An A-Z Guide To The Search For Plato's Atlantis

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  • NEWS September 2023

    NEWS September 2023

    September 2023. Hi Atlantipedes, At present I am in Sardinia for a short visit. Later we move to Sicily and Malta. The trip is purely vacational. Unfortunately, I am writing this in a dreadful apartment, sitting on a bed, with access to just one useable socket and a small Notebook. Consequently, I possibly will not […]Read More »
  • Joining The Dots

    Joining The Dots

    I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
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BBC

Holland, Tom

Tom Holland (1968- ) is the English author of a number of books on ancient and medieval history as well as a presenter of documentaries on the BBC.

Holland along with Dominic Sandbrook has fronted an extensive series of podcasts titled The Rest is History . Two recent (50 min) episodes(a)(b) dealt with the story of Atlantis. Thorwald C. Franke was ‘displeased’ with their content and produced a lengthy critique of the two segments in German(d) and English(c) in his Newsletter No.211. I advise that his full paper be read.

(a) (77) 314. Atlantis: The Legend – YouTube

(b) (77) 315. Atlantis: Legacy of the Lost Empire – YouTube

(c) Tom Holland on Plato’s Atlantis – Atlantis-Scout  (Eng)

(d) Tom Holland über Platons Atlantis – Atlantis-Scout (Ger)

Stieglitz, Robert (N)

Robert Stieglitz is Professor Emeritus of Ancient Mediterranean Civilisations at Rutgers University. He is stieglitza specialist in ancient seafaring. He contends that the Sea Peoples included the Philistines(a).

He appeared on the BBC documentary, Helike – The Real Atlantis and while he is obviously an Atlantis sceptic, when pressed he responded that since “Helike was the only city to disappear without a trace in one night, so if there’s a grain of truth at all to the story of Atlantis it’s the disappearance of Helike which inspired in Plato to write the myth of Atlantis.”(b) He subsequently developed this idea into a lecture(c).

(a) https://www.archaeological.org/events/13418

(b) https://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/heliketrans.shtml

(c) https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/reserve.aspx?performanceNumber=229270&utm_source=RAad&utm_content=FEauto&utm_campaign=featevent

Hughes, Bettany (t)

Bethany Hughes

Bettany Hughes (1968- ) is a well-known historian with a high media profile. She has presented one major TV documentary on the subject of Atlantis, specifically supporting aspects of the Minoan Hypothesis. This was Atlantis: The Evidence (Timewatch BBC TWO, 2010)(a) and more recently she has been trotted out to promote a new drama series Atlantis (BBC 2013).

She wrote a preview of this BBC series, for The Telegraph(b), which together with her earlier documentary still raises questions for me about her competence to deal with this subject at all. In her article she refers to the Atlantis story as a moral fable, ignoring the fact that not only were the ‘wicked’ Atlanteans destroyed, but so also were the ‘good’ Athenians.

She then alludes to Plato’s mention of the use of red, black and white stone in Atlantis. It is well known that this combination is common in volcanic regions and has been noted at a number of proposed  Atlantis sites; The Canaries, Bolivia, Morocco, Azores, Sardinia and southern Spain.

Next, Hughes tries to explain away the navigation hazard described by Plato, identifying it as pumice. Plato clearly describes mud shoals as the barrier. This would be fine, except that Plato also tells us that the hazard still existed in his day, a thousand years after the eruption. It is improbable, to say the least that pumice would have lingered for a millennium!

These miserable attempts to link Thera and Atlantis are bad enough, Hughes does not explain how Plato repeatedly refers to the Atlantean invasion coming from their base in the the west (Tim.25b & Crit 114c), while Thera/Crete is north of Egypt and south of Athens. Where were the Pillars of Heracles and where were the Minoan elephants?

I would expect a professional like Hughes to offer a more comprehensive review of ALL the information provided by Plato and not dismiss whatever conflicts with her opinion as “sheer fantasy”. This picking and choosing from Plato’s text is not good enough without any justification for her selectivity.

