What did the Romans use to make purple?

Question

I know that they used a Murex shell of some kind, but what exact type was it.

I know that they used a Murex shell of some kind, but what exact type was it and where can I buy one.

Answer 1

Tyrian purple (Greek: πορφύρα, porphyra, Latin: purpura), also known as royal purple or imperial purple, is a purple-red dye produced by the ancient Phoenicians in the city of Tyre. The dye consists of a mucus-secretion of the hypobranchial gland of a medium-sized predatory sea snail, the marine gastropod Murex brandaris, commonly called the spiny dye-murex, a species in the family Muricidae, the murex or rock shells.

Answer 2

A costly and labor-intensive dye Tyrian purple (or royal purple) was historically made using mucus from the hypobranchial gland of two species of tropical sea snails commonly referred to as Murex.

This dye was used in royal robes, other kinds of special ceremonial or ritual garments, or garments indicating high rank.

Answer 3

The purple dye was made from the secretions of the purple-shell. This mollusk was only found offshore of Syria, and great quantities were needed to make the dye. Purple was restricted to the court circles in Alexandria, although there were other imitation recipes to make purple dyes.

Answer 4

In the post Rome roman era I know that a single family in the Byzantine empire held a monopoly on the color. Seems that in the confusion surrounding the empires switching capitals and ultimate fragmentation the knowledge was lost to all save a single family who become extremely wealthy of the dye.

Answer 5

Supermarket molluscs reveal Roman secret. BBC News.

A British amateur chemist has worked out how the ancient Romans dyed the togas of emperors this deep colour thanks to a bacterium found in cockles from the supermarket.

He rediscovered the secret of imperial purple after studying the fermentation process of indigo pigments from the woad plant.

With help of researchers in Reading and from Israel he has been able to establish the vital role played by a bacterium in chemically reducing (the addition of electrons) the ancient pigments so that they will dissolve in a dye solution.

The pigment for imperial purple was derived from Murex molluscs, a form of shellfish. So, Mr Edmunds reasoned that he could try to use the related common cockle.

The cockles are thought to harbour a bacterium that is crucial in reducing the dye. Wood ash was added to the vat to ensure the mixture did not turn acidic.

The mixture was then kept at 50 Celsius for about 10 days.

Wool dipped in the pigment turned green at first but, eventually, in contact with light, it turned purple.

The recreation of the old dying method might have implications for present-day practice.

Currently, tonnes of chemicals are needed to reduce the dye for denim blue jeans, resulting in large quantities of sulphur waste.

Mr Edmonds said: "University of Reading scientists are trying to understand how the bacterium reduces indigo in order to develop a clean biotechnology to replace the chemical process for indigo reduction in the future."

Answer 6

No, they didn't use the shell, the used the little Murex snail. It was an aquatic snail, difficult to harvest, and one reason why the color purple was reserved, for many years, for royalty. It was too expensive for anyone else to use, because it took thousands of the little snails to produce enough dye to color a garment.

Answer 7

The murex they used was found at the eastern end of the Mediterranean in the area of Tyre and Sidon

Answer 8

a special phonecian way to die clothe purple was to use the juices of a special variety of snail, the phoennecian later exported their product to Rome and the rest of the known world

Answer 9

Not sure, but I think the Iroquois Indians made purple out of some sort of sea shell.

Answer 10

The purple type.