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76-497: The caves, discovered by a group of Ancona speleologists led by Giancarlo Cappanera on 25 September 1971, are situated 7 kilometres (4 miles) south of Genga, near the civil parish of San Vittore and the Genga-San Vittore railway station ( Rome-Ancona line ). Rich in water, the cave system is particularly well endowed with stalactites and stalagmites . Near the entrance to the caves are two sanctuary-chapels: one

152-485: A blue colour after light exposure which could be the one known as tekhelet ( תְּכֵלֶת ), used in garments worn for ritual purposes. The dye substance is a mucous secretion from the hypobranchial gland of one of several species of medium-sized predatory sea snails that are found in the eastern Mediterranean Sea , and off the Atlantic coast of Morocco . These are the marine gastropods Bolinus brandaris

228-607: A book called "The City of Lights". From 1300 and on, the Jewish community of Ancona grew steadily, most due to the city importance and it being a center of trade with the Levant . In that year, Jewish poet Immanuel the Roman tried to lower high taxation taken from the Jewish community of the city. Over the next 200 years, Jews from Germany, Spain, Sicily and Portugal immigrated to Ancona, due to persecutions in their homeland and thanks to

304-537: A brief siege , eleven days after his defeat at Castelfidardo . On 23 May 1915, Italy entered World War I and joined the Entente Powers . In 1915, following Italy's entry, the battleship division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy carried out extensive bombardments causing great damage to all installations and killing several dozen people. Ancona was one of the most important Italian ports on

380-425: A dye, the colour shifts from blue (peak absorption at 590 nm, which is yellow-orange) to reddish-purple (peak absorption at 520 nm, which is green). It is believed that the intensity of the purple hue improved rather than faded as the dyed cloth aged. Vitruvius mentions the production of Tyrian purple from shellfish. In his History of Animals , Aristotle described the shellfish from which Tyrian purple

456-535: A lordship of the Byzantine Empire , in the 7th and 8th centuries. In 840, Saracen raiders sacked and burned the city. After Charlemagne 's conquest of northern Italy, it became the capital of the Marca di Ancona , whence the name of the modern region derives. After 1000, Ancona became increasingly independent, eventually turning into an important maritime republic (together with Gaeta and Ragusa , it

532-410: A microbiologist, studies microbial biofilms in some of the planet's most hostile environments to understand the limits of life and how life started on Earth. Macalady, along with doctoral student Dani Buchheister, explored Italy's Frasassi cave system, sampling biofilms, referred to as "alien cave goo" due to its stringy dark nature, from underground lakes, including Lago Verde. Their research, featured in

608-472: A population more than four times its size), located in the province of Ancona, Marches , of whom 47.6% were male and 52.4% were female. Minors (children ages 18 and younger) totalled 15.54 percent of the population compared to pensioners who number 24.06 percent. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06 percent (minors) and 19.94 percent (pensioners). The average age of Ancona residents is 48, compared to

684-474: A result, the dye was highly valued. The colored compound is 6,6'-dibromoindigo . Biological pigments were often difficult to acquire, and the details of their production were kept secret by the manufacturers. Tyrian purple is a pigment made from the mucus of several species of Murex snail . Production of Tyrian purple for use as a fabric dye began as early as 1200 BC by the Phoenicians , and

760-538: A seaport closer to the Gothic Line in order to shorten their lines of communication for the advance into northern Italy . Jews according to documents began living in Ancona in 967 AD, even though there is evidence they lived there even before. It has been claimed that in 1270, a Jewish resident of Ancona, Jacob of Ancona , travelled to China , four years before Marco Polo , and documented his impressions in

836-476: A short while. The boycott was led by Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi . Though emancipated by Napoleon I for several years, in 1843 Pope Gregory XVI revived an old decree, forbidding Jews from living outside the ghetto , wearing identification sign on their clothes and other religious and financial restrictions. Public opinion did not approve of these restrictions, and they were cancelled a short while after. The Jews of Ancona received full emancipation in 1848 with

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912-482: A stretch, then sleep for five. He spent his time reading and writing a novel titled "Where the Sun Sleeps." He reported enjoying his underground experience, aside from the occasional earthquakes."One cannot fight solitude, one must make a friend of it," he remarked after emerging 210 days later, although he believed it had only been 79 days. He died in 2009. Penn State researchers, led by Professor Jennifer Macalady,

