Tyrian purple

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Royal purple" redirects here. For other uses, see Royal Purple (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Byzantium (color), a modern colour.
For chemistry of Tyrian purple, see 6,6'-Dibromoindigo.
Fabrics dyed in the current era from different species of sea snail. The colours in this photograph may not represent them precisely.

Tyrian purple (

Latin: purpura), also known as royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye, is a reddish-purple natural dye. The name Tyrian refers to Tyre, Lebanon, once Phoenicia. It is secreted by several species of predatory sea snails in the family Muricidae, rock snails originally known by the name Murex (Bolinus brandaris, Hexaplex trunculus and Stramonita haemastoma). In ancient times, extracting this dye involved tens of thousands of snails and substantial labour, and as a result, the dye was highly valued. The colored compound is 6,6'-dibromoindigo
.

History

toga praetexta
, white with a stripe of Tyrian purple.

fabric dye began as early as 1200 BC by the Phoenicians, and was continued by the Greeks and Romans until 1453 AD, with the fall of Constantinople. In the same way as the modern-day Latin alphabet of Phoenician origin, Phoenician purple pigment was spread through the unique Phoenician trading empire.[1] The pigment was expensive and time-consuming to produce, and items colored with it became associated with power and wealth. This popular idea of purple being elite contributes to the modern day wide-spread belief that purple is a "royal colour". The colour of textiles from this period provides insight into socio-cultural relationships within ancient societies, in addition to providing insights on technological achievements, fashion, social stratification, agriculture and trade connections.[2] Despite their value to archaeological research, textiles are quite rare in the archaeological record. Like any perishable organic material, they are usually subject to rapid decomposition and their preservation over millennia requires exacting conditions to prevent destruction by microorganisms.[2]

Tyrian purple may first have been used by the ancient Phoenicians as early as 1570 BC.[3][4] It has been suggested that the name Phoenicia itself means 'land of purple'.[5][6] The dye was greatly prized in antiquity because the colour did not easily fade, but instead became brighter with weathering and sunlight. It came in various shades, the most prized being that of black-tinted clotted blood.[7][4]

Because it was extremely tedious to make, Tyrian purple was expensive: the 4th century BC historian

gold thread edging, was worn by generals celebrating a Roman triumph.[4]

By the fourth century AD, sumptuary laws in Rome had been tightened so much that only the

porphyrogenitos, "born in the purple".[10]

Some[who?] speculate that the dye extracted from the Bolinus brandaris is known as argaman (ארגמן) in Biblical Hebrew. Another dye extracted from a related sea snail, Hexaplex trunculus, produced a blue colour after light exposure which could be the one known as tekhelet (תְּכֵלֶת), used in garments worn for ritual purposes.[11]

Production from sea snails

Two shells of Bolinus brandaris, the spiny dye-murex, a source of the dye

The dye substance is a mucous secretion from the

organobromine compound), a class of compounds often found in algae and in some other sea life, but much more rarely found in the biology of land animals. This dye is in contrast to the imitation purple that was commonly produced using cheaper materials than the dyes from the sea snail.[2]

In nature, the snails use the secretion as part of their

Murex brandaris yield no more than 1.4 g of pure dye, enough to colour only the trim of a single garment."[15] The dye is collected via the snail-harvesting process, involving the extraction of the hypobranchial gland (located under the mollusk's mantle). This requires advanced knowledge of biology. Murex-based dyeing must take place close to the site from which the snails originate, because the freshness of the material has a significant effect on the results, the colors yielded based on the long process of biochemical, enzymatic and photochemical reactions, and requires reduction and oxidation processes that probably took several days.[2]

Many other species worldwide within the family Muricidae, for example

Epitoniidae, seem to also produce a similar substance, although this has not been studied or exploited commercially.) The dog whelk Nucella lapillus, from the North Atlantic, can also be used to produce red-purple and violet dyes.[18]

Royal blue

See also: Tekhelet

The Phoenicians also made a deep blue-coloured dye, sometimes referred to as royal blue or hyacinth purple, which was made from a closely related species of marine snail.[19]

The Phoenicians established an ancillary production facility on the

Murex trunculus.[21]

This second species of dye murex is found today on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Europe and Africa (Spain, Portugal, Morocco).[13]

Background

Byzantine Emperor Justinian I clad in Tyrian purple, 6th-century mosaic at Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy

The colour-fast (non-fading) dye was an item of luxury trade, prized by Romans, who used it to colour ceremonial robes. Used as a dye, the colour shifts from blue (peak absorption at 590 nm, which is yellow-orange) to reddish-purple (peak absorption at 520 nm, which is green).[22] It is believed that the intensity of the purple hue improved rather than faded as the dyed cloth aged. Vitruvius mentions the production of Tyrian purple from shellfish.[23] In his History of Animals, Aristotle described the shellfish from which Tyrian purple was obtained and the process of extracting the tissue that produced the dye.[24] Pliny the Elder described the production of Tyrian purple in his Natural History:[25][b]

