PROPOSAL OF AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHODOLOGY FOR THE ANALYSIS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL RECORDS OF PURPLE DYE WORKSHOPS

Abstract

In 2012, the discovery of a Roman purple workshop on the Islote de Lobos meant thinking and designing the constitution of a methodology for quantitative, descriptive, comparative and interpretive analysis of the purple shell-middens. An archaeological methodology in its base and construct. It can be applied to other analogous sites and which is born from the observation and study of the archaeological record of the Canarian workshop that was intact and in primary position. These characteristics and the implementation of three experimental procedures on the operational chain of the purple workers, the murileguli, have allowed us to generate a guideline methodology. This enables the possibility of analyzing and inferring the records from a quantitative and economic perspective based on the work efficiency and productivity of the operators. This puts us in perspective about the historical process of the production and trade of purple in the ancient Mediterranean and Atlantic.