988-694: A very important destination for merchants from the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century. The Greeks formed the largest of the communities of foreign merchants. They were refugees from former Byzantine or Venetian territories that were occupied by the Ottomans in the late 15th and 16th centuries. The first Greek community was established in Ancona early in the 16th century. Ancona entered the Kingdom of Italy when Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière surrendered here on 29 September 1860 following

1064-728: Is twinned with: L'Aquila , Abruzzo Aosta , Aosta Valley Bari , Apulia Potenza , Basilicata Catanzaro , Calabria Naples , Campania Bologna , Emilia-Romagna Trieste , Friuli-Venezia Giulia Rome , Lazio Genoa , Liguria Milan , Lombardy Ancona , Marche Campobasso , Molise Turin , Piedmont Cagliari , Sardinia Palermo , Sicily Trento , Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Florence , Tuscany Perugia , Umbria Venice , Veneto Tyrian purple Tyrian purple ( Ancient Greek : πορφύρα porphúra ; Latin : purpura ), also known as royal purple , imperial purple , or imperial dye ,

1140-528: Is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of Central Italy , with a population of around 101,997 as of 2015 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located 280 km (170 mi) northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic Sea , between the slopes of the two extremities of the promontory of Monte Conero , Monte Astagno and Monte Guasco. The hilly nature around Ancona

1216-416: Is a reddish- purple natural dye . The name Tyrian refers to Tyre, Lebanon , once Phoenicia . It is secreted by several species of predatory sea snails in the family Muricidae , rock snails originally known by the name Murex ( Bolinus brandaris , Hexaplex trunculus and Stramonita haemastoma ). In ancient times, extracting this dye involved tens of thousands of snails and substantial labour, and as

1292-627: Is a strong contrast to the flatter coastline in areas further north. Ancona is one of the main ports on the Adriatic Sea, especially for passenger traffic, and is the main economic and demographic centre of the region. Before the Greek colonization, the territory was occupied by separated communities of the Picentes tribes. Ancona took a more urban shape by Greek settlers from Syracuse in about 387 BC, who gave it its name: Ancona stems from

1368-791: Is housed in the Palazzo Ferretti, built in the late Renaissance by Pellegrino Tibaldi ; it preserves frescoes by Federico Zuccari . The Museum is divided into several sections: The Municipal Art Gallery ( Pinacoteca Civica Francesco Podesti ) is housed in the Palazzo Bosdari, reconstructed between 1558 and 1561 by Pellegrino Tibaldi . Works in the gallery include: Other artists present include Francesco Podesti , Ciro Ferri and Arcangelo di Cola . Modern artists featured are Anselmo Bucci , Massimo Campigli , Bruno Cassinari , Enzo Cucchi , Carlo Levi , Aligi Sassu , Orfeo Tamburi and others. The Port has regular ferry links to

1444-408: Is in the liquor. It is then set to boil in vessels of tin [or lead], and every hundred amphorae ought to be boiled down to five hundred pounds of dye, by the application of a moderate heat; for which purpose the vessel is placed at the end of a long funnel, which communicates with the furnace; while thus boiling, the liquor is skimmed from time to time, and with it the flesh, which necessarily adheres to

1520-443: Is of a blackish hue. The wool is left to lie in soak for five hours, and then, after carding it, it is thrown in again, until it has fully imbibed the colour. Archaeological data from Tyre indicate that the snails were collected in large vats and left to decompose. This produced a hideous stench that was actually mentioned by ancient authors. Not much is known about the subsequent steps, and the actual ancient method for mass-producing

1596-710: Is one of the biggest Jewish cemeteries in Europe and tombstones are dated to 1552 and on. It can still be visited and it resides within the Parco del Cardeto . The climate of Ancona is humid subtropical (Cfa in the Köppen climate classification ) and the city lies on the border between mediterranean and more continental regions. Precipitations are regular throughout the year. Winters are cool (January mean temp. 5 °C or 41 °F), with frequent rain and fog. Temperatures can reach −10 °C (14 °F) or even lower values outside