(a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7bVIq0jNfg

(b) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10339254/Atlantis-secrets-of-the-real-lost-city.html

Volcanoes

Volcanoes at their most explosive have played an important part in the mythologies and histories of humans.

A recent Irish Times article (10/2/22) observed Despite the small number of volcanoes here, European culture has been deeply influenced by volcanic activity. In ancient Greek mythology, volcanoes were where the Olympian gods had imprisoned their rivals, the Titans. When the Romans adopted the Greek religion, Mount Etna became the home of Vulcan, the god of fire and blacksmiths, who worked his forges underneath the mountain.”(u)

Volcanism is not part of the Atlantis story as related by Plato. His narrative clearly attributes the destruction of Atlantis and the Athenians to flooding and earthquake. Admittedly, flooding can be the result of some volcanic activity, but in the absence of any evidence to support this view in the case of Atlantis, the idea is only supposition. While most accept that Atlantis was named after its first king, Atlas, Frank Joseph’s fertile imagination suggests[104] that ‘the island of Atlantis was named after its chief mountain, a dormant volcano’. For those that place Atlantis in the Atlantic the idea of volcanic or seismic activity as the cause of the flooding of Atlantis AND Athens is hard pressed to suggest a location for this activity that would explain two catastrophes two thousand miles or more apart.

However, the red, white and black stone that Plato may be related to volcanic eruptions that produce rocks of tufa (red), pumice (white) and lava (black). Pumice has been found at various locations in Egypt(v) and identified as originating not only from Thera but also from eruptions on the Greek islands of Nisyros and Giali as well as the Italian Lipari Islands(o). Pumice has a chemical fingerprint which enables its source to be identified(t).

Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and Donald Sanders are the authors of Volcanoes in Human History[681] which supports the idea that the eruption of Thera was a factor in the development of the Atlantis story and also suggests a link with the Flood of Deucalion.

Nevertheless, a recent book by William Lauritzen, The Invention of God[745], makes a convincing case for accepting volcanic activity as the inspiration behind some of the imagery of ancient mythologies and most major religions. A recent article(i) on the BBC website expanded on this further. Lauritzen also suggests that the pyramids were meant to represent volcanoes.

Stromboli

Stromboli

The most active volcanic region of Europe is to be found in Italy, where Etna and Stromboli have been continuously erupting for thousands of years(b).  There is a report that a 6000 BC extreme eruption of Etna resulted in a tsunami 130 feet in height which swept the Mediterranean(c). However, the most devastating prehistoric volcanic eruption discovered so far seems to have been in Siberia 252 million years, which may have led to the most extensive mass extinction of life on earth(e). This is now rivalled by Tamu Massif in the Pacific mentioned below.

The cataclysmic volcanic eruption of Thera in the second millennium BC has had a strong level of support as the cause of Atlantis’ collapse, a view endorsed by recent television documentaries and an IMAX film. The Greek volcanologist, George Vougioukalakis, whose research is featured in the aforementioned film, is convinced that the eruption of Santorini offers the most rational explanation for the truth behind Plato’s story(a). However, he dissents from the recently expressed view that pumice found on the Northern Sinai Peninsula was transported there by a tsunami generated by the eruption of Thera and prefers to believe their transportation there was by normal sea currents.

Apart from Santorini, Jim Allen had initially proposed the Andean village of Quillacas, which lies on top of a volcano, as the site of Atlantis, but later found that the nearby site of Pampa Aullagas had a greater correspondence with the description of Atlantis. More recently Richard W. Welch has suggested the eruption of a supervolcano in the Atlantic as the cause of Atlantis’ demise. And so the idea of the volcanic destruction of Atlantis still has some support!

Since January 2011, Santorini has shown some signs of a volcanic reawakening(d).

In September 2013 studies revealed(f) what may be the location of the largest volcano ever to have erupted on our planet. It would have been the size of the British Isles and situated underwater in the northwest Pacific and known as Tamu Massif. It would have rivalled the Olympus Mons on Mars, but fortunately, has been dormant for 140 million years.

