The color purple has always played an important role in societies across the world. In the past, purple was seen as an expensive and luxury color that only the wealthiest of people could afford. This is why, when looking back at medieval nobles and royalties, we are able to find items that have been dyed purple or inlaid with the purple gemstone amethyst. This is the same when it comes to the ancient Egyptians.
To the ancient Egyptians, colors were more than just colors. Depending on their tone, hue and tint, the meaning and significance could change completely. For them, it was not only the rarity that played a part in why they wore clothing and jewelry of a certain color, but also because of their meaning. Purple dye and the gemstone amethyst in its own right both had a large role in ancient Egyptian society.
The ancient Egyptians had a purple pigment, known as tyrian purple, which was extracted from the hypobranchial gland of sea and rock snails. These glands produced a predatory mucus that turned purple when it was exposed to oxygen. Capturing the snails and extracting their mucus was a long and strainful process, especially since it took over 10.000 snails to produce a single gram of dye. This is the reason why the tyrian purple was expensive and why only the wealthy were able to afford it. It continued to be seen as an expensive ware until the Roman Period (30 BCE - 395 CE) when purple clothing began to spread amongst the common people. The reason for this was because of a new method of producing purple dye. This dye was made by crushing and extracting the liquids from plants, lichen and insects. It was seen as a cheap variant of lower quality, but that did not really matter when the common folk finally were able to wear similar clothes as that of royalty.
Clothes were not the only thing the ancient Egyptians wore that had the color purple. The gemstone amethyst has a wide gradient of purple that goes from a deep indigo to a bright pink. The amethyst first began to appear during the Predynastic Period (c. 5300-3000 BCE) as small beads strung together for funeral contexts. But as the dynasties went on, it became an important mineral that was implemented into jewelry such as amulets, bracelets, necklaces and rings. It reached its peak of popularity at the end of the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BCE) but then started to lose its grandeur during the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BCE), and stayed like that until the Roman Period when it finally regained its popularity again.
The ancient Egyptians were believed to have had multiple quarries where they mined the purple gemstone. They mined amethyst in Wadi Abu Had (located in the Northern part of the Eastern Desert) during the First Dynasty (c. 3000-2890 BCE). Stela Ridge (located in Gebel el-Asr), and previously mentioned in the article “Gemstones in ancient Egypt: Carnelian”, was used to mine amethyst during the Middle Kingdom and the Roman Period. The primary quarry for extracting amethyst however, was in the Wadi el-Hudi region which is located about 35 kilometers southeast of Aswan. This quarry was heavily mined between the Eleventh Dynasty (2055-1985 BCE) and the end of the Middle Kingdom. Since the amethyst is a 7 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, the ancient Egyptians must have used mining tools of a higher quality to extract the mineral from their quarries. This also means that the gemcutter who had to shape the mineral into a bead, amulet or other intricate object had to have been a master craftsman that could afford proper tools as well. These things, together with the gems sought after color, increased its value tremendously.
Text: Christoffer Ek. MENAM Archaeology. Copyright 2022.
Further reading:
Bloxam, E. 2010. Quarrying and Mining (Stone), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology
Gates G, Wu Y, Burns J, Watkins J, Butt DP. 2020. Microstructural and chemical characterization of a purple pigment from a Faiyum mummy portrait. Int J Ceramic Eng Sci. 2021;3: 4–17
Gilg, A. 2012. Ancient Gems: Egyptian amethyst. In Gilg, A., ed., Amethyst: Uncommon Vintage. Denver: Lithographie. 22-25.
Gilg, A. 2012. In the Beginning: The Origins of Amethyst, In Gilg, A., ed., Amethyst: Uncommon Vintage. Denver: Lithographie. 10-13.
Nicholson, P.T. & Shaw, I. 2000 Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Cambridge
Shaw, I. 1993. ‘Amethyst Mining at Wadi el-Hudi.’ The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 79. 81-97.
Images (1-4):
1. Amethyst Scarab (ca. 1981–1950 BCE) (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
2. The sea snail species (Hexaplex trunculus, Bolinus brandaris & Stramonita haemostoma) and the tone each one gives (Veropoulidou, Rena. (2012). The Tyrian Purple, a “royal” dye.)
3. Schematic map of the Wadi el-Hudi region, showing the principal sites (Shaw, I. 1993)
4. Mohs scale of mineral hardness (MENAM Archaeology)
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