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Tyrian purple is a pigment made from the mucus of several species of Murex snail. Production of Tyrian purple for use as a 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.
This was the mollusc species used by the ancients to produce Tyrian purple fabric dye. Sea snails of the species Banded dye-murex Hexaplex trunculus were also used to produce a purple-blue or indigo dye. In both cases, the mollusks secrete the dye in the mucus of their hypobranchial glands.
Murex was used in antiquity to describe spiny sea snails, especially those associated with the production of purple dye. Murex is one of the oldest classical seashell names still used by the scientific community. Aristotle described these mollusks in his History of Animals using the Greek term πορφύρα (porphyra). [2]
In the past, purple has also been produced from sea creatures, notably murex snails. Long the color of nobility and the rich, purple is one of the most difficult natural dyes to achieve.
A similar dye, Tyrian purple, which is purple-red in color, was made from a related species of marine snail, Murex brandaris. This dye (alternatively known as imperial purple, see purple) was also prohibitively expensive. Jews may have used the pigment from the shells to create a sky-blue, tekhelet, dye to put on the fringes that the Torah ...
Bolinus is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails. [2] This genus is known in the fossil record from the Miocene to the Pliocene period (age range: from 15.97 to 2.588 million years ago.). Fossil shells within this genus have been found in Cyprus, Austria, Italy and Turkey. [3]
A Phoenician coin depicting the legend of the dog biting the sea snail. In antiqutiy, the city of Tyre was famours for its industrial production of tyrian purple, an extremely rare and expensive dye; [9] tyrian purple was renowned for its unique beauty and lightfast qualities. [10]
Tyrian purple or royal purple is a purple-red dye which is extracted from several genera of sea snails, primarily Murex brandaris the spiny dye-murex (currently known as Bolinus brandaris). Murex dye was greatly prized in antiquity because it did not fade, rather it became brighter and more intense with weathering and sunlight. [33] rubia