Geographical Distribution of the Shell- Purple Industry. \ I 



The search for the purple-bearing shell-fish seems to 

 have been one of the motives which lead the Phoenicians 

 to explore areas further afield than their own immediate 

 shores. The ^Egean and the shores of Asia Minor were 

 visited by these ancient mariners, and important fisheries 

 were established at several places both here and elsewhere 

 around the Mediterranean. 



Many of their stations are made known to us by 

 ancient writers, but the evidence of the existence of 

 others rests upon the discoveries of heaps of broken 

 shells. 



In Asia Minor fisheries for purple-shells are cited by 

 Aristotle 27 on the coasts of Caria, and the Edict of 

 Diocletian mentions the purple cloths of Miletus.- 8 There 

 were purple dyeworks also at Phoc.ta in Lydia, 29 and at 

 Hierapolis in Phrygia. 30 In Troas shells were fished at 

 Lectum and at Sigeum, 31 and one of the islands of the 

 Propontis (Sea of Marmora) was known as Porphyrione. 2 

 Vitruvius mentions the purple of Pontus. In the /Egean 

 Sea the islands noted for purple were Rhodes, 34 Nisyros 

 (formerly Porphyris)," 5 Coos, Amorgos and Chios. <G 

 According to Herodotus, Itanus, at the eastern extremity 



7 Aristotle, Hist. An., v., 15, 3. In the time of Homer the women 

 of Caria trafficked in purple (//. iv., 141). 

 5S Edict. DiocL, 24, 6 & 7. 



-'' Ovid, Met., vi., 9. Thyatira in Lydia was celebrated for lits purple- 

 dyeing (if. Homer, //. iv., 141) ; at Philippi a seller of purple from Thyatira 

 was converted by St. Paul (Acts, 16, 14). 

 ;;o if. Besnier, op> ci't., p. 775, 



1 Aristotle, op. cit. 

 " y Pliny, ''N. II.,'' v .. cii. 44. 

 :1 " Vitruvius, vii., 13. 

 34 Ibid. 

 " Pliny, ' X. 11.," v., ch. 36. 



'' </. Besnier. op. cit.. p. 775- (At Coos, cloths were probably dyed 

 \\ith Kermes-coccus). 



