The Guardian reports: The shellfish that was one of the main sources of Tyrian purple – one of the most storied and valuable trading products in the ancient world – has disappeared from the eastern Mediterranean coast, amid warnings of an ongoing multi-species collapse blamed on global rises in sea temperatures.
Described by Aristotle and Pliny among other ancient writers, Tyrian purple or imperial purple was a dye extracted from shellfish along the Levant coast and favoured by emperors and kings in a trade of huge value. Associated with royalty, clothes with purple in them were believed to convey high status.
A new Israeli survey of shallow water Mediterranean habitats has noted the almost total disappearance of stramonita haemastoma – the red-mouthed rock shell – which was one of the two main sources of the dyes.
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