Review and New Evidence on the Molluscan Purple Pigment Used in the Early Late Bronze Age Aegean Wall Paintings

Sophia Sotiropoulou,Ioannis Karapanagiotis,Toula Marketou,Marisa Marthari,Konstantinos S Andrikopoulos,Kiki Birtacha

doi:10.3390/heritage4010010

Abstract

The production and use of the pigment extracted from the murex molluscs is discussed here in association with the purple textile dyeing industry in the Prehistoric Aegean. “True” purple has been identified in a number of archaeological finds dating from the early Late Bronze Age, found in old and recent excavations at three different but contemporary sites: Akrotiri and Raos on Thera, and Trianda on Rhodes. The chemical composition of the shellfish purple pigment either found in lump form or applied on wall paintings is discussed in relation to the archaeological context of several examined finds and with reference to Pliny’s purpurissum. The results of a comprehensive methodology combining new data obtained with molecular spectroscopies (microRaman and FTIR) and already reported data obtained with high performance liquid chromatography coupled with a diode array detector (HPLC–DAD) applied to samples of the murex purple finds are discussed in comparison to published data relating to few other instances of analytically proven murex purple pigment found in the Aegean over the timespan of its documented exploitation.

Highlights

The exploitation of molluscs providing the fabulous purple dye in the Prehistoric Aegean, as evidenced by archaeological research, illuminates many aspects of the societies that developed it and bequeathed it to subsequent civilizations.The production at a commercial scale of “true purple” dye, obtained from the secretions of shellfish species native to the Mediterranean Sea, had a significant social and economic impact in the Aegean Bronze Age
The question of whether the secret of the purple dyeing process and its exceptional properties was first discovered in the Aegean or the Levant has yet to be resolved, but given the established trading relations between the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean coasts in the middle of the second millennium BC, it is reasonable to suggest that the process of extracting a commercial dye from murex species may have been practiced contemporaneously in many of the important Eastern Mediterranean centers, where familiarity with marine molluscs is evidenced by the shell middens, as well as by shells found in second uses [10]
This paper comparatively examines the results of the analysis of samples from three archaeological finds of the purple pigment in lump form, coming from the excavations of Akrotiri on Thera and Trianda on Rhodes, as well as of a representative sample from a purple paint detail on a wall painting at the recently excavated (2009–2012) Raos site, Thera, in which the valuable pigment was used

Summary

Introduction

The exploitation of molluscs providing the fabulous purple dye (in Greek, porphyra =πoρφύρα) in the Prehistoric Aegean, as evidenced by archaeological research, illuminates many aspects of the societies that developed it and bequeathed it to subsequent civilizations.The production at a commercial scale of “true purple” dye, obtained from the secretions of shellfish species native to the Mediterranean Sea, had a significant social and economic impact in the Aegean Bronze Age. The question of whether the secret of the purple dyeing process and its exceptional properties was first discovered in the Aegean or the Levant has yet to be resolved, but given the established trading relations between the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean coasts in the middle of the second millennium BC, it is reasonable to suggest that the process of extracting a commercial dye from murex species may have been practiced contemporaneously in many of the important Eastern Mediterranean centers, where familiarity with marine molluscs is evidenced by the shell middens, as well as by shells found in second uses (mortar, etc.) [10]

Methods

Results

Conclusion