The Most Powerful Colour in History Smelled of Garlic

The most coveted colour in the ancient world came from a sea snail that smelled of garlic and cost more than gold. 

Tyrian purple built empires, wrote laws, and ended careers and when Constantinople fell in 1453, the knowledge of how to make it disappeared almost entirely.

In this episode we trace the colour from the Phoenician city of Tyre to the courts of Rome and Byzantium, through the chemistry that made it impossible to fake, and the laws that made wearing the wrong shade a capital offence.

This episode is part of The Goddess Project, a series tracing the history of cloth, colour, and the body from ancient Mesopotamia to the 20th century.

If you want to see the colour while you listen, the full carousel is here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DYGCiWYk09m/?igsh=bW13YWZjNmpiZzVs

Quotes from Kassia St Clair’s The Secret Lives of Colour used with her kind permission. Find her at https://www.instagram.com/kassiastclair?igsh=NjdvZWMwb296YXhh.

Find me at https://www.instagram.com/veronicatuckerthelabel?igsh=MXkxNGNtNTVlZDUycQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr or search Veronica Tucker the Label.