Pigments, Purple, and the Phoenicians

Herodotus, the “father of modern history,” a Persian subject, wrote his famous book, Histories, a detailed account of the Greco-Persian wars, the lives of important kings, and famous battles such as Marathon. He provided a cultural background to battles from the standpoint of geography, ethnography, and historiography.

His contemporaries accused him of providing “legends and fanciful accounts” in his Histories. Herodotus defended himself that he wrote what he “saw and [what was] told to him.” But a large portion of his accounts have been confirmed by modern historians and archeologists.

Herodotus traveled extensively, collecting materials and impressions for his book. On this journey of historical discovery, Herodotus, not a rich man, was probably a sailor and merchant, the preferred trades of most adventurers of those times.

Herodotus wrote about the Phoenicians, inhabitants of a coastal strip of land in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, land that is today Lebanon. The Bible refers to these Phoenicians as Canaanites.

Phoenicia translates as the “land of purple.” Famous for their rare and beautiful purple dye, Phoenicians from the cities of Sidon and Tyre also made fine glassware, colored beads, bottles, vases, goblets, delicate carvings of wood and ivory, richly embroidered fabrics, and decorative items made of precious metals.

Homer described Sidonian silver as “the most beautiful in the world.” When craftsmen from Tyre built Solomon’s temple and palace, they decorated it with exquisite ornaments of gold and silver.

Invaders forced the Canaanites in 1200 B.C. to start a maritime empire as traders along the Mediterranean between 12^th and 8^th centuries B.C., covering its ports of the known world at the time.

Inventors of glass blowing and of an alphabet that eventually became the basis of most written alphabets, the Phoenicians were also recognized for their purple dye which Imperial Romans used to color their official togas adorned with Tyrian purple.

Purple symbolized power and rank in the Roman Empire. Emperors adorned their bodies with purple tunics, senators wore tunics with a double purple stripe down the front; and other nobles wore a narrow stripe down from each shoulder.

The purple dye survived as a commodity long after the western Roman Empire had fallen. Europeans bought the dye from Levant through the Middle Ages. Phoenicia had fallen by then to the Saracens (North African Muslims).

How did the Phoenicians make their sought-after and expensive purple dye? Their shores were blessed with two kinds of shellfish, the murex and the buccinum. Each had a long sack or vein filled with a yellow fluid which turned purple when exposed to light. In the Phoenician main cities, Tyre and Sidon, the dye harvesting became a major industry.

To trap the mollusks, the fishermen gathered them in deep water in narrow-opened baskets baited with mussels and frog meat. Once trapped, the shells were brought to dye pits where the sacks were removed, pulped, and heated in vessels made of lead in the process of removing any other biological matter present. According to historians, a “fixative” was added to make the dye color fast.

The mollusk pits were located away from residential areas as the smell around them was quite unbearable and it took three days for the fluid to dry. Tons of shells were found near Tyre and Sidon, evidence of the massive overfishing which caused near-extinction of the murex and buccinum in the waters of Phoenicia.

It was estimated that 10,000 shellfish produced just one gram of Tyrian purple dye, just enough pigment to dye the hem of one garment. Wearing something dyed fully in some shade of purple would have cost a fortune.

Next time you wear purple, remember the expensive Tyrian purple. Beautiful pigments have been a luxury for century for most humans, only the rich could afford stunning-colored silks and cloth.

Some paint pigments were rare and quite expensive during George Washington’s time. For example, he imported a beautiful teal green color paint from England to have his dining room walls covered in this shade at Mount Vernon.

Another rare and expensive color is Lapis Lazuli blue. As a matter of fact, the only people who used it first were the ancient Egyptians. Lapis Lazuli blue was priced as its weight in gold. This Lapis Lazuli blue did not come to Europe until the 14^th century.

A more recent color is YInMn Blue, discovered by researchers at the University of Oregon in 2009, used in plastics and industrial coating by 2017 and accepted as safe by EPA in 2021. A mere 1.3 oz. cost $179.40.

Old Masters’ pigments were made of various minerals and clay. An interesting color, Prussian Blue, was invented in 1710, the first modern synthetic pigment made by oxidation of ferrous ferrocyanide salts, replacing the expensive lapis lazuli dye. Cobalt Blue was invented in early 19^th century.

A perfectly red color is vermilion, a scarlet pigment from a mineral, cinnabar (kinnabari in Greek) born from volcanic activity and alkaline hot springs. The crystals are red in color but also contain a heavy silvery-white toxic liquid metal element of mercury. Cinnabar used to be called “dragon’s blood.” It was used in antiquity by many cultures.

Luxurious color hues, azure blue, flaming reds, vibrant greens, pure gold were shades that once only the rich could afford. The vast array of artificial colors today gives us a range of beautiful garments that are in some way, richer than the richest royals ever had and any ordinary citizen can afford them. It does not cost a fortune to have one’s favorite gown dyed a certain color.

Having grown up in the poverty of communism, our clothes and school uniforms came in the ugliest, drabbest shades of black, brown, ink blue, and grey. But, using plant pigments she found in the country, grandma was able to dye scratchy wool yarn strange shades of green, yellow, ochre, and a washed-up maroon. I made a promise to myself that, if I was ever able to afford beautiful clothes, I would only wear bright colors, hence my fascination with Lilly Pulitzer prints and vivid colors.