units are assyrian cavalry,kisir sharruti infantry,command chariot,sab sharri auxiliaries with arab skirmishers plus same command chariot.
Moderators: Tommy, Guy, Atheling, andy





Egyptian Blue is chemically known as Calcium copper silicate (CaCuSi4O10 or CaO·CuO·4SiO2). It is a pigment used by Egyptians for thousands of years. It is considered to be the first synthetic pigment. The pigment was known to the Romans by the name caeruleum. Vitruvius describes in his work de architectura how it was produced by grinding sand, copper and natron and heating the mixture, shaped into small balls, in a furnace. Lime is necessary for the production as well, but probably lime-rich sand was used. After the Roman era Egyptian Blue was not used anymore.


Although the earliest archaeological evidence for the origins of purple dyes points to the Minoan civilization in Crete, about 1900 B.C., the ancient land of Canaan (its corresponding Greek name was Phoenicia, which means “land of the purple”) was the centre of the ancient purple dye industry. The city of Tyr in Phoenicia was especially famous for producing the dye; thus the name “Tyrian”. “Tyrian Purple” was produced from the mucus of the hypobranchial gland of various species of marine mollusks, notably the Murex. It is believed that it took some 12,000 shellfish to extract 1.5 grams of the pure dye! It can readily be seen why this labour-intensive process was so expensive.

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest