TYRE PURPLE

 

This is Tyrian purple that began to appear c.1200 BC. It takes its name from Tyre, a major seaport and trading center in the Phoenician empire.

The purple dye was manufactured by extracting the secretion from the hypobranchial gland of murex sea snails. The carnivorous molluscs release a bromine compound when attacked, so dye could be extracted by poking and prodding the snails, thus keeping them alive for further production. Much more common, however, was the destruction of the snails and removal of the gland. It was resource-intensive, time-consuming and, according to ancient chroniclers, eye-wateringly smelly work that required processing literally thousands of murex.

Because of the time consuming nature of obtaining this dye, purple fabrics were extremely expensive and could only be worn by the wealthy elite. It became known as "royal purple" for its wearers often were rulers whether in Rome, Greece or Egypt. 

Recently, a dye production facility (lots of murex shells) was unearthed on the Eastern coast of Crete, the home of the Minoan civilization. This site was dated c.1800 BC so the origin for the purple dye now has shifted to Crete. The Minoans suffered a catastrophic disaster due to the volcanic explosion on Thera c.1600 BC followed by another, possibly an earthquake c.1450 BC after which the civilization slowly collapsed. As seafarers in the Eastern Mediterranean, undoubtedly, they came into contact with peoples who later went on to become the Phoenicians and the mechanics of dye production was passed on.