March 2014 saw a post on Dale Drinnon’s website(g) take the linkage between Atlantis and a volcano rather further with the suggestion that “the capital city of Atlantis in Plato’s description was built in the caldera of an extinct volcano and that many of the features of the description are volcanic in origin. The “Poseidon’ temple is the pyramidal volcanic neck, an erosional feature that stood out like a conical mound some hundreds of feet in diameter and possibly some hundreds of feet high on the outside. there was a tunnel bored through this aligned East and West, to allow the sunlight in at the beginning and the end of the day for certain rituals.”

In December 2014 a report from Princeton University revealed that a massive series of volcanic eruptions 66 million years ago can be aligned with the extinction of the dinosaurs and should be included as part of the cause of that extinction along with the Yucatan meteorite impact(h). However, in February 2021, a report from Harvard proposed that the Yucatan impactor was a comet rather than an asteroid or meteor(s).

In 2009, it was reported(q) that another example of contemporaneous meteorite impact and flood volcanism was identified in Belarus.

The Laki volcano in Iceland erupted in 1783, killing 9,000 local people but more dramatically causing the Nile Valley population to be cut by a sixth, according to a study published by scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. “The study is the first to conclusively establish the linkage between high-latitude eruptions and the water supply in North Africa”(j).

A 2015 report(k) suggests that a series of North American volcanic eruptions in 536 AD had such a detrimental effect on the climate of Europe that contributed to the demise of the Roman Empire.

Furthermore, there is now evidence(m) that the eruption of El Chicon volcano in Southern Mexico around 540 AD led to the disruption of the Maya civilisation. Can there be a connection between these two events? In 2020, it was reported that the massive Tierra Blanca Joven eruption of the Ilopango volcano in El Salvador had been accurately dated to within a year or two of 431 AD, which also devastated Maya communities within an eighty-kilometre radius(r). 

However, David Keys in his book, Catastrophe[1130], has proposed that a massive eruption of Krakatoa around 535 AD caused disruption on a global scale. Matthew Toohey from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, has suggested the possibility of a double event involving both El Chicon and Krakatoa!

Recently the longest (1,200 miles) continental volcano chain was identified in Australia(l).

The BBC reported(n) in 2016 that Deep-sea volcanoes are so remote until recently we did not even know they existed” and although “We do not see them erupt, yet more than half of the Earth’s crust can be attributed to their dramatic explosions” and “In fact, the mid-ocean ridges form the largest volcanic systems on Earth. But as they are largely hidden from sight, they have long remained elusive.” 

In July 2017, the BBC offered an interesting article on the potential ongoing threat from supervolcanoes around our globe(p)  and the inevitability of a future eruption.

(a)  https://web.archive.org/web/20190515084403/https://www.santorini.com/santorinivolcano/atlantisaffect-egypt.htm

(b) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanology_of_Italy

(c) https://www.livescience.com/1170-towering-ancient-tsunami-devastated-mediterranean.html

(d) https://www.livescience.com/19864-santorini-volcano-awakening.html?utm_content=LiveScience&utm_campaign=seo%2Bblitz&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social%2Bmedia

(e) https://www.seeker.com/the-deadliest-volcano-ever-1767374752.html

(f)https://www.nature.com/news/underwater-volcano-is-earth-s-biggest-1.13680

(g) https://web.archive.org/web/20170402010945/http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2014/03/reconstruction-of-platos-temple-of.html

(h) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141218154544.htm

(i) https://web.archive.org/web/20191202184228/https://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150318-why-volcano-myths-are-true

(j) https://news.rutgers.edu/news-releases/2006/11/icelandic-volcano-ca-20061120#.Vd2BIMtRFwE

(k) https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/283466/volcanoes-hastened-fall-of-the-roman-empire

(l) https://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2015/09/16/worlds-longest-continental-volcano-chain-discovered-in-australia/

(m) https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36086096

(n) https://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160808-the-volcanoes-hiding-in-the-ocean

(o) https://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/PubDat_176233.pdf

(p) https://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170724-would-a-supervolcano-eruption-wipe-us-out

(q) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090107085320.htm

(r) https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/09/scientists-reveal-more-about-volcanic-eruption-that-rocked-the-ancient-maya/

(s) https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/comet-asteroid-dinosaurs-killed-harvard-theory-chicxulub-impactor/ *

(t) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080624124308.htm#:~:text=Summary%3A,civilizations%20in%20the%20Eastern%20Mediterranean.

