Murex tyrian purple dye1/18/2024 ![]() ![]() Dating from colocated pottery suggests the dye may have been produced during the Middle Minoan period in the 20th–18th century BC. Recently, the archaeological discovery of substantial numbers of Murex shells on Crete suggests that the Minoans may have pioneered the extraction of Imperial purple centuries before the Tyrians. The Roman mythographer Julius Pollux, writing in the second century BC, asserted ( Onomasticon I, 45–49) that the purple dye was first discovered by Heracles, or rather, by his dog, whose mouth was stained purple from chewing on snails along the coast of the Levant. trunculus and once in the purple-red dye of M. Not much is known about the subsequent steps, and the actual ancient method for mass-producing the two murex dyes has not yet been successfully reconstructed this special "blackish clotted blood" colour, which was prized above all others, is believed to be achieved by double-dipping the cloth, once in the indigo dye of H. This produced a hideous stench that was actually mentioned by ancient authors. is considered of the best quality when it has exactly the colour of clotted blood, and is of a blackish hue to the sight, but of a shining appearance when held up to the light hence it is that we find Homer speaking of "purple blood."Īrchaeological data from Tyre indicate that the snails were collected in large vats and left to decompose. Pliny the Elder described the dyeing process of two purples in his Natural History : It is believed that the intensity of the purple hue improved, rather than faded, as the dyed cloth aged. ![]() The fast, non-fading dye was an item of luxury trade, prized by Romans, who used it to colour ceremonial robes. This second species of dye murex currently occurs on "the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Europe and Africa (Spain and Portugal, Morocco, and the Canary Islands" Historical overview of Tyrian purple The gastropod harvested at this western Moroccan dye production facility was Phyllonotus trunculus also known by the older name Murex trunculus (Linnaeus, 1758)). The Phoenicians established an ancillary production facility on the Iles Purpuraires at Mogador, in Morocco. ![]() 3.2 Shades of Tyrian purple colour comparison chartĪs well as Tyrian purple, the Phoenicians also made a purple-blue indigo dye, referred to as royal blue or hyacinth purple, which was made from a closely-related species of marine snail.Therefore the dye can be collected either by "milking" the snails, which is more labor intensive but is a renewable resource, or by collecting and then crushing the snails completely, which is destructive. In nature the snails use the secretion as part of their predatory behaviour, but the snail also secretes this substance when it is poked or physically attacked by humans. (Some other predatory gastropods, such as some wentletraps in the family Epitoniidae, seem to also produce a similar substance, although this has not been studied or exploited commercially.) Many other species worldwide within the family Muricidae, for example Plicopurpura pansa (Gould, 1853), from the tropical eastern Pacific, and Plicopurpura patula (Linnaeus, 1758) from the Caribbean zone of the western Atlantic, can also produce a similar substance (which turns into an enduring purple dye when exposed to sunlight) and this ability has sometimes also been historically exploited by local inhabitants in the areas where these snails occur. Another dye extracted from a related sea snail, Hexaplex trunculus, could produce a purple-blue color called argaman אַרְגָּמָן (translated 'purple') when processed in shade, or a sky-blue indigo color, called tekhelet תְּכֵלֶת (translated 'indigo') when processed in sunlight. In Biblical Hebrew, which like Phoenician is a dialect of Canaanite, the Tyrian purple-red dye extracted from the Murex brandaris is known as shani שָׁנִי, but usually translated as 'scarlet'. The current range for this species is the "central and western Mediterranean" It consists of a fresh mucus secretion from the hypobranchial gland of a medium-sized predatory sea snail, the marine gastropod Murex brandaris modern name Bolinus brandaris (Linnaeus, 1758), commonly called the spiny dye-murex, a species in the family Muricidae, the murex or rock shells. The dye substance occurs naturally, but must be harvested by humans. Tyrian purple was expensive: the fourth-century BC historian Theopompus reported, "Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon" in Asia Minor. Tyrian purple (Greek: πορφύρα, porphyra, Latin: purpura), also known as royal purple or imperial purple, is a purple-red dye which was first produced by the ancient Phoenicians in the city of Tyre. ![]()
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