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1672-466: Is one of those not appearing on the Italian naval flag ), often clashing against the nearby power of Venice . An oligarchic republic, Ancona was ruled by six Elders, elected by the three terzieri into which the city was divided: S. Pietro, Porto and Capodimonte. It had a coin of its own, the agontano , and a series of laws known as Statuti del mare e del Terzenale and Statuti della Dogana . Ancona

1748-471: Is the 1029 Santuario di Santa Maria infra Saxa (Sanctuary of Holy Mary under the Rock) and the second is an 1828 Neoclassical architecture formal temple, known as Tempietto del Valadier . The Frasassi cave system includes a number of named chambers, including the following: The cave has been used to conduct experiments in chronobiology . Among the cavers that have spent considerable amount of time inside

1824-458: Is the main railway station of the city and is served by regional and long-distance trains. The other stations are Ancona Marittima , Ancona Torrette, Ancona Stadio, Palombina and Varano. The A14 motorway serves the city with the exits "Ancona Nord" ( An. North ) and "Ancona Sud" ( An. South ). The Ancona trolleybus system has been in operation since 1949. Ancona is also served by an urban and suburban bus network operated by Conerobus. Ancona

1900-449: Is tightly dated by radiocarbon to the late 11th–early 10th centuries BC. Findings from this site include evidence of the use of purple dye found in stains used on pot shards. Evidence of the use of dye in pottery are found in most cases on the upper part of ceramic basins, on the inside surface, the areas in which the reduced dye-solution was exposed to air, and underwent oxidation that turned it purple. The production of Murex purple for

1976-469: The Americas : 0.93%, East Asia : 0.83%, and North Africa : 0.80%. Ancona Cathedral , dedicated to Judas Cyriacus , was consecrated at the beginning of the 11th century and completed in 1189. Some writers suppose that the original church was in the form of a basilica and belonged to the 7th century. An early restoration was completed in 1234. It is a fine Romanesque building in grey stone, built in

2052-585: The Greek language . When it became a Roman town is uncertain. It was occupied as a naval station in the Illyrian War of 178 BC. Julius Caesar took possession of it immediately after crossing the Rubicon . Its harbour was of considerable importance in imperial times, as the nearest to Dalmatia , and was enlarged by Trajan , who constructed the north quay with his architect Apollodorus of Damascus . At

2128-611: The Guelphs . Unlike other cities of northern Italy, Ancona never became a signoria . The sole exception was the rule of the Malatesta , who took the city in 1348, taking advantage of the black death and of a fire that had destroyed many of the city's important buildings. The Malatesta were ousted in 1383. In 1532, Ancona definitively lost its freedom and became part of the Papal States , under Pope Clement VII . The symbol of

2204-663: The Iles Purpuraires at Mogador , in Morocco . The sea snail harvested at this western Moroccan dye production facility was Hexaplex trunculus , also known by the older name Murex trunculus . This second species of dye murex is found today on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Europe and Africa (Spain, Portugal, Morocco). The colour-fast (non-fading) dye was an item of luxury trade, prized by Romans , who used it to colour ceremonial robes . Used as

2280-651: The Palazzo Benincasa , the Loggia dei Mercanti , the Franciscan church of San Francesco alle Scale and Sant'Agostino , Augustinian church with statues portraying St. Monica, St. Nicola da Tolentino, St. Simplicianus and Blessed Agostino Trionfi; in the 18th century it was enlarged by Luigi Vanvitelli and turned into a palace after 1860. The National Archaeological Museum of the Marche Region

2356-650: The Timna Valley in Israel. The find, which was dated to c.  1000 BC , constituted the first direct evidence of fabric dyed with the pigment from antiquity. Murex purple was a very important industry in many Phoenician territories and Carthage was no exception. Traces of this once very lucrative industry are still visible in many Punic sites such as Kerkouane , Zouchis, Djerba and even in Carthage itself. According to Pliny, Meninx (today's Djerba) produced

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2432-399: The indigo plant ( Indigofera tinctoria L ), as well as in several species of shellfish. In 1998, by means of a lengthy trial and error process, a process for dyeing with Tyrian purple was rediscovered. This finding built on reports from the 15th century to the 18th century and explored the biotechnology process behind woad fermentation. It is hypothesized that an alkaline fermenting vat

