So you’ve heard that purple is the color of royalty. By now you might know the first purple dyes were found in Phoenicia around 1,300 BCE, in a snail-like mollusk that was hard to get. It was so hard to obtain and difficult to extract — about 12,000 of the mollusks per 1.4 grams (0.05 ounces) to dye a single garment — that the resulting dye, Tyrian Purple, was worth more than gold.

In 2017, below ground at a UK cricket club of all places, an archeological site from Roman times revealed incredible finds. Most notable to us was the recent discovery of a golf-ball sized chunk of Tyrian Purple pigment, intact.

We already knew purple was the best color. Now we see a bit of history from purple fans of the past. As they might have said, “Vivat purpura.” Long live purple!