Your Bit of Religious Archeology Geek of the Day

It appears that archaeologists have found a fabric fragment containing traces of Techelet, the blue dye mentioned in Torah:

In a rare discovery, scientists have confirmed that an almost 2,000-year-old piece of fabric found near the Dead Sea contains remnants of the Biblical blue color known as tekhelet.

It is only the third piece of fabric ever found to contain this precious blue dye derived from snail glands. In accordance with a Torah commandment, tekhelet was used in ancient times to dye the tassels, or tzitzit, attached to the four-cornered garment traditionally worn by men, as well as the clothing worn by the High Priest during the days of the temple.

The finding was revealed on Monday at a special conference held in Jerusalem to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of the doctorate of Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi Herzog, the former chief rabbi of Israel, on the subject of tekhelet. In attendance were many of the former chief rabbi’s grandchildren, including the keynote speaker, Isaac Herzog, the new chairman of the Labor Party.

Announcing the discovery, Dr. Na'ama Sukenik, a curator at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the tiny piece of fabric had been discovered in the 1950s in a cave at Wadi Murba’at, where Jewish fighters hid during the Bar Kokhba revolt in the second century. As part of her doctoral dissertation at Bar Ilan University, Sukenik recently tested the color found in the fabric and was able to determine that it was derived from the Murex trunchular, a mollusk widely believed to be the marine animal known as the khilazon in the Talmud -- the source of the rare blue dye.

To this day, scientists and scholars have not reached a consensus on whether tekhelet was a light sky-blue color, as most modern day experts on the subject now believe, or a darker, more purple-hued blue. The shade discovered on the piece of fabric tested by Sukenik was sky blue. The tassels on the fragment were spun in a way that was common in Israel in ancient times, she said, demonstrating that the dye was locally produced.

The dye color varies with exposure to sunlight during the dyeing process, so it is unclear what color was actually applied in ancient times.

Kewl.

H/t Failed Messiah.