2508-596: The Adriatic Sea during the Great War . During World War II , the city was taken by the Polish 2nd Corps against Nazi German forces, as Free Polish forces were serving as part of the British Army. Poles were tasked with capture of the city on 16 June 1944 and accomplished the task a month later on 18 July 1944 in what is known as the battle of Ancona . The attack was part of an Allied operation to gain access to

2584-532: The Byzantine court came to an abrupt end with the sack of Constantinople in 1204 , the critical episode of the Fourth Crusade . David Jacoby concludes that "no Byzantine emperor nor any Latin ruler in former Byzantine territories could muster the financial resources required for the pursuit of murex purple production. On the other hand, murex fishing and dyeing with genuine purple are attested for Egypt in

2660-619: The December 2023 issue of National Geographic, sought to uncover how microbes survive in extreme conditions without sunlight or oxygen, akin to early Earth. Key findings included that microbes can survive with minimal resources such as rocks and water, and that these biofilms may reflect the first metabolic processes on Earth. Frasassi is partnered with several sister caves around the world: Ancona Ancona ( / æ ŋ ˈ k oʊ n ə / , also US : / æ n ˈ -, ɑː n ˈ -/ ; Italian: [aŋˈkoːna] )

2736-409: The Greek word Ἀγκών ( Ankṓn ), meaning "elbow"; the harbour to the east of the town was originally protected only by the promontory on the north, shaped like an elbow. Greek merchants established a Tyrian purple dye factory here. In Roman times it kept its own coinage with the punning device of the bent arm holding a palm branch , and the head of Aphrodite on the reverse, and continued the use of

2812-474: The Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Ancona grew by 1.48 percent, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.56 percent. The current birth rate of Ancona is 8.14 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births. As of 2006 , 92.77% of the population was Italian. The largest immigrant group came from other European nations (particularly those from Albania , Romania and Ukraine ): 3.14%, followed by

2888-567: The Mexican murex-dyed cloth bore a "disagreeable ... strong fishy smell, which appears to be as lasting as the color itself." Likewise, the ancient Egyptian Papyrus of Anastasi laments: "The hands of the dyer reek like rotting fish". So pervasive was this stench that the Talmud specifically granted women the right to divorce any husband who became a dyer after marriage. In 2021, archaeologists found surviving wool fibers dyed with royal purple in

2964-417: The ancient Phoenicians as early as 1570 BC. It has been suggested that the name Phoenicia itself means 'land of purple'. The dye was greatly prized in antiquity because the colour did not easily fade, but instead became brighter with weathering and sunlight. It came in various shades, the most prized being that of black-tinted clotted blood. Because it was extremely tedious to make, Tyrian purple

3040-675: The beginning of it stands the marble triumphal arch , the Arch of Trajan with a single archway, and without bas-reliefs , erected in his honour in 115 by the Senate and Roman people. Ancona was attacked successively by the Goths and Lombards between the 3rd and 5th centuries, but recovered its strength and importance. It was one of the cities of the Pentapolis of the Exarchate of Ravenna ,

3116-527: The best purple in Africa which was also ranked second only after Tyre's. It was found also at Essaouira ( Morocco ). The Royal purple or Imperial purple was probably used until the time of Augustine of Hippo (354–430) and before the demise of the Roman Empire . Variations in colours of "Tyrian purple" from different snails are related to the presence of indigo dye (blue), 6-bromoindigo (purple), and

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3192-442: The biology of land animals. This dye is in contrast to the imitation purple that was commonly produced using cheaper materials than the dyes from the sea snail. In nature, the snails use the secretion as part of their predatory behavior to sedate prey and as an antimicrobial lining on egg masses. The snail also secretes this substance when it is attacked by predators, or physically antagonized by humans (e.g., poked). Therefore,

3268-529: The cave is the Italian sociologist Maurizio Montalbini . In 1986, he ventured into the Grotte di Frasassi beneath Italy's Apennine mountains. He survived on pills, powders, and other astronaut-like food while researchers monitored his health. His few luxuries were chocolate, honey, and plenty of tobacco, smoking nearly two packs of cigarettes a day. During his time underground, away from sunlight, Mr. Montalbini lost almost 30 pounds. He would stay awake for 50 hours at

