Blue from Bible may have been found

An Israeli researcher says she has identified a nearly 2,000-year old textile that may contain a mysterious blue dye described in the Bible, one of the few remnants of the ancient color ever found. Naama Sukenik of Israel's Antiquities Authority said examination of a small woolen textile discovered in the 1950s, at left, found it was colored with a dye from the Murex trunculus, a snail researchers believe was the source of the Biblical blue. Researchers and rabbis have long searched for the enigmatic color, called ''tekhelet'' in Hebrew. The Bible commands Jews to wear a blue fringe on their garments, but the dye was lost in antiquity.