Treasures from the Sea: Purple Dye and Sea Silk

by Hedvig Landenius Enegren (Editor), Francesco Meo (Editor)

Overview

Purple dye is extracted from the glands of the molluscs 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. Less well known is sea silk, a precious fiber derived from the tufts of the pen shell, Pinna nobilis, a UNESCO protected species, 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, the knowledge having been transmitted orally for generations

In this new review of latest research, 17 papers concentrate on two marine resources used in ancient textile manufacture: shellfish purple dye and sea silk. 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 the archaeological data and in new research contexts; 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 collection a valuable resource for anyone interested in ancient textiles, dyes and textile technology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785704369
Publisher:	Oxbow Books
Publication date:	04/30/2017
Series:	Ancient textiles , #30
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	49 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Hedvig Landenius Enegren is a researcher affiliated with the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research (CTR), University of Copenhagen. She trained as an archaeologist in Stockholm and Uppsala and her research spans from Aegean Late Bronze Age and Eastern Mediterranean epigraphy of the first millennium BCE to ancient textiles and textile tool technology. She is currently conducting research on the textile tool material from Grotta Vanella at Segesta, Sicily.
Francesco Meo is a researcher and Adjunct Professor at the University of Salento, Italy and teaches the Archaeology of Magna Graecia. He is currently the Scientific Director of the Muro Leccese Archaeological Project, a Messapian indigenous settlement in the southern Puglia region in Italy. His research explores textile production in southern Italy between the Iron Age and the Roman Empire and the changes of the Messapian indigenous society between the Iron Age and the arrival of the Romans in the 3rd century BC.

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