Tyrian purple dye found on Roman infant burials in York for the first time

Researchers from the University of York's "Seeing the Dead" project have confirmed the presence of Tyrian purple on 1700-year-old textile fragments. The fragments, preserved in two gypsum burials, are held in the collections of the York Museums Trust and date to the late third or early fourth century AD. 

This is the first time the dye has been found on Roman textile remains in York and one of only a handful of examples discovered in the United Kingdom. 

The babies were wrapped in fine cloth of Tyrian purple embellished with gold thread. The purple dye indicated elite or royal status and had such a high commodity value that it was worth up to three times the price of gold during the Roman period. 

One of the infants was buried alongside two adults in a stone coffin, currently on display at the Yorkshire Museum, while the second was interred in a lead coffin. The textiles were preserved by the Roman ritual of pouring liquid gypsum over clothed bodies, which hardened and protected the fabric fragments, dyes, and imprints within.

Dr. Jennifer Wakefield, a postdoctoral research assistant, says traces of purple were "not always visible to the naked eye on the gypsum surface, but chemical analysis has rewarded us with surprising results." Meanwhile, according to Professor Maureen Carroll, the project director, for the first time we have confirmation of the use of the costly dye in Roman-period York, which indicates that the city's wealthy inhabitants "had access to expensive and exotic commodities from the other end of the empire." She also says that the discovery teaches us a lot about the importance of children in Roman York and the willingness of the family to "give their baby the best possible send-off in tragic circumstances."

Tyrian purple takes its name from the city of Tyre in Phoenicia, modern-day Lebanon, where it was primarily produced by crushing thousands of murex marine mollusks to extract small amounts of purple colorant. The dye shares a production process with tekhelet, the blue dye traditionally used in Judaism to color the strings of the tzitzit.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence challenging the assumption that Romans did not grieve infant deaths. Roman tradition and early legal codes forbade parents from publicly mourning babies, at a time when three in ten infants did not survive their first year. Researchers say the discovery provides invaluable insights into both the grief felt by Roman families and the wealth of those who could afford such luxury in life and death.