Treasures from the Sea: Sea Silk & Shellfish Purple Dye in Antiquity

This interdisciplinary volume presents a collection of 17 papers which treat the current state of research on two marine resources used in ancient textile manufacture, shellfish purple dye and sea silk. Purple dye is extracted from the glands of the mollusks Hexaplex trunculus, Bolinus Brandaris and Stramonita Haemastoma which through a chemical reaction of photosynthesis produces hues ranging from dark red to bluish purple color. The importance of purple dye since ancient times as a status symbol, a sign of royal and religious power is well documented. Papers include the study of epigraphical and historical sources, practical experiments as well as, highlighting the presence of purple dye in the Mediterranean area in select archaeological data. Less well known is sea silk, a precious fiber derived from the tufts of the pen shell, Pinna nobilis, with which the mollusk anchors itself to the seabed. These tufts once cleaned and bleached take the aspect of golden thread. Only a handful of artisans on Sardinia still have the knowledge of how to work these fibers from the pen shell, a species protected by the EU Habitats Directive, the knowledge having been transmitted orally for generations. Papers include linguistic issues pertaining to terminology, archaeological investigation, the study of the physical and chemical properties of sea silk and the step-by-step practical working of sea silk fibers. The comprehensive multifaceted overview makes this book a valuable resource for anyone interested in ancient textiles, dyes and textile technology.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Introduction
by Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Francesco Meo

1. Byssus and Sea Silk: A Linguistic Problem With Consequences
by Felicitas Maeder

2. Morphology, Properties and Microscopical Identification of Sea Silk
by Anne Sicken

3. Tangled Threads. Byssus and Sea Silk in the Bronze Age: an Interdisciplinary Approach
by Elena Soriga and Alfredo Carannante

4. Finds of Pinna Nobilis, Hexaplex Trunculus and Evidence For a Specialized Textile Production in Aetolian Chalkis
by Sanne Houby-Nielsen

5. Taras and Sea Silk
by Francesco Meo

6. Dal bisso grezzo al filato di bisso / From Raw Sea Silk to Byssus Thread
by Assuntina Pes and Giuseppina Pes

7. Dyeing Wool And Sea Silk With Purple Pigment From Hexaplex Trunculus
by Inge Boesken Kanold

8. Recent Advances in the Understanding of the Chemistry of Tyrian Purple Production From Mediterranean Molluscs
by Chris Cooksey

9. Mari(ne) Purple: Western Textile Technology in Middle Bronze Age Syria
by Elena Soriga

10. The Spread of Purple Dyeing in the Eastern Mediterranean - A Transfer of Technological Knowledge?
by Christoph Kremer

11. Sacred Colours: Purple Textiles in Greek Sanctuaries in the Second Half of the 1st Millennium BC
by Cecilie Brøns

12. «A Lydian chiton with a purple fringe...»: The Gift of the Garment to the Hera of Samos and Hera of Sele
by Bianca Ferrara

13. Purple For the Masses? Shellfish Purple Dyed Textiles From the Quarry Workers’ Cemetery at Strozzacapponi (Perugia/Corciano), Italy
by Margarita Gleba, Ina Vanden Berghe and Luana Cenciaioli

14. Historical Outline and Chromatic Properties of Purpura Rubra Tarentina and Its Potential Identification With Purple Dye Extracted From Bolinus Brandaris
by Fabienne Meiers

15. "Purple Wars": Fishing Rights and Political Conflicts Concerning the Production of Marine Dyes in Hellenistic Greece
by Carmen Alfaro Giner and Francisco Javier Fernández Nieto

16. Purpurarii in the Western Mediterranean
by Benedict J. Lowe

17. Shell Purple-dye Production in the Mediterranean Basin
by David S. Reese