Inventions & Discoveries · Chemistry

Tyrian purple

Also known as purple-dyed, murex

Tyrian purple is a deep purple dye produced from murex sea snails, named after the Phoenician city of Tyre. Its production required huge numbers of shellfish, making it extremely costly and a symbol of royalty and high status. Accounts of the Punic Empire treat purple-dyed textiles as a valuable product of Phoenician and Carthaginian commerce.

Tyrian purple
Image: Photograph: U.Name.Me; derivative work by TeKaBe · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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First known
20th–18th century BCE
Where
Crete

NoteThe Minoans may have pioneered the dye; the Phoenicians of Tyre, after whom it is named, may have used it from about 1570 BCE.

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Mentioned in 2 profiles

Punic EmpireSocioeconomyPhoenicianssociety, Summary

Mentioned in 2 state histories

TyreHermione

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Tyrian purple. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tyrian-purple
MLA
“Tyrian purple.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tyrian-purple. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Tyrian purple.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tyrian-purple.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Tyrian purple’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tyrian-purple (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