New
York Times: An Israeli scholar says he has identified the
first known physical sample of tekheletthe shade of blue
used for ritual prayer tassels and for ceremonial robes worn by
high priests. Zvi Koren, a professor specializing in the
analytical chemistry of ancient colorants, analyzed a
2000-year-old piece of dyed fabric recovered from Masada, King
Herod’s Judean Desert fortress. The exact shade of blue
used has been a mystery for centuries. The dye was produced
from the secretion of the sea snail, still found on Israeli
beaches, but the technique of producing the dye was lost some
time after the Jews were exiled from Israel in AD 70.
