Throughout the ancient Mediterranean, few luxury items were as prized, rare, and expensive as Tyrian purple, a dye used in the clothing and furniture of the wealthy elite. Now, archaeologists in northern Israel have made a discovery that may be the only known large-scale production of this valuable dye in history.
Hecht Museum, University of HaifaArchaeological excavations at Tel Shikmon, where a Tyrian purple dye factory was discovered.
As reported in the journal PLOS ONE, the dye factory was found at the archaeological site of Tel Shikmona in northern Israel.
“The discovery of the factory did not happen overnight, but was a gradual realization based on several clues,” lead author Golan Shalvi explained in an email to All That’s Interesting. “We already knew that the site was associated with purple dye production, as potsherds with visible traces of the dye had been found during excavations in the 1960s and 1970s… The breakthrough came when I began analyzing material from earlier excavations and realized the scale of the phenomenon, both in terms of quantity and time. That’s when things really started to get amazing.”
Indeed, archaeologists have found evidence of mass production of Tyrian purple. The dye is made from the mucus of a sea snail (Hexaplex trunculus), and 400 snail shells were found at the site, along with 100-gallon ceramic vats and a variety of stone tools. Scientists have concluded that the dye factory at Tel Shikmona was colossal—possibly one of the largest in the ancient world.
“In fact,” Shalvi told All That's Interesting, “more purple-painted pottery fragments have been found at Tel Shikmona than at all other ancient sites combined.”
Although the site's location was unfavorable for trade, it proved ideal due to “access to a marine resource essential for dye production: murex snails.”
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