The most favourable season for taking these [shellfish] is after the rising of the Dog-star, or else before spring; for when they have once discharged their waxy secretion, their juices have no consistency: this, however, is a fact unknown in the dyers' workshops, although it is a point of primary importance. After it is taken, the vein [i.e. hypobranchial gland] is extracted, which we have previously spoken of, to which it is requisite to add salt, a sextarius [about 20 fl. oz.] to every hundred pounds of juice. It is sufficient to leave them to steep for a period of three days, and no more, for the fresher they are, the greater virtue there is in the liquor. It is then set to boil in vessels of tin [or lead], and every hundred amphorae ought to be boiled down to five hundred pounds of dye, by the application of a moderate heat; for which purpose the vessel is placed at the end of a long funnel, which communicates with the furnace; while thus boiling, the liquor is skimmed from time to time, and with it the flesh, which necessarily adheres to the veins. About the tenth day, generally, the whole contents of the cauldron are in a liquefied state, upon which a fleece, from which the grease has been cleansed, is plunged into it by way of making trial; but until such time as the colour is found to satisfy the wishes of those preparing it, the liquor is still kept on the boil. The tint that inclines to red is looked upon as inferior to that which is of a blackish hue. The wool is left to lie in soak for five hours, and then, after carding it, it is thrown in again, until it has fully imbibed the colour.

Archaeological data from Tyre indicate that the snails were collected in large vats and left to decompose. This produced a hideous stench that was actually mentioned by ancient authors. 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. trunculus and once in the purple-red dye of B. brandaris.[7][19]

The Discovery of Purple by Hercules's Dog by Theodoor van Thulden
, c. 1636
A Phoenicias coin depicting the legend of the dog biting the sea snail

The Roman

Hercules' Dog Discovers Purple Dye. According to John Malalas, the incident happened during the reign of the legendary King Phoenix of Tyre, the eponymous progenitor of the Phoenicians, and therefore he was the first ruler to wear Tyrian purple and legislate on its use.[26]

Recently, the archaeological discovery of substantial numbers of Murex shells on

Minoans may have pioneered the extraction of Imperial purple centuries before the Tyrians. Dating from collocated pottery suggests the dye may have been produced during the Middle Minoan period in the 20th–18th century BC.[27][28] Accumulations of crushed murex shells from a hut at the site of Coppa Nevigata in southern Italy may indicate production of purple dye there from at least the 18th century BC.[29] Additional archaeological evidence can be found from samples originating from excavations at the extensive Iron Age copper smelting site of “Slaves’ Hill” (Site 34), which is tightly dated by radiocarbon to the late 11th–early 10th centuries BC.[2] Findings from this site include evidence of the use of purple dye found in stains used on pot shards. Evidence of the use of dye in pottery are found in most cases on the upper part of ceramic basins, on the inside surface, the areas in which the reduced dye-solution was exposed to air, and underwent oxidation that turned it purple.[2]

The production of Murex purple for the Byzantine court came to an abrupt end with the

sack of Constantinople in 1204, the critical episode of the Fourth Crusade. David Jacoby concludes that "no Byzantine emperor nor any Latin ruler in former Byzantine territories could muster the financial resources required for the pursuit of murex purple production. On the other hand, murex fishing and dyeing with genuine purple are attested for Egypt in the tenth to 13th centuries."[30] By contrast, Jacoby finds that there are no mentions of purple fishing or dyeing, nor trade in the colorant in any Western source, even in the Frankish Levant. The European West turned instead to vermilion provided by the insect Kermes vermilio, known as grana, or crimson
.

In 1909, Harvard anthropologist

royal purple dye valued higher than gold in the ancient Near East and ancient Mexico. Not only did the people of ancient Mexico use the same methods of production as the Phoenicians, they also valued murex-dyed cloth above all others, as it appeared in codices as the attire of nobility. "Nuttall noted that the Mexican murex-dyed cloth bore a "disagreeable ... strong fishy smell, which appears to be as lasting as the color itself."[31] Likewise, the ancient Egyptian Papyrus of Anastasi laments: "The hands of the dyer reek like rotting fish ..."[32] So pervasive was this stench that the Talmud specifically granted women the right to divorce any husband who became a dyer after marriage.[33]

In 2021, archaeologists found surviving wool fibers dyed with royal purple in the Timna Valley in Israel. The find, which was dated to c. 1000 BC, constituted the first direct evidence of fabric dyed with the pigment from antiquity.[34]

Murex purple production in North Africa

The chemical structure of 6,6'-dibromoindigo, the main component of Tyrian purple

Murex purple was a very important industry in many Phoenician territories and Carthage was no exception. Traces of this once very lucrative industry are still visible in many Punic sites such as Kerkouane, Zouchis, Djerba and even in Carthage itself. According to Pliny, Meninx (today's Djerba) produced the best purple in Africa which was also ranked second only after Tyre's. It was found also at Essaouira (Morocco). The Royal purple or Imperial purple[35] was probably used until the time of Augustine of Hippo (354–430) and before the demise of the Roman Empire.

