Tyrian purple was a rare and valuable dye produced by several species of predatory sea snails found in the Mediterranean. It was first used by the Phoenicians as early as 1570 BC and was prized for its color-fast quality that did not fade with weathering. The Phoenicians established dye production facilities along the Mediterranean coast and in Morocco to harvest the snails and produce the dye. In antiquity, Tyrian purple was a luxury item used to dye ceremonial robes and garments of the elite, including Roman senators and Byzantine emperors. Ancient writers like Vitruvius, Aristotle, and Pliny the Elder described the production process of the dye.

1. HISTORICAL APPROACH

2.  It is a secretion
produced by one or
more species of
predatory sea
snails in the
family Muricidae,
rock snails
originally known by
the name Murex.

3.  Tyrian purple may first
have been used by the
ancient Phoenicians as
early as 1570
BC. The dye was greatly
prized in antiquity
because the color did not
easily fade, but instead
became brighter with
weathering and sunlight.
Its significance is such
that the name Phoenicia
means 'land of purple.” It
came in various shades,
the most prized being that
of "blackish clotted
blood".

4. • The Phoenicians also made
an indigo dye, sometimes
referred to as royal
blue or hyacinth purple, which
was made from a closely
related species of marine snail.
The Phoenicians established
an ancillary production facility
on the Iles
Purpuraires at Mogador,
in Morocco. The sea snail
harvested at this western
Moroccan dye production
facility was Hexaplex
runculus (mentioned above)
also known by the older
name Murex
trunculus (Linnaeus, 1758).
This second species of dye
murex is found today on the
Mediterranean and Atlantic
coasts of Europe and Africa
(Spain and Portugal, Morocco,

5. Cuneiform

6. 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).

7.  The colour-fast
(non-fading) dye
was an item of
luxury trade,
prized
by Romans, who
used it to
colour ceremonial
robes

8.  Vitruvius mentions the
production of Tyrian purple
from shellfish. 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.
 Pliny the Elder described
the production of Tyrian
purple in his Natural
History

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

10. 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. The bishops
and cardinals wear Tyrian purple,
and the Pope wears white.

11. A fragment of the shroud in which
the Emperor Charlemagne was
buried in 814. It was made of gold
and Tyrian purple from
Constantinople.
Heracles and the Discovery of the
Secret of Purple by Peter Paul
Rubens (1636), Musée Bonnat