 Tamuz 1, 5768 | | Israel Time: 05:49 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Car Rental Books Peres Conference Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Last update - 23:21 21/04/2008 How Joseph beat the bug By Ran Shapira Tags: Joseph, Egypt The remains of a burnt beetle found in a grain of wheat about 3,500 years old provided a group of researchers from Bar-Ilan University with a key to a question the Bible left without a definite answer: How did Joseph the Dreamer, who became the viceroy to the king of Egypt, succeed in preserving the grain during the seven lean years and prevent Egypt's population from starving? According to the description in the book of Genesis, during the seven years of plenty in Egypt, Joseph had all the wheat collected in silos. "And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until they left off numbering; for it was without number" (Genesis 41, 48-49). The stores of wheat and barley served the inhabitants of Egypt during the period of drought and hunger that followed. But how did Joseph and the people of Egypt succeed in preventing pests from destroying the inventory they had accumulated, without any means of pest control and without being able to completely seal the storehouses? In order to answer that question, Prof. Mordechai Kislev, Dr. Orit Simhoni and Dr. Yoel Melamed from the laboratory for archaeological botany in the Life Sciences department of BIU used the burnt corpse of the beetle from the grain of wheat. Advertisement The beetle belongs to the Rhyzopertha dominica species, also known as the Lesser Grain Borer, one of three insects that are among the most important storehouse pests. These insects eat grain, but rather than doing so in the field, they prefer to wait until humans harvest the wheat or barley and store it in a silo. The lesser grain borer can cause a tremendous amount of damage. Each female lays between 300 and 500 eggs a month. In other words, one female can give birth to thousands of offspring in one year. The larvae of the grain borer eat wheat or barley. The pest can finish off a granary within a very short time. Fortunately, during the period when Joseph came to power in Egypt, the lesser grain borer was only beginning its migration westward. This insect originated in East Asia, in what is now India. It belongs to a family of insects whose larvae bore into trees. The larvae of the grain borer changed their taste several thousand years ago, when they began migrating westward, and since then they have preferred wheat and barley. The beetle studied by Dr. Simhoni and her partners was found in one grain of wheat among several tens of thousands that were discovered in a dig at Tel Beit She'an, conducted by Prof. Amihai Mazar of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. That granary was dated to the Middle Bronze Age II B, about the time when Joseph was in Egypt. Various tests indicated that the beetle from Tel Beit She'an is among the most ancient ever found in the Land of Israel. So far, excavations have revealed only one other beetle from an earlier period. In other words, during that period the lesser grain borer was just beginning to spread in the Middle East. Although their field of expertise is botany, the three researchers were familiar with granary pests from their previous study of grains found in Tel Hadar, on the shore of Lake Kinneret, north of Ein Gev. In the grain gathered at Tel Hadar they found a large number of such pests. When they examined the vestiges of the plants in the granary at Tel Beit She'an, the three researchers came to the conclusion that the wheat had been harvested in the Gilead region. The conclusion reminded Prof. Kislev of the caravan of Ishmaelites that came from the Gilead, whose members bought Joseph from his brothers and took him with them to Egypt (Genesis 36, 25-28). Joseph, thanks to his talent as an interpreter of dreams and his cleverness, quickly attained the rank of viceroy to the king and was appointed to run the kingdom's food storehouses. His success at the job was based not only on his talent for planning and his ability to see ahead, but also from the manner in which the pests spread. The lesser grain borer was just starting its career in Egypt when Joseph arrived there. Because of its phenomenal reproductive capacity, storing one batch of grain containing a small population of the grain borer was enough to bring about the destruction of the entire granary and to threaten an entire city with starvation. Kislev, Simhoni and Melamed believe that Joseph was aware of this and therefore - according to the biblical description - he isolated the grain of each city in its own jurisdiction and prevented the transfer of batches of grain from one community to another. In their opinion, that is the meaning of the verse: "and [he] laid up the food in the cities; the food of the field, which was round about every city." In spite of the lack of chemical means of pest control, they add, it is also possible that those living in ancient Egypt were familiar with a simpler means of pest control. They learned this from an explanation of the story by Rashi, an 11th century biblical commentator. "And people put amongst the grain some of the earth of the place, and this prevents it from decaying," wrote Rashi. According to the interpretation of the three researchers, Rashi was referring to a method by which fine sand is added to the grain. The grains of sand scratch the hard covering that surrounds the body of the beetle, and make it dry up and die. This method is still used today by various African tribes, and we can assume that it was sufficiently effective to exterminate a pest that had just arrived in the region, like the lesser grain borer. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Against his release Mother of Kuntar victim appeals to President Peres against his release. Gloom and doom How many missiles will be fired from Iran, Syria, Lebanon in the next war?   1.   For archeologists, the Bible is evidence of ancient worlds 03:31  |  AV 22/04/08   2.   You already ran this story once 06:35  |  Rowan 22/04/08   3.   Ash and pest control 05:42  |  Kristen Clark 04/07/08

Read & React Shot and bleeding, Jerusalem terrorist kept going to kill baby's mother Responses: 208 ANALYSIS / Terrorist or petty criminal run amok? Responses: 144 Ari Shavit: Strike on Iran is good for Israel and U.S. in long run Responses: 115 Mazuz: Law permits demolition of terrorists' homes Responses: 151 Obama enlists Jewish lawmakers in outreach effort Responses: 82 Rosner's Domain On Israel-Diaspora relations, Israelis are quite clueless Back to Vietnam Poll: Do you believe Israel might attack Iran? Why did the US go to war in Iraq? (WTR) Young adult Jews prefer to marry Jews More Headlines 03:43 Mazuz: Demolition of terrorists' homes is permitted by law 03:44 Police fear wave of violence against Arabs in wake of Jerusalem terror attack 21:20 Olmert: Direct Israel-Syria peace talks needed 'very soon' 20:16 Mother of Kuntar victim: This monster will be a Lebanon hero 05:37 Peres: There is no chance of peace with Palestinians 04:12 Steven Spielberg donates $1M to Pennsylvania Jewish history museum 04:17 On Israel-Diaspora relations, Israelis are quite clueless 05:09 Palestinian PM proposes detailed Fatah-Hamas reconciliation deal 04:09 How to save gasoline and work in comfort 21:49 Source: Hezbollah swap to take place next week 19:13 Qassam hits Negev, sixth since start of Gaza truce 22:00 Actor Hanan Goldblatt convicted of rape, sexual assault 20:48 For first time, Israeli rabbi to attend Saudi-sponsored interfaith meet 21:12 Ramat Gan police chase, arrest 12 illegal Palestinian workers Previous Editions Select Day 03 jul 02 jul 01 jul 30 jun 29 jun 27 jun 26 jun 25 jun 24 jun 23 jun 22 jun 20 jun

Special Offers Advertisement Dan Hotels Israel Live the Legend & experience an Unforgettable Summer Vacation Holyland Park Jerusalem Apartment Tower World Class Luxury In the heart of Tel-Aviv The Meier on Rothschild tower Your vacation starts here Israel Travel Center Guaranteed Lowest Rates Hebrew Summer courses From $39.95 Pardes Institute Summer Sessions http://www.pardes.org.il/ Fattal Hotel Chain Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel. ISRAEL BONDS Build Israel Israel bonds - a multi-purpose way to celebrate Israel's 60th Eldan Rent a Car Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations Junkyard Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt

Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |

Real Estate in Israel | Travel to Israel with Haaretz | Hotels Israel | Restaurants Israel | Tourist attractions Israel | Shops Israel

birthright Israel | Search engine marketing

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.

© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved