A rare item that was once considered to be something worth more than gold was found at an archaeological site in the United Kingdom. It was discovered during a 2023 excavation.
Rare Roman Object Worth More Than Gold
Archaeologists and volunteers joined the excavation conducted at a Roman bathhouse located within the grounds of a sports club in the city of Carlisle, northern England, in 2023. They found a lump made of a purple substance.
They later learned that the item was made of beeswax and contained the element bromine. It was reportedly a strong indication that the object was a solid sample of Tyrian purple -- a man-made pigment that was highly valued in the Roman era.
A number of species of carnivorous sea snails found in the Mediterranean region exude the purple pigment. Making Tyrian purple was a really challenging process. Thousands of marine snails had to be collected for the intricate process to be completed. To make only one gram of dye, it is anticipated that up to 12,000 individual mollusks would need to be processed.
Because of this, it was so costly in the Roman era that, pound for pound, it was worth more than gold. The pigment was often only used by the wealthiest members of society.
"For millennia, Tyrian purple was the world's most expensive and sought-after color," said Frank Giecco, an archaeologist with mining consultancy company Wardell Armstrong. He has been part of the excavations at the Carlisle site.
Per Giecco, discovering a solid sample, like the one from Carlisle, is especially uncommon. It's the only example of a solid sample of the pigment in the form of leftover paint pigment that we are aware of, and it may be the only one in the entire Roman Empire located in Northern Europe. Examples of it can be seen on high-status painted coffins from the Roman province of Egypt as well as wall paintings from places like Pompeii.
What is Tyrian Purple?
Tyrian purple was one of the most expensive and enigmatic historical dyes. It was first used by the Phoenicians, who reserved it for nobility, kings, and priests. It was extracted from the secretions of numerous mollusk species, including Purpura haemostoma and Murex brandaris.
Every species produces a mucus that may be used to extract dye, and every species produces a different hue. The slight variations in the dye extraction procedure also contribute to the diversity in Tyrian purple color.
It is a challenging procedure that necessitates a deep understanding of the biological systems involved. The process involves reduction and oxidation processes in addition to biochemical, enzymatic, and photochemical reactions.
The intricate method of dyeing using murex and purpura entails extracting the liquid while the mollusk is still alive and exposing it to sunlight for a predetermined amount of time, during which the color of the dye changes. To make one gram of dye, up to 12,000 mollusks are required.
Since the dye starts to fade as soon as the snail is taken out of the water, timing is also crucial. Therefore, historically, the locations of production facilities were next to the sites of harvesting.
The Caesars of Rome proclaimed it their official hue and asserted their exclusive right to produce it. The European knowledge of purple dyeing vanished with the fall of the Roman and Byzantine Empires, and by the fourteenth century, the secrets of Tyrian purple had been forgotten. The approach was just rediscovered in 2001 as a result of recent experiments.
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