AN EXPERT has recreated a mysterious ancient pigment that has been lost for centuries – and was once worth three times its weight in gold.
Mohammed Ghassen Nouira from Tunis, Tunisia, now displays pigments and dyed products resembling true Tyrian purple at exhibitions all over the world.
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One of the most legendary commodities in the ancient world, the reddish-purple natural dye began as a clear fluid produced by sea snails in the Murex family. More specifically, it was mucous.
Extracting this dye involved tens of thousands of snails and substantial labour but by the 15th Century, the elaborate recipes to extract and process the dye had been lost.
But in a small garden hut in north-eastern Tunisia, Mohammed has spent most of the last 16 years attempting to produce something resembling the highly valued colour.
It began with his usual lunchtime walk on a beach on the outskirts of Tunis in September 2007.
“There had been a horrible storm the previous night, so there were a lot of dead creatures on the sand, like jellyfish, seaweeds, small crabs, molluscs,” Mohammed told the BBC.
The consulting manager then spotted a reddish-purple liquid oozing out of a cracked sea snail and was instantly reminded of a story he’d learned at school – the legend of Tyrian purple.
This dye became a sign of power for generational rulers, including Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, who became obsessed with it.
Tyrian purple has even been found in paintings dating back to the Bronze Age.
Nonetheless, Mohammed raced to the local harbour where he found a fisherman plucking the creatures out of his net and putting them in an old tomato can – which he took back to his apartment.
“My wife was horrified by the smell; she almost kicked me out of the house… But I had to carry on”, Mohammed said.
After a failed experiment that night, though, the Tunisian put it all in a bag to throw away.
But the next day, the bag’s contents had undergone a huge transformation.
“At that time, I had no clue that the purple was initially transparent – it’s like water,” Mohammed said.
In order to jolt the chemicals in Murex snails out of their colourless state, they need to be exposed to visible light.
However, this doesn’t instantly turn into Tyrian purple.
Even if the desired colour is achieved, there is still more processing to do to turn the pigments into a dye, such as converting them into forms that will stick to fabric.
Despite these difficulties, Mohammed wanted to make it the old way, and rediscover the authentic shade that was venerated for millennia.
It was years before he made his first powdered dye but even then it was nothing like Tyrian purple – and extremely dusty.
But after more years of trial and error, Mohammed eventually ended up with pure pigments and dyes that he thinks are uncannily close to true Tyrian purple.
“It [the colour] is very alive, very dynamic,” he says. “Depending on the light, it shifts and shimmers… it keeps changing and playing tricks on your eyes.”
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Mohammed has already exhibited his work at the British Museum in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, while he has even become a culinary expert on sea snail recipes.
But with Murex sea snails under threat from a barrage of human influences, Tyrian purple is already under threat from being lost once more.
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