(u) https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/from-atlantis-to-frankenstein-volcanoes-have-long-shaped-european-culture-1.4791753

(v) https://www.santorini.com/santorinivolcano/atlantisaffect-egypt.htm *

Vidal-Naquet, Pierre

Pierre Vidal-Naquet (1930-2006) was a noted French historian, political Vidal-Naquetactivist and was also a fervent sceptic regarding the reality of Atlantis. He has frequently written and lectured on the subject with particular reference to the nationalistic zeal that seemed to underlie the theories of so many writers. His recent book [580] presents the radical view that Plato’s Atlantis was actually based on ancient Athens. This work was originally published in French but is now available in an English translation, The Atlantis Story [581].

Thorwald C. Franke has drawn attention to a recent (Oct. 2022) BBC interview with Classics Professor Edith Hall, whose sceptical view of the Atlantis story appears to be strongly influenced by the arguments of Vidal-Naquet. Franke has written a critique of the interview in his Newsletter No. 201(a).

>I found it interesting that Heinz-Guenther Nesselrath, another sceptic, has also written a review of Vidal-Naquet’s book and gave it very weak support, concluding with the following comment(b);

“One puts the book down with mixed feelings: There is no doubt that VN can write very well and that he really knows the things he is talking about, having occupied himself with them for half a century; on the other hand, one can only wonder why he sometimes prefers vague (though often witty) allusions to a clear exposition of things one would like to be informed of, and why he not rarely connects topics with each other that clearly do not belong together (e.g. Frau’s Atlantis theory and the Nazis, or Donnelly’s influential book and the theosophic occultists). All in all, the book could have been better; it looks like something of a missed opportunity.”<

(a) Edith Hall on Plato’s Atlantis – Atlantis-Scout

(b) https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2008/2008.08.22/ *

Micropatrology

Micropatrology or the study of small countries is quite peripheral to the subject of Atlantis, but it is a curious fact that a number of the attempts to establish new independent states have their titles inspired by the name of Plato’s lost island. They include Atland, Atlantis, and the Principality of Atlantis & Lemuria. There was even an attempt by Leicester Hemingway, the younger brother of the famous author, to have New Atlantis established and recognised internationally(a). Its ‘territory’ just consisted of a thirty-foot barge off the coast of Jamaica and had as its primary objective the generation of revenue through the issuing of postage stamps.

The Madeira archipelago (a minor Atlantis candidate) in the Atlantic includes the tiny independent Principality of Pontinha(e), which today has bitcoin as its official currency!

Arguably one of the most attractive micronations is the Republic of Uzupis, which occupies less than one sq.km of Vilnius the capital of Lithuania(f). The Republic of Le Saugeais, sandwiched between France and Switzerland is also popular with tourists(g)

>In East Germany, we have  “Königreich Deutschland” (Kingdom of Germany) ruled by Peter the First (Peter Fitzek)(j).<

Coins have been issued in the name of a non-existent ‘Kingdom of Atlantis’, by the World Proof Numismatic Association(h), which is a one-man show owned by Edward J. Moschetti.

One of the more ambitious creations is the Empire of Atlantium(b)(c), established in 1981 by three Australians when they declared their independence from the Commonwealth of Australia and proclaimed George Francis Cruickshank as its ruler with the title of His Imperial Majesty George II. Understandably, I worry about the fate of George I! Australia has a number of other micronations as recently reported by the BBC(d).

Places That Don’t Belong is a fascinating “BBC Travel series that delves into the playful side of geography, taking you through the history and identity of geo-political anomalies and places along the way”(i).

>There are currently (March 2023) five micronations within the United States(k), none of which claim any association with Atlantis.<

This strange subject is discussed in a book by Erwin S. Strauss [482] and additional information can be obtained from the International Micropatrological Society, 4554 McPherson Ave., Saint Louis, Missouri, 63108.

