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Screen capture from video of a murex mollusk. (YouTube)
A celebrated royal purple dye popular among ancient kings and
priests was already produced on an industrial scale in the Land of
Israel in biblical times, new research has shown.
The special dye is mentioned multiple times in the Hebrew Bible and
other historical sources as sought after by elites across the
Mediterranean, in two variations: purple (argaman in Hebrew) or blue (tchelet).
Now, a group of researchers has documented how the material was
produced for hundreds of years on Israel’s Carmel Coast, at the site of
Tel Shiqmona, a new paper
published in the prestigious PLOS ONE journal on Wednesday has
revealed. There, for the first time, the scholars have also identified
the tools used for production.
“Findings of purple dye from the Iron Age [1200-586 BCE] are
extremely rare,” Dr. Golan Shalvi from the University of Haifa, the lead
author of the paper, told The Times of Israel over the phone. “Tel
Shiqmona stands out because it yielded roughly twice as many artifacts
directly connected to the industry as all other known sites combined.”
A small archaeological mound situated on the outskirts of the modern
city of Haifa, Tel Shiqmona has been excavated multiple times since the
1960s, revealing remains spanning from the Late Bronze Age (1500-1150
BCE) to the Byzantine period (4th-7th century CE). However, the findings
from the most ancient periods were never properly published.
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In cooperation with other scholars, Shalvi conducted additional
excavations to clarify the site’s stratigraphy and re-examined the
evidence retrieved by previous expeditions.
A purple-dye large-scale production
facility operated at Tel Shiqmona for centuries during the Iron Age. A
picture of the excavations by Shalvi, Gilboa and Pinsky in 2023. (Golan
Shalvi)
As a result, the researchers found evidence connected to the
production of the purple dye dating as early as 1,100 BCE and throughout
the 6th century BCE. These are exactly the years in which many of the
narratives included in the Bible are said to have taken place. In 586
BCE, for example, the Babylonian conquest completely destroyed the
regional economy and Jerusalem’s First Temple.
“In the past, the assumption was that the first large-scale
production facilities of purple dye were only established in Roman
times, around the 1st century CE,” another author, Prof. Ayelet Gilboa
from the University of Haifa, told The Times of Israel over the phone.
“Tel Shiqmona offers evidence that already in the 9th century BCE,
purple dye was produced at an industrial scale. It was not just one
individual dyeing a garment for a king.”
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Stone tools with purple dye residue found
at Tel Shiqmona, on Israel’s Carmel Coast. According to a new paper
published in PLOS ONE on April 16, 2025, a large-scale production
facility operated at the site for centuries during the Iron Age. (Maria
Bukin/PLOS ONE)
A rocky start
The dye is extracted from the glands of three types of murex snails.
According to the researchers, Tel Shiqmona was likely selected as the
site for the facility because its rocky seabed provides an ideal habitat
for marine life, particularly the snails essential for producing the
dye, ensuring a steady and accessible supply.
Aerial view of the archaeological site of Tel Shiqmona, on Israel’s Carmel Coast. (Michael Eisenberg)
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