Holy snails!
December 20, 2005 10:26 PM Subscribe
A rabbi, some snails, the color purple, and a 1,500 year old mystery. By puzzling through various sources, a group of researchers and religious scholars think they have found in the mollusk Murex trunculus the source of a purplish dye that was used in ancient Jewish ceremonies over a millennia and a half ago. Murex has been used for the last 3,600 years to make Imperial or Tyrian Purple, a key color in the ancient world. There are many other pigments with their own interesting stories as well.
This reminds me of a dig I was participating in back in 2000 in ancient Carthage, arguably the greatest Phoenician colony.
The Punic layers of our digs were replete with murex shells. I saved one and have it my souvenir cabinet at home in, of course, Phoenix, Arizona...
posted by darkstar at 5:05 AM on December 21, 2005
The Punic layers of our digs were replete with murex shells. I saved one and have it my souvenir cabinet at home in, of course, Phoenix, Arizona...
posted by darkstar at 5:05 AM on December 21, 2005
This reminds me of a dig I was participating in back in 2000 in ancient Carthage,
I bet you don't get to drop that in conversation just every day, but it must be sweet when you can.
Cool post, blah. "Small mollusc of the Tideless Sea" is a front-runner among great first lines of poetry.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:32 AM on December 21, 2005
I bet you don't get to drop that in conversation just every day, but it must be sweet when you can.
Cool post, blah. "Small mollusc of the Tideless Sea" is a front-runner among great first lines of poetry.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:32 AM on December 21, 2005
So somebody finally got around to asking a Palestinian, what a discovery!
posted by Pollomacho at 6:46 AM on December 21, 2005
posted by Pollomacho at 6:46 AM on December 21, 2005
I actually visited the P'til Tekhelet centre when I was in Israel, and got a hands-on demonstration of the dye extraction process. Fascinating stuff! (I especially liked the part where they asked me to cut out the dye gland of the Murex -- it's tiny!)
posted by greatgefilte at 6:54 AM on December 21, 2005
posted by greatgefilte at 6:54 AM on December 21, 2005
Oh, and despite my little ribbing, nice post, thanks!
posted by Pollomacho at 7:33 AM on December 21, 2005
posted by Pollomacho at 7:33 AM on December 21, 2005
This is a fantastic book about colours and also mentions murex.
I liked the section about cochineal better though... those little bugs have some wierd history.
posted by GuyZero at 7:48 AM on December 21, 2005
I liked the section about cochineal better though... those little bugs have some wierd history.
posted by GuyZero at 7:48 AM on December 21, 2005
This is a great post! Thanks. I've always been fascinated by natural dyes.
posted by LeeJay at 9:37 AM on December 21, 2005
posted by LeeJay at 9:37 AM on December 21, 2005
Does this mean I have to buy a new tallis?
Come mister tallit man tally me banana...
posted by Pollomacho at 10:09 AM on December 21, 2005
Come mister tallit man tally me banana...
posted by Pollomacho at 10:09 AM on December 21, 2005
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Sorry - organic chemistry flashback...
posted by PurplePorpoise at 11:34 PM on December 20, 2005