Dye chemistry

Variations in colours of "Tyrian purple" from different snails are related to the presence of

indigo plant (Indigofera tinctoria L), as well as in several species of shellfish.[2]

In 1998, by means of a lengthy trial and error process, a process for dyeing with Tyrian purple was rediscovered.[37][38] This finding built on reports from the 15th century to the 18th century and explored the biotechnology process behind woad fermentation. It is hypothesized that an alkaline fermenting vat was necessary. An incomplete ancient recipe for Tyrian purple recorded by Pliny the Elder was also consulted. By altering the percentage of sea salt in the dye vat and adding potash, he was able to successfully dye wool a deep purple colour.[39]

Recent research in

pi stacking necessary for transport.[40]

Modern hue rendering

True Tyrian purple, like most high-chroma pigments, cannot be accurately rendered on a standard RGB computer monitor. Ancient reports are also not entirely consistent, but these swatches give a rough indication of the likely range in which it appeared:

_________
_________

The lower one is the sRGB colour #990024, intended for viewing on an output device with a gamma of 2.2. It is a representation of RHS colour code 66A,[41] which has been equated to "Tyrian red",[42] a term which is often used as a synonym for Tyrian purple.

Philately

The colour name "Tyrian plum" is popularly given to a

King Edward VII in 1910.[43]

Gallery

  • cuneiform tablet
    Cuneiform tablet, dated 600–500 BC, with instructions for dyeing wool purple and blue. Ref.BM62788 .
  • A set of Tzitzit, four tassels or "fringes" with tekhelet (purple-blue) threads produced from a Hexaplex trunculus based dye.
    A set of Tzitzit, four tassels or "fringes" with tekhelet (purple-blue) threads produced from a Hexaplex trunculus based dye.
  • Painting of a man wearing an all-purple toga picta, from an Etruscan tomb (about 350 BC).
    Painting of a man wearing an all-purple toga picta, from an Etruscan tomb (about 350 BC).
  • Roman men wearing togae praetextae with reddish-purple stripes during a religious procession (1st century BC).
    Roman men wearing togae praetextae with reddish-purple stripes during a religious procession (1st century BC).
  • The Empress Theodora, the wife of the Emperor Justinian, dressed in Tyrian purple. (6th century).
    The Empress Theodora, the wife of the Emperor Justinian, dressed in Tyrian purple. (6th century).
  • A medieval depiction of the coronation of the Emperor Charlemagne in 800 AD wearing royal blue. The bishops and cardinals wear Tyrian purple, and the Pope wears white.
    A medieval depiction of the coronation of the Emperor Charlemagne in 800 AD wearing royal blue. The bishops and cardinals wear Tyrian purple, and the Pope wears white.
  • A fragment of the shroud in which the Emperor Charlemagne was buried in 814 AD. It was made of gold and Tyrian purple from Constantinople.
    A fragment of the shroud in which the Emperor Charlemagne was buried in 814 AD. It was made of gold and Tyrian purple from Constantinople.
  • 6,6'-dibromoindigo, the major component of Tyrian purple
    6,6'-dibromoindigo, the major component of Tyrian purple

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Because of research by Benkendorff et al. (1999), the Tyrian purple precursor tyrindoleninone is being investigated as a potential antimicrobial agent with uses against multidrug-resistant bacteria.
  2. S2CID 162937239. See also: C. J. Cooksey (2001) "Tyrian purple: 6,6'-Dibromoindigo and Related Compounds", Molecules, 6 (9) : 736–769, especially page 761. Indigo, which is chemically very similar to Tyrian purple, behaves similarly. See: http://www.indigopage.com/chemistry.htm

