“that blue dye on the cloth - would that be techelet, or would that have been an insane expense for a tablecloth?”
Given the abject poverty in the region during that period of Roman occupation, the dearness of such an article should be of scholarly concern. Following the “money trail “ is a sound approach of determination. Although we could never be certain, the odds of any table cloth at all, or even a table (of sufficient size) for that matter, in my view, relegates this artifact to folkloric origin.
It doesn’t seem odd that a special function room would have access to tablecloths. And also a table-sized piece of wood.
I do wonder at the articles apparent assertion that this cloth would have been a mate to the Shroud.
I don’t believe that the Shroud was dyed (though I stand to be corrected), and I don’t believe that Joseph of Arimathea would have had any special link to the Upper Room, enabling him to use their linen.
Also: Joseph provided Christ’s tomb. He would have provided the Shroud as well.
So with that evidence of excitability in the article, I’d like to know more about the provenance of this particular cloth.