3344-502: The city centre during the most intense cold waves. Snow is not unusual with air masses coming from Northern Europe or from the Balkans and Russia, and can be heavy at times (also due to the " Adriatic Sea effect "), especially in the hills surrounding the city centre. Summers are usually warm and humid (July mean temp. 22.5 °C or 72.5 °F). Highs sometimes can reach values around 35 and 40 °C (95 and 104 °F), especially if

3420-408: The dye can be collected either by "milking" the snails, which is more labor-intensive but is a renewable resource , or by collecting and destructively crushing the snails. David Jacoby remarks that "twelve thousand snails of Murex brandaris yield no more than 1.4 g of pure dye, enough to colour only the trim of a single garment." The dye is collected via the snail-harvesting process, involving

3496-527: The dye may have been produced during the Middle Minoan period in the 20th–18th century BC. Accumulations of crushed murex shells from a hut at the site of Coppa Nevigata in southern Italy may indicate production of purple dye there from at least the 18th century BC. Additional archaeological evidence can be found from samples originating from excavations at the extensive Iron Age copper smelting site of “Slaves’ Hill” (Site 34), which

3572-469: The dye. The good semiconducting properties of the dye originate from strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding that reinforces pi stacking necessary for transport. True Tyrian purple, like most high- chroma pigments , cannot be accurately rendered on a standard RGB computer monitor. Ancient reports are also not entirely consistent, but these swatches give a rough indication of the likely range in which it appeared: _________ _________ The lower one

3648-417: The dyers' workshops, although it is a point of primary importance. After it is taken, the vein [i.e. hypobranchial gland] is extracted, which we have previously spoken of, to which it is requisite to add salt, a sextarius [about 20 fl. oz.] to every hundred pounds of juice. It is sufficient to leave them to steep for a period of three days, and no more, for the fresher they are, the greater virtue there

3724-418: The election of Pope Pius IX . In 1938, 1177 lived in Ancona; 53 Jews were sent away to Germany, 15 of them survived and returned to the town after World War II . The majority of the Jewish community stayed in town or emigrated due to high ransoms paid to the fascist regime. In 2004, about 200 Jews lived in Ancona. Two synagogues and two cemeteries still exist in the city. The ancient Monte-Cardeto cemetery

3800-598: The emperor who made the harbour. Most of its original bronze ornaments have disappeared. The archway is flanked by pairs of fluted Corinthian columns on pedestals. A pediment bears inscriptions. The format is that of the Arch of Titus in Rome, but made taller, so that the bronze figures surmounting it, of Trajan, his wife Plotina and sister Marciana, would figure as a landmark for ships approaching Rome's greatest Adriatic port. There are also several buildings by Giorgio da Sebenico , combining Gothic and Renaissance elements:

3876-508: The extraction of the hypobranchial gland (located under the mollusk's mantle). This requires advanced knowledge of biology. Murex-based dyeing must take place close to the site from which the snails originate, because the freshness of the material has a significant effect on the results, the colors yielded based on the long process of biochemical, enzymatic and photochemical reactions, and requires reduction and oxidation processes that probably took several days. Many other species worldwide within

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3952-556: The family Epitoniidae , seem to also produce a similar substance, although this has not been studied or exploited commercially.) The dog whelk Nucella lapillus , from the North Atlantic, can also be used to produce red-purple and violet dyes. The Phoenicians also made a deep blue-coloured dye, sometimes referred to as royal blue or hyacinth purple , which was made from a closely related species of marine snail. The Phoenicians established an ancillary production facility on

4028-522: The family Muricidae, for example Plicopurpura pansa , from the tropical eastern Pacific, and Plicopurpura patula from the Caribbean zone of the western Atlantic , can also produce a similar substance (which turns into an enduring purple dye when exposed to sunlight) and this ability has sometimes also been historically exploited by local inhabitants in the areas where these snails occur. (Some other predatory gastropods, such as some wentletraps in

4104-599: The following cities with the following operators: Ancona is served by Ancona Airport ( IATA : AOI, ICAO : LIPY), in Falconara Marittima and named after Raffaello Sanzio . European Coastal Airlines , a former seaplane operator from Croatia, established trans-Adriatic flights between Croatia and Italy in November 2015, and offered four weekly flights from Ancona Falconara Airport to Split (59 minutes) and Rijeka (49 minutes). The Ancona railway station

