Brian McDonald
Archaeologists working in England have found a “mysterious piece” of a purple substance that in Roman times would have been worth more than gold, researchers said in a press release.
The researchers who found the “smooth purple substance” are working on a years-long investigation into Roman remains in Carlisle, England, a cathedral city in the center of the country. The excavation is being led by Wardell Armstrong, a UK-based environmental, engineering and mining company.
The substance was found during a 2023 excavation of a Roman bathhouse. The ruins of the 3rd century building exist in what is now a cricket club, according to the press release.
The team worked with the British Geological Society to test the material. Experts from the University of Newcastle provided further analysis and determined it was an organic pigment containing levels of bromine and beeswax, according to the statement.
Wardell Armstrong
These ingredients allowed researchers to identify the substance as “Tyrian Purple,” the color that the Roman Empire associated with its imperial court. The pigment is made from thousands of crushed shells from the Mediterranean, North Africa and Morocco, according to the statement, and was “phenomenonally difficult” to make and expensive to produce, worth more than gold at the time.
The discovery of the material led researchers to believe that the building being excavated was related to the court and may even have meant that the Roman emperor of the time, Septimius Severus, had visited Carlisle. Frank Giecco, technical director of the organization leading the excavation project, said it was an “incredibly rare” find, especially in Europe.
“It is the only example we know of from Northern Europe – possibly the only example of a solid sample of the pigment in the form of paint pigment not used anywhere in the Roman Empire,” Giecco said in the statement. “Examples have been found in wall paintings (such as in Pompeii) and in some high-status painted coffins from the Roman province of Egypt.”
