Santander, February 19th-22nd 2008 - Aranzadi

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ALFREDO CARANNANTE
we exclude shells that appear water-worn, bio-eroded
by sponges, holed by marine predators or
encrusted inside by fouling organisms. It falls
again to 27.0% of the assemblage -just 37 individuals-
if the worked shells are also excluded.
Moreover, these few shell remains compatible
with an alimentary use were dispersed in the different
rooms of the complex, then they do not
look like food debris. Thus Pyrgos archeomalacological
datum agrees with the data emerged
from the study of vertebrate remains; both suggest
that the preparation of meals and and consumption
did not take place in the rooms of the
building excavated to date. Consequently, the
same rooms were used exclusively for industrial
activities and were definitely separate from the
living areas not yet excavated.
4. MUREX SHELLS
One of the rooms of the Pyrgos-Mavroraki complex
was clearly devoted to weaving activities. A lot
of vases and spindle-whorls still containing textile
fibres, loom weights and a tank probably used for
dying were found here. Clots of purple-red material
were also discovered in this room (Belgiorno 2004:
27). Archaeometrical analyses of these clots showed
a high concentration of bromine. Purple-dye
molecules differ from vegetal indigo-dye molecules
in the presence of two bromine atoms. This datum
suggests the use of murex purple-dye on the site
(Lentini 2004: 39). This is one of the earliest attestations
of the industrial use of purple-dye.
The Mediterranean Muricidae genera
Hexaplex, Bolinus, Thais and Ocenebra (associable
under the trivial name of murex shells) were
exploited from the Bronze Age onwards in the
Aegean and the Near East to produce the most
expensive dye of antiquity (see: Becker 2001,
Spanier 1990, Stieglitz 1994, among others).
Specimens of all these species were discovered in
Pyrgos; 13 murex shells: 8 Hexaplex trunculus
(Linné, 1758), 1 Bolinus brandaris, 3 Ocenebra erinaceus
and 1 Thais haemastoma. Eight of them
preserved the last whorl and seven of these were
holed by percussion. That originally suggested to
the archaeologists (see: Lentini 2004: 39) that
these shells were collected and holed to catch the
hypobranchial gland containing the purple-dye.
However, among the holed murex shells from
Pyrgos, one is intensely bio-eroded, two are
encrusted inside by serpulid worms and other fouling
organisms and another is water-worn: thus
these shells were collected after the death of the
mollusc. Another holed murex shell was found
associated with a stone pendant. These findings
affirm that murex shells from Pyrgos were connected
with ornamental use rather than with industrial
purple-dye production on the site.
The use of murex shells as pendants was
widespread throughout the Bronze Age
Mediterranean sites. The use of such a kind of
ornament is attested in several Bronze Age Cypriot
sites: two holed specimens collected dead that
“could easily be strung as pendants” (Reese
1996) come from Alambra-Mouttes, six or seven
come from Sotira-Teppes (Dance 1961), three from
Sotira-Kaminoudhia (Reese 2003), three from
Maa-Palaeokastro (Reese 1988) and two from
Bronze Age levels of Kition (Reese 1985). Many
murex shells were also found in several tombs at
Hala Sultan Tekké (Reese 1985).
Murex shells holed on the last whorl for ornamental
aim have been discovered also in many
Middle and Late Helladic tombs of continental
Greece (Reese 1998: 279), in several Minoan
contexts on Crete (see: Reese 1995), in some
inland Turkish sites (see: Reese 1986) and in
one Calabrian (Southern Italy) site (Tagliacozzo
1994: 590).
Figure 3. Pen shell from Pyrgos-Mavroraki.
MUNIBE Suplemento - Gehigarria 31, 2010
S.C. Aranzadi. Z.E. Donostia/San Sebastián