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of 6,6′-dibromoindigo]] Tyrian purple ( made by the ancient Canaanites / Phoenicia ns in the city of Tyre , from a mucus-secretion of the hypobranchial gland of a marine Snail known as '' Murex Brandaris '' or the Spiny dye-murex. The Phoenicians also made a purple-blue Indigo Dye , called ''royal blue'' or ''hyacinth purple'', which was made from a related species of marine snail, called '' Murex Trunculus '' or the Banded dye-murex. Tyrian purple was expensive: the fourth-century BC historian Theopompus reported, "Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon " in Asia Minor.Theopompus, cited by Athenaeus (12:526) around 200 BC; according to Gulick, Charles Barton 1941. ''Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press. OVERVIEW The fast, non-fading dye was an item of luxury trade, prized by Romans , who used it to colour ceremonial robes. It is believed that the intensity of the purple hue improved, rather than faded, as the dyed cloth aged. Pliny The Elder described the dyeing process of two purples in his '' Natural History ''Pliny the Elder, ''The Natural History'' (eds. John Bostock, H.T. Riley) Book IX. ''The Natural History of Fishes''. Chapters 60-65. {Link without Title} : The ancient method for mass-producing the two murex dyes has not yet been successfully reconstructed, but 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 ''M. brandaris''. 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 . 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. Dating from colocated pottery suggests the dye may have been produced during the Middle Minoan period in the 20th–18th century BC.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, 201-6).Stieglitz, Robert R. (1994), "The Minoan Origin of Tyrian Purple," Biblical Archaeologist, 57, 46-54. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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