4180-423: The form of a Greek cross, and other elements of Byzantine art. It has a dodecagonal dome over the centre slightly altered by Margaritone d'Arezzo in 1270. The façade has a Gothic portal, ascribed to Giorgio da Como (1228), which was intended to have a lateral arch on each side. The interior, which has a crypt under each transept, in the main preserves its original character. It has ten columns which are attributed to

4256-472: The historical production of the purple dye produced from the carnivorous murex snail , source of the royal purple dye valued higher than gold in the ancient Near East and ancient Mexico. Not only did the people of ancient Mexico use the same methods of production as the Phoenicians, they also valued murex-dyed cloth above all others, as it appeared in codices as the attire of nobility. "Nuttall noted that

4332-534: The imperial court, which restricted its use for the colouring of imperial silks . Later (9th century), a child born to a reigning emperor was said to be porphyrogenitos , " born in the purple ". Some speculate that the dye extracted from the Bolinus brandaris is known as argaman ( ארגמן ) in Biblical Hebrew . Another dye extracted from a related sea snail, Hexaplex trunculus , produced

4408-657: The modern day widespread belief that purple is a "royal colour". The colour of textiles from this period provides insight into socio-cultural relationships within ancient societies, in addition to providing insights on technological achievements, fashion, social stratification, agriculture and trade connections. Despite their value to archaeological research, textiles are quite rare in the archaeological record. Like any perishable organic material, they are usually subject to rapid decomposition and their preservation over millennia requires exacting conditions to prevent destruction by microorganisms. Tyrian purple may first have been used by

4484-482: The new papal authority was the massive Citadel. Pope Pius IV commanded the execution and burning of Converso merchants in Ancona for returning to Judaism. Later, Ancona, along with Rome and Avignon in southern France , was one of the three cities in the Papal States where Jews were permitted to remain after Pope Pius V ordered their banishment in 1569. They lived in the ghetto that had been established in Ancona in 1555. In 1733, Pope Clement XII extended

4560-491: The pro-Jewish attitude taken towards Ancona Jews due to their importance in the trade and banking business, making Ancona a trade center. In 1555, pope Paul IV forced the Crypto-Jewish community of the city to convert to Christianity , as part of his Papal Bull of 1555 . While some did, others refused to do so and thus were hanged and then burnt in the town square. In response, Jewish merchants boycotted Ancona for

4636-463: The purple dye was first discovered by Heracles (Greek counterpart of the titular god of Tyre, Melqart) while being in Tyre to visit his beloved Tyros , or rather, by his dog, whose mouth was stained purple after biting into a snail on the beach. This story was depicted by Peter Paul Rubens in his painting Hercules' Dog Discovers Purple Dye . According to John Malalas , the incident happened during

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4712-464: The quay, and an inferior imitation of Trajan's arch was set up; he also erected a Lazaretto at the south end of the harbour, Luigi Vanvitelli being the architect-in-chief. The southern quay was built in 1880, and the harbour was protected by forts on the heights. From 1797 onwards, when the French took it, it frequently appears in history as an important fortress. Ancona, as well as Venice, became

4788-437: The red 6,6'-dibromoindigo. Additional changes in colour can be induced by debromination from light exposure (as is the case for Tekhelet ) or by heat processing. The final shade of purple is decided by chromatogram, which can be identified by high performance liquid chromatography analysis in a single measurement: indigotin (IND) and indirubin (INR). The two are found in plant sources such as woad ( Isatis tinctoria L .) and

4864-532: The reign of the legendary King Phoenix of Tyre , the eponymous progenitor of the Phoenicians, and therefore he was the first ruler to wear Tyrian purple and legislate on its use. Recently, the archaeological discovery of substantial numbers of Murex shells on Crete suggests that the Minoans may have pioneered the extraction of Imperial purple centuries before the Tyrians. Dating from collocated pottery suggests

4940-419: The spiny dye-murex (originally known as Murex brandaris Linnaeus, 1758), the banded dye-murex Hexaplex trunculus , the rock-shell Stramonita haemastoma , and less commonly a number of other species such as Bolinus cornutus . The dye is an organic compound of bromine (i.e., an organobromine compound ), a class of compounds often found in algae and in some other sea life, but much more rarely found in

