Across the ancient Mediterranean, few luxury commodities were as prized, rare, and expensive as Tyrian purple, a dye used in ...

Beginning around 3000 years ago, Tel Shiqmona in modern-day Israel was a major centre for the production of Tyrian purple, a ...

Located at Tel Shiqmona in coastal Israel, the facility turned sea snails into purple dye at an industrial scale ...

Archaeologists have uncovered a reeking, violet-stained factory where crushed sea snails once fueled the elite’s obsession ...

Ancient Tel Shiqmona site yields first evidence of large-scale purple dye production centuries before Roman times, possibly ...

The Phoenicians developed their ancient civilization with profits from the lucrative maritime trade of the Mediterranean.

“Early in the Iron Age, Tel Shiqmona was a small Phoenician village already engaged in purple dye production, though not yet on an industrial scale, similar to other Phoenician sites in the ...

New research led by the University of Haifa revealed direct evidence of tools used for large-scale production of luxurious purple dye at Tel Shikmona during the Iron Age (1100-600 BCE ...

Photo of body sherds of purple dye vats with purple dye remains. Credit must be given to the creator.

The Phoenician culture emerged in the Bronze Age city-states of the Levant, developing prominent innovations such as the first alphabet (from which many present-day writing systems derive).