References

  1. ISBN 0-7613-2112-8
    .
  2. ^
    PMID 33507987
    .
  3. ^ McGovern, P. E. and Michel, R. H. "Royal Purple dye: tracing the chemical origins of the industry". Analytical Chemistry 1985, 57, 1514A–1522A
  4. ^
    OCLC 936144129
    .
  5. ^ Cunliffe, Barry (2008). Europe between the Oceans: 9000 BC – AD 1000. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 241.
  6. ^ "Phoenician". Online Etymology Dictionary.
  7. ^ a b "Pigments: Causes of Color". WebExhibits.org. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  8. ^ Theopompus, cited by Athenaeus (12:526) around 200 BC.Athenaeus (1941). The Deipnosophists. Translated by Gulick, Charles Barton. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  9. ^ Jacoby D (1997). "Silk in Western Byzantium before the Fourth Crusade". Trade, Commodities, and Shipping in the Medieval Mediterranean. pp. 455 ff and notes [17]–[19].
  10. ISBN 0-195-04652-8
    .
  11. ^ Elsner O (1992). "Solution of the enigmas of dyeing with Tyrian purple and the Biblical tekhelet". Dyes in History and Archaeology. 10. pages 14 ff.
  12. doi:10.1111/j.1478-4408.1986.tb03743.x
    .
  13. ^ a b Radwin, G. E.; D'Attilio, A. (1986). Murex shells of the world. An illustrated guide to the Muricidae. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 93. 284 pp incl 192 figs. & 32 pls.
  14. ^ Benkendorff K (March 1999). Bioactive molluscan resources and their conservation: Biological and chemical studies on the egg masses of marine molluscs (Thesis). University of Wollongong. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 August 2007. Retrieved 25 February 2008.
  15. JSTOR 3591386
    .
  16. ^ Gould AA (1853). "Descriptions of shells from the Gulf of California and the Pacific coasts of Mexico and California". Boston Journal of Natural History. 6: 374–408. ; see pp. 406–407. Note: Gould called this species Purpura pansa ; it was later renamed Plicopurpura pansa.
  17. ^ Plicopurpura patula was originally named Buccinum patulum by Linnaeus in 1758: The genus Plicopurpura was created in 1903 by Cossmann:
  18. ^ Biggam CP (March 2006). "Whelks and purple dye in Anglo-Saxon England" (PDF). The Archaeo+Malacology Group Newsletter (9). Glasgow, Scotland, UK: Department of English Language, University of Glasgow. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-02-19. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
  19. ^
    ISBN 1-57506-042-6
    .
  20. ^ Hogan CM (2 November 2007). Burnham A (ed.). "Mogador: Promontory Fort". The Megalithic Portal.
  21. ^ In 1758, Linnaeus classified the snail as Murex trunculus: In 1810, the English naturalist George Perry created the genus Hexaplex:
  22. PMC 6236399
    .
  23. ^ Vitruvius. De Architectura [On Architecture]. Book VII, Chapter 13.
  24. ISBN 9781419123917
    .
  25. ^ Pliny the Elder (1855). "Chapter 62: The Natural History of Fishes". In Bostock J, Riley HT (eds.). The Natural History. London, UK: Taylor and Francis. Book IX. Pliny discusses Tyrian purple throughout Chapters 60–65.
  26. ^ John Malalas, Chronographia II:9.
  27. ^ Reese, David S. (1987). "Palaikastro Shells and Bronze Age Purple-Dye Production in the Mediterranean Basin", Annual of the British School of Archaeology at Athens, 82, 201–206
  28. ^ Stieglitz, Robert R. (1994), "The Minoan Origin of Tyrian Purple", Biblical Archaeologist, 57, 46–54.
  29. ISBN 9788882650155
    .
  30. ^ Jacoby (2004), p. 210.
  31. ^ Nutall Z (1909). "A curious survival in Mexico of the use of the Purpura shell-fish for dyeing". In Boas F (ed.). Anthropological Essays Presented to Fredrick Ward Putnam in Honor of his Seventieth Birthday, by his Friends and Associates. New York, New York: G. E. Strechert & Co. p. 370.
  32. ^ Robinson S (1969). A History of Dyed Textiles. London, UK: Studio Vista. p. 24.
  33. ISBN 9781439276839
    .
  34. PMID 33507987
    .
  35. ^ "Definition of the Tyrian purple". World History Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 24 July 2016.
  36. doi:10.1016/j.dyepig.2015.01.025
    .
  37. OCLC 45315310
    .
  38. ^ "Author Profile". Imperial-Purple.com. Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  39. ^ Chenciner, Robert (2000). Madder Red: A history of luxury and trade: plant dyes and pigments in world commerce and art. Richmond: Curzon Press. p. 295.
  40. doi:10.1063/1.3660358
    .
  41. ^ "RHS, UCL and RGB Colors, gamma = 1.4, fan 2". Azalea Society of America. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2006. (this gives the RGB value #b80049, which has been converted to #990024 for the sRGB gamma of 2.2)
  42. ^ Buck, G. "Buck Rose". p. 5. Archived from the original on 23 August 2006.
  43. ^ "Edward VII 2d". Postal Museum. Collection catalog.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tyrian_purple&oldid=1219213073"