Tyrian Purple

Natural · Antiquity

Source material

Mucus secretion of Murex sea snails

Geography

Eastern Mediterranean, particularly Phoenicia (the city of Tyre)

Earliest documented use

At least the 2nd millennium BCE

Cost & availability

Enormously expensive; the sheer number of snails required made it one of the costliest dyes in antiquity.

Production (historical summary)

Extracted from the mucus gland of thousands of Murex sea snails per small quantity of dye.

Stability & lightfastness

Highly colourfast — notably resistant to fading, unusual for an ancient dye. (excellent)

Replacement / obsolescence

Production declined after the fall of Byzantium; modern purple dyes are synthetic.