The Minoan Origin of Tyrian Purple Author(S): Robert R
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The Minoan Origin of Tyrian Purple Author(s): Robert R. Stieglitz Reviewed work(s): Source: The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Mar., 1994), pp. 46-54 Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3210395 . Accessed: 17/05/2012 05:38 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The American Schools of Oriental Research is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Biblical Archaeologist. http://www.jstor.org The Minoan Origin of Tyrian Purple By Robert R. Stieglltz Tyrianpurple, also known as 'royalpurple,' was the most expensivedye in the ancientworld qensen1963). Indi- rectevidence about its value is providedby Ugaritic textsof the 14thcentury BCE, in whichvarious types of dyed woolens arelisted with theirprices. Some of thesetextiles wereevidently dyed with Tyrianpurple, as theirhigher prices would suggest(Stieglitz 1979:19). Homer used the specialterm haliporphyros,'sea-purple', to referto this dye (Odyssey6.53: 306),perhaps in orderto distinguishit frompurple-dye imi- tations.By the time of Diocletian,in 301 BCE,we know that wool dyed with Tyrianpurple was literallyworth its weight in gold, as is statedin his Edicton Maximum Prices 24. Thebasic raw material for the dye productionwas a liquid, obtaineddirectly from the hypobranchialglands of Mediter- raneanmollusks. The shellfishutilized in this dye manufac- turewere primarilyMurex trunculus L. (=Hexaplex) and Murex brandarisL. (=Bolinus). A thirdvariety, Purpura haemastoma L. (=Thais),was used occasionally.Each shellfish produced only a few dropsof the preciousse- cretion,which was thenboiled in saltwater to createthe dye. In orderto pro- duce Tyrian purplein com- mercialquanti- ties,many thousands of shellfishwere required.Pliny, writing in the firstcentury BCE, The three types of purple shells, providesthe only from left to right:Murex trunculus, actualrecipe for the Murex haemastoma. brandaris,Purpura preparationof the dye Thesespecimens were excavatedby solution.He authorat Caesarea Israel. reports the Maritima. (Natural Scaleis in centimeters. Histony Photographsby thatin order the authorunless noted. 9.62.135) to dye 1,000pounds of wool, it was necessaryto use some 200 lbs. of Purpuraflesh (his termfor this shellfishwas bucinum),as well as 111lbs. of murex.In this process,the glandwas extractedfrom the larger specimensonly. The smallshellfish were crushed,shell and all. Sucha procedurewas also observedearlier by Aristotle (HistoriaAnimalium 5.15.22-25). The entire mass, with water, the flesh mass (it was cookedfor nine days!),produced the was thenplaced in leadenvats and simmered. The exposure of notoriousstench for which this industry was noted in antiq- the liquidto light,coupled with the prolongedsimmering of uity.Pliny (Natural History 9.60.127) also statesthat in his day 46 BiblicalArchaeologist 57:1(1994) the best Tyrianpurple in Europe was produced in Laconica The bay of Palaikastro, with the headland and the best in Africa at Meninx. In Asia, the best dye was in background. manufactured at Tyre. BiblicalArchaeologist 57:1 (1994) 47 Since these shellfish had to be caught by ratherlaborious According to current theories, the production of Tyrian fishing and/or diving in shallow water, the price of the dye, purple was originated and monopolized by the coastal as noted above, was enormous. Therefore,a great variety of Canaanites-those people called Phoenicians by the Greeks. dye substituteswas in use during Greco-Romantimes, as we know from an ancient papyrus that lists recipes for producing purple dye substitutes (Lagercrantz 1913).These imitations were produced from plant as .Crete;. well as mineral sources. Still, none were as color-fast I- - as the true "royalpurple," hence the continued de- ? ??I mand in antiquity for textiles colored by this highly ......... --- '•" .i - "! "6. t "--. .., ., . ". _ , prized dye. Thedye could be producedin a greatvariety of r - I4. tPalmiknro shades, depending upon the mixture of the different shellfish utilized. Variationscould also be made by chemical means, such as light conditions and reduc- l- awowjuanon ing agents. The resultingcolors included red, blue, and dark purple, the latter being considered the most noble of the tints. All shades were utilized primarily to color ceremonial Two of the best known ; ". .3 ' . " garments. * "3. * U SUO O':0 7S U -'- examples are the purple stripes on the Roman toga purpureaand the blue stripes on the Jewish tallit 'prayer shawl'. The Hebrew name for this blue dye was This development presumably occurred sometime in the tekelet(Exodus 26:11;see Ziderman 1987), and we may note Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 BCE).Indeed, the earliest archae- here that according to Rabbinicrulings, only the true tekelet ological evidence for Canaanite purple dye production-the dye (made from mollusks) should be used for coloring the heaps of discarded shells and their fragments-are those prayer shawl (ToseptaMenachot 9,16). These religious rules unearthed at Minet el-Beida (the harbor of Ugarit), dated to were probably a response to the use of substitute dyes. the 15th-14th century BCE;Sarepta and Tel Akko (13th cen- ?:o.