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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.
Also known as Royal Purple, it was prohibitively expensive and was only used by the highest ranking aristocracy. 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.
In Pollux's story, Hercules and his dog were walking on the beach on their way to court a nymph named Tyro. The dog bit a sea snail, and the snail's blood dyed the dog's mouth Tyrian purple. Seeing this, the nymph demanded a gown of the same color, and the result was the origin of purple dye.
The rarest was the chunk of Tyrian purple. The dye was made from snails and was more valuable than gold. Other finds include more than 550 Roman coins, 300 hair pins and semi-precious gemstones.
Costly and labor-intensive dyes Tyrian purple (or "royal purple") and tekhelet were historically made by the ancient Phoenicians and Jews respectively, using mucus from the hypobranchial gland of two species commonly referred to as "murex", Murex brandaris and Murex trunculus, which are the older names for Bolinus brandaris and Hexaplex trunculus.
The lump of Tyrian purple dye found at the Carlisle Cricket Club is “roughly the size of a ping pong ball,” BBC reported.
Structural formula of murex-based tyrian purple, the red-purple dye present in tekhelet indigo before explosure to sunlight. (note the two bromides: in marine environments, sodium bromide is abundant. It is far less abundant in terrestrial environments)
Bolinus brandaris (originally called Murex brandaris by Linnaeus and also Haustellum brandaris), and commonly known as the purple dye murex or the spiny dye-murex, is a species of medium-sized predatory sea snail, an edible marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or the rock snails. [1]
The most famous purple dye in the ancient world was Tyrian purple, made from a type of sea snail called the murex, found around the Mediterranean. (See history section above). In western Polynesia, residents of the islands made a purple dye similar to Tyrian purple from the sea urchin.
It is carnivorous and predatory. [2] Although not as widely utilised as other murex species, such as Bolinus brandaris, Bolinus cornutus is one of the sea snail species from which a rich purple dye, generally referred to as Tyrian purple, can be extracted.