Rediscovering the Past: Unveiling the Rare Beauty of Tyrian Purple in Carlisle’s Roman Bath Excavation
In the city of Carlisle, northern England, archaeologists and volunteers recently discovered a rare object during an excavation of a Roman bath. The object, made of a soft purple substance, contained beeswax and the element bromine, indicating that it is a solid sample of Tyrian purple dye. This discovery has sparked interest in the history of this valuable artificial pigment used by the Romans.
Tyrian purple was secreted by some carnivorous sea snails living in the Mediterranean region. Producing this dye was extremely difficult, requiring thousands of sea snails to create just 1 gram of dye. Frank Giecco, an archaeologist with mining consultancy Wardell Armstrong, described Tyrian purple as the most expensive and sought-after color in the world throughout history.
The Phoenicians first produced Tyrian purple in the 2nd millennium BC in Tire, Lebanon, and other Mediterranean areas. The dye was used for various purposes such as painting frescoes and textiles. Sarah Irving from Cumberland Council revealed that the dye sample found at Carlisle could have been used for frescoes painting.
The discovery of this rare solid sample represents possibly the only unused paint pigment in the Roman empire. It sheds light on the intricate and costly process of creating this highly valued dye in ancient times. Newsweek reported on May 3 that this finding will give researchers more insight into how these ancient cultures lived and what they valued most highly.
