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Traces of Tyrian Purple Dye Found in Roman Infant Burials in York
Scientists identified traces of Tyrian purple, a rare and expensive dye valued up to three times the price of gold in the Roman period, in infant burials in York. The discovery challenges previous assumptions that Romans did not mourn the deaths of infants. The dye's production process is similar to that used for tekhelet, the blue dye traditionally employed in Judaism.
May 9, 3:55 PM·1m read1 source
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Scientists have found traces of Tyrian purple, a rare dye known as "imperial" purple, in Roman infant burials in York. The dye was highly valued during the Roman period, reaching a price as high as three times that of gold because of the difficulty involved in its creation. The finding comes from the "Seeing the Dead" project, which examined burial casts of Roman infants for evidence of the dye.
A photograph released by the University of York shows a project member studying one such cast on May 8, 2026. Tyrian purple's costly nature stems from its complex manufacturing process. That process is similar to the one used to create tekhelet, the blue dye traditionally used in Judaism to color strings of the tzitzit.
The presence of the expensive dye in infant burials challenges the idea that Romans did not mourn infant deaths. The burials containing the dye indicate that at least some Roman families invested significant resources in the funerals of their infants. No additional details about the number of burials examined or the exact concentration of dye found have been released.
The research forms part of ongoing archaeological work examining Roman-era remains in York.
