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In the Ancient World, This Pigment Was Worth More Than Gold. Archaeologists Discovered It Buried With Babies in Roman Coffins
Key takeaways
- The funerary practice of pouring gypsum into ancient coffins means that imprints of clothing and bodies remain in burial sites in York, England.
- Last month, archaeologists shared that they discovered this precious pigment in cloth buried in the coffins of two babies in York, England.
- Tyrian purple dye, made in modern-day Lebanon through an elaborate process involving crushing thousands of murex sea snails, was worth more than its weight in gold.
The funerary practice of pouring gypsum into ancient coffins means that imprints of clothing and bodies remain in burial sites in York, England. University of York Centuries ago, there was a shade of purple so valuable that Cleopatra marked her sailboat with it; Roman emperors threatened to kill anyone else who used it; and the Catholic Church designated it for the garb of religious leaders and the decoration of holy texts.
Last month, archaeologists shared that they discovered this precious pigment in cloth buried in the coffins of two babies in York, England.
Tyrian purple dye, made in modern-day Lebanon through an elaborate process involving crushing thousands of murex sea snails, was worth more than its weight in gold. “It is not really easy to obtain the color,” said Ioannis Karapanagiotis, a scholar of conservation chemistry at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, to BBC News’ Zaria Gorvett in 2023.