(a) https://blog.hrc.utexas.edu/2015/07/30/throwback-thursday-contents-of-a-country-leicester-hemingways-republic-of-new-atlantis/

(b) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20191123080317/https://www.atlantium.org/

(c) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Atlantium

(d) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-38964465

(e) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20170905084632/https://principality-pontinha.com/index.html

(f) https://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181014-uupis-a-tiny-republic-of-free-spirits

(g) https://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200311-a-tiny-country-between-france-and-switzerland

(h) Kingdom of Atlantis Coin, Ruler and brief History (archive.org) 

(i) Places That Don’t Belong – BBC Travel

(j) The self-proclaimed kingdom that doesn’t recognise Germany – BBC News *

(k) The kingdom in my backyard: 5 micronations within the United States (msn.com) *

Murex

Murex is the name of a family of sea snails that led to the murex[1]Phoenicians controlling the very lucrative trade in purple-dyed silk(b). Some have attributed the origin of the name ‘Phoenicia’ to a Greek word meaning ‘purple’.

The dye had been extracted from the Murex snails and the resulting cloth was considered highly desirable to such an extent that in later years the colour was reserved for members of the Roman imperial family. It took 10,000 snails to produce one gram of dye, making it extremely expensive. Unfortunately, the process involved putrefaction and the use of urine, contributing to an extremely melodious operation.

Demand for this exclusive dye persisted for nearly 3,000 years. Purple was also the preserve of cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, equating them with kings, until the 15th century when red was decreed for them, a situation that still pertains. Professor Maria Michaela Sassi of Pisa University has written an interesting paper(k) on the ancient Greek perception of colour, in the course of which she refers to the processing of the murex snail, noting that “Various nuances from yellow to green, to blue, to red could be obtained depending on how much water was added and when the boiling process was stopped

The ancient Greek identification of colour, particularly the absence of references to blue, is discussed by Ashley Cowie in a March 2021 article.(q) He notes that “The story of “blue being invisible in history” begins in 1858 when William Gladstone, who later became Chancellor of the Exchequer then Prime Minister of Great Britain, read Homer’s The Odyssey. Gladstone noticed that Homer described the sea color as “wine-dark” – leading him to ask the question; why not “deep blue?” Gladstone investigated this curiosity and counted the color references in The Odyssey finding that while black was mentioned almost 200 times, and white about 100, blue did not appear once. Broadening his research he then determined that “blue” didn’t exist anywhere in Greek writing. Nowhere.”

There is some suggestion that the Phoenicians were not the first to develop this process following the discovery of mounds of Murex shells on Crete dated to the early 2nd millennium BC. It is also claimed that the Italians of the same period also knew of the procedure(g).

Over a century ago James Baikie noted[142] that “the dyeing of robes with the renowned ‘Tyrian purple,’ must be denied to them and claimed for the Minoans. In 1903, Messrs. Bosanquet and Currelly found on the island of Kouphonisi (Leuke), off the south-east coast of Crete, a bank of the pounded shell of the murex from which the purple dye was obtained, associated with pottery of the Middle Minoan period; and in 1904 they discovered at Palaikastro two similar purple shell deposits, in either case, associated with pottery of the same date.”

It is difficult not to see a possible link between murex dye developed by the Phoenicians and the biblical injunction to Jews of the same region to wear blue (tekhelet) tassels (tzitziyots) from the corners of four-cornered garments. Recently, near the caves of the Dead Sea Scrolls a rare 2,000-year-old fragment of cloth was discovered(c) that had been treated with the Murex dye.

Michael Hübner pointed out that apart from Murex, Northwest Africa and the Canaries were home to the Indigo plant and the Orseille lichen, which both can be used to produce blue dyes(h).

Frank Joseph notes that Berber village elders even today wear special dark blue robes when meeting in council. This is seen as an echo of the custom of the kings of Atlantis as recorded by Plato Critias (120b-c).

