Tel Shiqmona during the Iron Age: A first glimpse into an ancient Mediterranean purple dye 'factory.'Golan Shalvi/Naama Sukenik/Ayelet Gilboa
Posted on 04/20/2025 8:47:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
For the first time, archaeologists discovered an industrial purple-dye factory that remained in business for 500 years between 1100 and 600 BCE in Israel, highlighting a famous and mysterious color in textile history.
The color purple had long symbolized political and spiritual authority and wealth. However, until now, little evidence has surfaced of a physical location where extraction and processing took place.
A team from the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University and the University of Chicago recently uncovered the first site in "the entire world" at the fishing village of Tel Shiqmona on Israel's Carmel coast. And the number and diversity of artifacts discovered were "unparalleled," according to a study published in PLOS.
The groundbreaking discovery serves as a first benchmark for the future; Tel Shiqmona might assist archaeologists in locating more purple-dye production sites, as demand was high in Biblical times.
The ancient luxury production house first surfaced in crushed shells. The raw material was green, then purple when exposed to the air. The process for dyeing fleeces and fibers involved a complex system of harvesting mollusks, their storage, dye extraction, preparation of the dyeing solution, and the actual dyeing, the study explains...
The team identified 176 artifacts associated with the dye production or involved in the dyeing process.
(Excerpt) Read more at interestingengineering.com ...
Tel Shiqmona during the Iron Age: A first glimpse into an ancient Mediterranean purple dye 'factory.'Golan Shalvi/Naama Sukenik/Ayelet Gilboa
A coward dyes a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once..................
Could this portend the scholars finding the holy blue dye, Techelet, from the Bible and what might come after.
Yes, purple was a color for wealth and power.
But in feudal Japan it was the color of illness.
Go figure.
Tried to find my pastor son a tallit done with this particular dye when I visited to no avail.
I got him one beautifully embroidered from an artisan with the ancient landscape of Jerusalem from a reputable store in the Jewish district.
I was wondering the same thing:
I once addressed an envelope in red ink, and my Korean friend was horrified. She said it signified death, in her culture.
Lydia of Thyatira was a seller of purple, as described in the book Acts of the Apostles (written at about 60-70 AD.)
FYI
Coal tar. By accident with this stuff a man found out he could make purple dye . He became very rich. Only recently has the chemical structure been mapped.
The inventor of the first man made purple dye.
They recently found that blue dye, actually.
It’s from a shellfish called chilazon.
Strange but true.
Purple is not a color in the visual spectrum. The brain interprets the combination of red and blue wavelengths as purple. While violet, which is a spectral color, exists within the visible light spectrum, purple is a nonspectral color that the brain creates to make sense of the mixed wavelengths.
Wow! I had no idea that the Palestinians had a purple dye factory that far back. Even before the time of Sheik Solomon! (?sarc)
Thanks, SunkenCiv.
My pleasure.
Now the PALEOstinians will claim the Jooooooz stole their favorite color.
PALEOSTINE WILL BE DIED - from the mollusk to the shell, the sea-borne creatures will be free!
The originator of the quote might have been okay if only he’d come out of his shell. /rimshot
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