5016-476: The temple of Venus. The church was restored in the 1980s. The Arch of Trajan is a marble structure 18 metres (59 feet) high, but only 3 metres (9.8 feet) wide, standing on a high platform approached by a wide flight of steps, and is one of the finest surviving Roman monuments in the Marches . It was built in the year 114/115 as an entrance to the causeway atop the harbour wall and is named in honour of Trajan ,

5092-472: The tenth to 13th centuries." By contrast, Jacoby finds that there are no mentions of purple fishing or dyeing, nor trade in the colorant in any Western source, even in the Frankish Levant. The European West turned instead to vermilion provided by the insect Kermes vermilio , known as grana , or crimson . In 1909, Harvard anthropologist Zelia Nuttall compiled an intensive comparative study on

5168-402: The two murex dyes has not yet been successfully reconstructed; this special "blackish clotted blood" colour, which was prized above all others, is believed to be achieved by double-dipping the cloth, once in the indigo dye of H. trunculus and once in the purple-red dye of B. brandaris . The Roman mythographer Julius Pollux , writing in the 2nd century AD, recounts that

5244-405: The veins. About the tenth day, generally, the whole contents of the cauldron are in a liquefied state, upon which a fleece, from which the grease has been cleansed, is plunged into it by way of making trial; but until such time as the colour is found to satisfy the wishes of those preparing it, the liquor is still kept on the boil. The tint that inclines to red is looked upon as inferior to that which

5320-688: The wind is blowing from the south or from the west ( föhn effect off the Apennine Mountains ). Thunderstorms are quite common, particularly in August and September, and can be intense with occasional flash floods, damaging winds and even large hail. Spring and autumn are both seasons with changeable weather, but generally mild. Extremes in temperature have been −15.4 °C (4.3 °F) (in 1967) and 40.8 °C (105.4 °F) (in 1968) / 40.5 °C (104.9 °F) (in 1983). In 2007, there were 101,480 people residing in Ancona (the greater area has

5396-480: Was continued by the Greeks and Romans until 1453 AD, with the fall of Constantinople . In the same way as the modern-day Latin alphabet of Phoenician origin, Phoenician purple pigment was spread through the unique Phoenician trading empire. The pigment was expensive and time-consuming to produce, and items colored with it became associated with power and wealth. This popular idea of purple being elite contributes to

5472-570: Was expensive: the 4th century BC historian Theopompus reported, "Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon " in Asia Minor . The expense meant that purple-dyed textiles became status symbols , whose use was restricted by sumptuary laws . The most senior Roman magistrates wore a toga praetexta , a white toga edged in Tyrian purple. The even more sumptuous toga picta , solid Tyrian purple with gold thread edging,

5548-501: Was necessary. An incomplete ancient recipe for Tyrian purple recorded by Pliny the Elder was also consulted. By altering the percentage of sea salt in the dye vat and adding potash , he was able to successfully dye wool a deep purple colour. Recent research in organic electronics has shown that Tyrian purple is an ambipolar organic semiconductor . Transistors and circuits based on this material can be produced from sublimed thin-films of

5624-469: Was obtained and the process of extracting the tissue that produced the dye. Pliny the Elder described the production of Tyrian purple in his Natural History : The most favourable season for taking these [shellfish] is after the rising of the Dog-star , or else before spring; for when they have once discharged their waxy secretion, their juices have no consistency: this, however, is a fact unknown in

5700-700: Was usually allied with the Republic of Ragusa and the Byzantine Empire . In 1137, 1167 and 1174 it was strong enough to push back the forces of the Holy Roman Empire . Anconitan ships took part in the Crusades, and their navigators included Cyriac of Ancona . In the struggle between the Popes and the Holy Roman Emperors that troubled Italy from the 12th century onwards, Ancona sided with

5776-491: Was worn by generals celebrating a Roman triumph . By the fourth century AD, sumptuary laws in Rome had been tightened so much that only the Roman emperor was permitted to wear Tyrian purple. As a result, 'purple' is sometimes used as a metonym for the office (e.g. the phrase 'donned the purple' means 'became emperor'). The production of Tyrian purple was tightly controlled in the succeeding Byzantine Empire and subsidized by

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