![]() ![]() In Biblical Hebrew, which like Phoenician is a dialect of Canaanite, the Tyrian purple-red dye extracted from the Murex brandaris is known as shani שָׁנִי, but usually translated as 'scarlet'. The current range for this species is the "central and western Mediterranean" ![]() It consists of a fresh mucus secretion from the hypobranchial gland of a medium-sized predatory sea snail, the marine gastropod Murex brandaris modern name Bolinus brandaris (Linnaeus, 1758), commonly called the spiny dye-murex, a species in the family Muricidae, the murex or rock shells. The dye substance occurs naturally, but must be harvested by humans. Tyrian purple was expensive: the fourth-century BC historian Theopompus reported, "Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon" in Asia Minor. Tyrian purple (Greek: πορφύρα, porphyra, Latin: purpura), also known as royal purple or imperial purple, is a purple-red dye which was first produced by the ancient Phoenicians in the city of Tyre. ![]()
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