-.ckSe --Il:i - 7c 4.. .?~ 7 .. ,-? "" ' . - .- . .. .. .; '. .. ,, _" :. .. • . , 7•.i . , ,. '. ,",. ::,: .. ... .,:-. .. , : ." " --.:. .. Cl,• :,q .. "... - , . , , . ..... .- , - •. 7:i:.-•+'; 12 ++ ,, . ,,.-: : . ... -. ... - , . it rr n e - : d LIf:,. +:-:.*:.. ;:-. n, ..' ,.,.-- - ? '::- . : . " lK ?": ... , . '?T ia ".. 7" - ' ' .. "-... , .. • ,• _ . , - ....JOWL . ?- -U W r po *AC 4.Jltx&' 2apw VA. OIL.. The hill of Kastri at the Minoansite of Palaikastro,East Crete, from the south. Thetown is locatedsouth of the hill.The site offereda largesur- BCE);and at Tel Keisan (11th Karmon and tury century BCE; face deposit of Murexshells. Spanier 1988:184).There are, however, archaeologicaland epigraphic indications from the Aegean, which suggest that the 'royal purple' industry was first developed there, by the Minoans on Crete, before 1750 BCE. unearthed in the Aegean at the turn of the twentieth century The current scholarly theories attributingto the Phoeni- suggested that the purple dye industry originated on Crete. cians the origin of the Tyrianpurple industry can actually be The first archaeologicalevidence of purple shells, consti- traced back to the Roman era. The Greek rhetoricianJulius tuting the debris of purple dye production, was already Pollux, in the second century BCE,relates a charming tale reportedby Heinrich Schliemann (1880:115)at Troy.In 1903, (Onomasticon1.45-48) of how the hound of Herakles bit into the British archaeologistR C. Bosanquetfound numerous a murexfish on the shore at Tyreand thus discovered its dye. murexfragments at a Middle Minoan site on the small island Herakles then divulged this delightful discovery to Phoenix, of Kouphonisi, off the southeast coast of Crete (Bosanquet the king of Tyre.This took place, accordingto Pollux, some 1904:321).However, he describedthe details of his finds only seven generationsbefore the war at Troy. within the text of an unrelated article,which he published 37 Now in the Roman era it was quite fashionable to dis- years later (Bosanquet 1939-40).In 1904, Bosanquet also cuss and theorize on the origins of all sorts of inventions. The found purple shell remains at the large Minoan site of purple industry-which was still quite an active art in that Palaikastroin Eastern Crete. He thereforeproposed that the era-was not exempt from these speculations. Indeed, the Minoan purple dye industry, dated to the Middle Minoan era Romans had themselves developed techniques for the artifi- (2000-1600BCE), preceded the Phoenician industry, but few cial breeding of murexand other shell-fish, in rock-cut pools accepted his opinion. called piscinae.A fascinating description of how to construct We should note here that the murexshellfish are edible, such fish-ponds, adjoining a sea-side villa, is provided by and when they are found in small numbers, such as at the Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (De Re Rustica 8.16.7), Early Minoan site of Myrtos (Warren1972:263), they are pre- about 60 BCE.The origins of the Tyrianpurple industry were, sumably associated with the diet and not with the dye. But it therefore,of some interest to the Romans. However, evidence is also likely that these Early Minoan fishermen also discov- BiblicalArchaeologist 57:1 (1994) 49 41? N6 41 .-j 41tv 'Avg *#.%14% On the north shore of Kouphonisi. The MiddleMinoan site is mid- way between the chapel on the hilland the beach. ered the dye, in the same way that the hound of Herakles did many centuries later. In 1981, I set out to investigate sea-purple origins by analysis of pertinent archaeologicaland epigraphic data, Murexfragments from starting with a coastal survey on Crete. At Palaikastro,which the south slope of the is identified with Classical Heleia, I found a large surface Kastriat Palaikastro. deposit of murexremains on the southern slopes of the Kas- tri. Most of these were fragmentary,but some were small whole shellfish.