A similar purple dyeing process was discovered in Central America(a) adding to the suggestion of pre-Columbian contacts between Europe and the Americas. In September 2016, it was announced(e) that “a George Washington University researcher has identified a 6,200-year-old indigo-blue fabric from Huaca, Peru, making it one of the oldest-known cotton textiles in the world and the oldest known textile decorated with indigo blue.” Unfortunately, the source of the dye was not identified. Even today, in Oaxaca, Mexico, shellfish dyeing is still carried on, but using the milky liquid from the purpura patula, a marine mollusc(f), unlike the murex mollusc which is killed in the process of obtaining the ink, the purpura have always been milked alive and left to replenish their dye fluid for harvesting at another time (See: video clip(m). A similar procedure is still employed by the Boruca people of Costa Rica (l). If there was a dyeing link between the Americas and the Mediterranean. in which direction did it initially travel?

In Appendix One of Andrew CollinsGateway to Atlantis [072.357] the author offers further information on the extraction of purple dye from shellfish in parts of Central and South America. He thought that “Quite clearly, the presence of purple dye processes in Costa Rica, Mexico and Ecuador, as well as in Peru, could well constitute positive proof of transoceanic contact with ancient seafarers from the eastern Mediterranean.” Collins quotes two early 20th-century commentators, Wolfgang Born and Thomas Crawford Johnston, who also reached the same conclusion.

Pliny the Elder noted that Uba, a Numidian king, intended to establish Murex farming on the Hesperides located 12,000 km from Cadiz. This comment has been linked with a mention by Diodorus Siculus regarding a large island known to the Phoenicians outside the Pillars of Heracles.  Advocates of an Atlantic location for Atlantis have seized upon these two references, although the linkage is somewhat tenuous.

There is an extensive online article(d) on the history and use of ‘Tyrian Purple’.

A few years ago the BBC published a short piece(i) on the chemistry behind the Tyrian Purple. In August 2018 they returned to the subject with a more extensive article(j) outlining the mythology and history associated with the dye.(i)

In 2020, it was reported(o) that a Tunisian man, Mohamed Ghassen Nouira, claimed to have rediscovered the secret of how to produce the famous purple dye and has developed a small business selling the dye.

A 2022 paper by Sarah Holz adds further background information.(p)

>In November 2023, the BBC published another article on the subject of Tyrian Purple, recycling old material and adding a few additional titbits(r).<

(a) https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Plicopurpura+pansa+(Gould,+1853)+from+the+Pacific+Coast+of+Mexico+and…-a0118543935

(b) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrian_purple

(c) https://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/researchers-find-ancient-fabrics-in-colors-noted-in-jewish-sources/2013/12/31/

(d) https://web.archive.org/web/20200126222037/http://www.pheniciens.com/articles/pourpre.php%3Flang%3Den

(e) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160914150426.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ffossils_ruins%2Fancient_civilizations+%28Ancient+Civilizations+News+–+ScienceDaily%29

(f) https://www.clothroads.com/the-color-purple-purpura-shell-dyeing-in-oaxaca/

(g) https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/03/20/purple-owes-its-association-with-royalty-to-the-high-expense-of-creating-the-dye/

(h) https://web.archive.org/web/20190828035428/http://www.asalas.org:80/papers/Huebner_Atlantis_Circumstantial_Evidence_full.pdf  (2.2.1.20 R120)

(i) https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3103354.stm

(j) https://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180801-tyrian-purple-the-regal-colour-taken-from-mollusc-mucus

(k) https://aeon.co/essays/can-we-hope-to-understand-how-the-greeks-saw-their-world

(l)  https://web.archive.org/web/20150317164632/http://ballenatales.com/milking-of-the-murex-snail/

(m) https://www.bbc.co.uk/reel/video/p07xm31g/the-dangerous-pursuit-of-one-of-the-world-s-rarest-colours

(n) https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/ancient-purple-dye-0014035

(o) In Tunisia, a purple enthusiast brings this ancient pigment back to life – France 24 – Teller Report 

(p) Purple Reign: The Cross-Cultural History of Murex  – Sarah Holz 

(q) https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/color-blue-0010720

(r) Tyrian purple: The lost ancient pigment that was more valuable than gold – BBC Future *