Throughout the Iron Age , wealthy elite and royals swanned around the Mediterranean bedight out in imperial robes – although where and how these aureate garments acquired their aubergine hues has until now remained a mystery . Yet the generator of a new study cover the discovery of an industrial - shell purple dye shop near Haifa , Israel , which moil out vats of the luxuriouspigmentfor a period of about half a millennium .
" [ over-embellished dye ] is made from a gland obtain in themarine molluskHexaplex trunculus , ” explained study authorGolan Shalviin an email to IFLScience . Green in color until exposed to atmosphere , the means is actually a mucus that the ocean snail secretes as a mean of defending itself .
“ Finding bombastic quantities of these mollusks , extracting the glands with precision , and prepare the dye through complex redox chemical substance process required howling campaign and skill , ” said Shalvi . “ As a solution , only the elite could give it , and it became a symbolisation of wealth , power , and holiness – used by rulers , mellow priests , and for temple worship . "
Large numbers of purple dye-stained tools were found at Tel Shiqmona.Image credit: Maria Bukin/Shalvi et al., 2025, PLOS One,CC-BY 4.0
Known asTyrian purple , the exclusive dyestuff was typically used on woollen textiles , and the Assumption of Mary is that there must have been at least one installation pump out tons of the stuff and nonsense somewhere in the Middle East . However , Shalvi notes that “ despite extensive scholarship on the subject , production installations for violet dyestuff had never been clearly identified – at least not for the Iron Age . ”
Yet at the archaeologic web site of Tel Shiqmona , the study authors came across the remains of numerous dye - stain vats , each of which hold up to 350 cubic decimetre of the purple fluid . It goes without enounce , but that equates to a hell of a fate of snails .
found on the legion layers of sediment hold in tinted artefact , the researchers reckon that Tel Shiqmona was in operation between approximately 1100 and 600 BCE , with yield only grinding to a stop once the Babylonian ground forces flattened the realm .
" Thepurple dyeproduction land site at Tel Shiqmona is olympian in the broader archaeological record , ” said Shalvi . “ It contains more ancient purple - dye stained uncovering than all other known sites around the Mediterranean combined . "
In total , the researchers identified 176 particular have-to doe with to majestic dye production at the land site , of which 135 hold visible traces of the ancient substance . The only locating in the public with evidence for orotund - scale , free burning production of Tyrian purple , Tel Shiqmona belike also suffice for the dying of fibre and wool , which would have been dipped into the very vats that were used for stool the colorant .
What ’s more , the study authors note that the output operation took place inwardly , rather than in external configurations where the smell of the shellfish mucus would have been less consuming . “ The stench must have been especially acute when the site was enclosed by a defensive paries [ during part of its history ] ” , they write .
The work has been published in the journalPLOS ONE .
