#tyrian purple

[colour-is-its-own-reward]

Tyrian Purple

Evie Hatch: 'the impression of that tiny head and the swaddling shroud in the gypsum breaks my heart.

some notes:

middens of dog whelk shells have been found in Ireland dating from the Mesolithic until the early christian period, but dog-whelk purple hasn't been identified in any surviving material. Remember though that textiles are rare survivals, and absence of evidence is *not* evidence of an absence of practice.

Tyrian Purple from the Roman period is a very rare find in Britain, the only other example is a lump of TP encased in beeswax, found in Carlisle in 2024, and it dates to the 3rd century.

one of these children was around two, the other was just a few months old. There were rules prohibiting public grieving for young children, but burying them with such expensive materials tells it's own story

artworks:

all images from the find in York from the Seeing the Dead project (seeingthedead.ac.uk) which is investigating gypsum burials in Roman Yorkshire

Funerary portrait of a Young Girl (c. 25-37 AD). Encaustic on linden, Cleveland Museum of Art

Peter Ustinov as the Emperor Nero in Quo Vadis (1951)

Fayum Mummy Portrait (100-120 BCE). Encaustic on limewood (linden). British Museum

Nicolaus Germanus, Map of Ireland as described by Ptolemy (1467). Ink and colour on parchment, National Library of Poland

Bust of the Roman Emperor Vespasian, marble, Bardo National Museum

Fayum Portrait of a Boy (c. 30 BCE - 306 AD). Encaustic on wood, Egyptian Museum Cairo'

[ancientstuff]

Rare Tyrian purple reveals elite Roman infant burials in York

Two infants buried in Roman York were laid to rest in costly purple cloth normally reserved for emperors and members of the aristocracy, new

This is kind of incredible, I think, that children were buried with such expensive materials. The very highest élite, I would imagine.

[psyche-official]

color of the day #164

color: tyrian purple word: psychic (adj.) relating to or denoting phenomena that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws rating: 6/10 i like this shade of purple but it’s not my fav

@evyyy77 @thedamsolangelofan

[psyche-official]

color of the day #51

color: tyrian purple

word" cynosure (n.) a center of attention

rating: 8/10 cool color

@evyyy77

[ancient-rome-au]

Discovery in the Judean Desert Reveals a Widespread Practice of Forging Royal Purple Garments in Ancient Rome

Clothing in antiquity functioned as an immediately legible social code, a woven system of signs in which the appearance of a garment, the na

There was such a thing as "counterfeit" Tyrian purple. Incredible.

[honorthegods]

Discovery in the Judean Desert Reveals a Widespread Practice of Forging Royal Purple Garments in Ancient Rome

Clothing in antiquity functioned as an immediately legible social code, a woven system of signs in which the appearance of a garment, the na

"Laboratory tests confirmed that the vast majority of these fabrics had not been dyed using the murex snail. Far from containing the mollusk’s biomarker molecule, the fibers had acquired their apparent opulence through a double-dyeing method that used two plant-based dyes widely known and used in the textile industry of the time: madder (Rubia tinctorum), whose roots provided a red pigment, and woad (Isatis tinctoria), regarded as the indigo of the Near East, whose leaves produced a blue color."

[mydonkeyfeet]

I forget if I showed the beautiful Tyrian purple that they made in the synthesis chemistry lab that I collaborated with at the art museum. They’ve been synthesizing mostly blue pigments and dyes from throughout history. This was my first time seeing Tyrian purple in person and I was so excited!

Historically it was made from murex snails and was hugely expensive and used by royalty, but chemically it’s similar to indigo so the class was able to create it in the lab without snails.

[gradienty]

Tyrian Purple French Rose (#5c0453 to #f2458d)