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Tyrian purple, the most prized dye of the ancient world, came from sea snails. It took about 12,000 of them to make 1.4 grams of dye, enough to colour only the trim of one garment.

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The story behind the card

The dye comes from a gland of several Mediterranean sea snails, mainly the spiny dye-murex. The fresh secretion is almost colourless and turns purple in air and sunlight. The name refers to Tyre, a Phoenician port in today's Lebanon and a centre of the trade. Snails left to rot in large vats gave the dye works a stench that ancient writers complained about. Roman emperors kept the finest purple for themselves, and the Byzantine court later reserved purple silk for imperial use; a child born to a reigning Byzantine emperor was called 'born in the purple'. The 12,000-snail figure comes from the German chemist Paul Friedländer, who in 1909 extracted the pure dye and showed that it is a close chemical relative of indigo.

Türkçe oku
Antik dünyanın en değerli boyası olan Sur moru, deniz salyangozlarından elde edilirdi. Yalnızca 1,4 gram boya için yaklaşık 12.000 salyangoz gerekiyordu; bu da tek bir giysinin kenar süsünü boyamaya ancak yeterdi.

Boya, başta Bolinus brandaris türü olmak üzere birkaç Akdeniz deniz salyangozunun bir bezinden elde edilir. Taze salgı neredeyse renksizdir; havayla ve güneş ışığıyla temas edince morarır. Adını, bugünkü Lübnan'da bulunan ve bu ticaretin merkezlerinden biri olan Fenike liman kenti Sur'dan (Tyros) alır. Büyük teknelerde çürümeye bırakılan salyangozlar boyahanelere öyle bir koku yayıyordu ki antik yazarlar bundan yakınmıştır. Roma imparatorları en iyi moru kendilerine ayırdı; daha sonra Bizans sarayı da mor ipeği imparatorluk ailesine özgü kıldı. Tahttaki bir Bizans imparatorunun çocuğuna “morda doğmuş” (Porfirogenetos) denirdi. 12.000 salyangoz hesabı, 1909'da saf boyayı elde eden ve onun çivit boyasının yakın bir kimyasal akrabası olduğunu gösteren Alman kimyager Paul Friedländer'e aittir.

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