GiOj:^fii/'//i\a/ J^istt ihntioii of ilic Slicll-ritiple ludustiv. 9 



Cleopatra at the battle of Actium, distiiii^ui.shetl fioiu the 

 rest of the fleet by having purple sails — a distinction which 



i-< said to have been at that time the peculiar privilcije of 

 the ailmirars vessel.'"' 



THK ("KNTkKS 01 I'KODUCTION AND DiS IKI IJUTK )N 

 01 TIIF. PuKl'I.K In'DUSTRV. 



riie l'h(ein'cians have been accredited with the inxen- 

 tion of this famous purple as well as with that of i;lass, but 

 modern inxestigators are depriving these 'maritime pedlars' 

 of much of their former prestige. Glass has been shown 

 t<"> have been first macie by the l^arly I'Lgyptians many 

 centuries before the probable date of the Phcenician occu- 

 pation of the Mediterranean coast, and the credit of the 

 invention of shell-purple has now been transferred to the 

 Minoans of Crete. R. ('. Hosan(]uet, in his note on " An 

 Karly Purple-fishery"-' tells us that " Leuke, the 'White 

 Isle' 'iiiodern K(juphonisi), off the south-east coast of 

 Crete, was an important fishing-station in antiquity. The 

 tithes levied on tiic catcli of fish and of puri)le-shell men- 

 tioned in an inscription of about j!50 ];.C., must have 

 been very profitable, for the possession of the island was 

 the subject of a long and bitter dispute among three neigh- 

 bouring cities." 



This island was explored in 1903 b\- C. T. Currell\' 

 and R. C. Bosanquet, and " among sand-hills on the north 

 shore they found a bank of shells, some whole but mostly 

 crushed, oi Mure.x /riiiicul/is,\\\\\c\\ is known to have been 

 u.sed in the manufactme of the purple dye." 



"Scattered through the lieap were fragments of 

 pottery, and of a stratile bowl which marked it as not 

 only pr.X'-Hellenic but pr;u-Fhcenician. Further fligging 



-*' J. Napier, '• ManiifariuriiiL; .\ii>iii .-\ncirni Times,' 1S74. |>|). 2S7 .S. 

 '-' A'///. Ass. AV//., 190.:;, !>. Si 7. 



