The east coast of the Mediterranean has always been a highly valued strategic region due to its proximity and outreach to farming and herding communities. With the rise of the great theocratic states in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the area strengthened its strategic potential and served as a buffer wall for their expansionist served as a medium of interaction and exchange and, at times, a rather diffuse boundary for the containment of the territorial expansion of these states.

Its origins as such date back to the waves of migrations from Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula around 3500 BC. For the subsequent millennia, certain migrations would be key to the assimilation of cultural traits and patterns that for the Phoenician civilization meant the consolidation of its culture and greater apogee around 1500 BC. This was for example the city of Ugarit where the civilization of Canaan lived, these like the Phoenicians share in common, part of their worldview and deities such as the solar god Baal. Another important aspect was their similarity in the composition of a first approach to the 30-character alphabet.

Entering the first millennium BC, after territorial expansions, displacements and political occupations, finally the part of the whole of the Canaan civilization was forced to settle on the edge of the Iberian Peninsula, thus adopting a new identity, culture and vision, here Phoenicia, the new region of the western Mediterranean, would begin to develop.

The eastern Phoenician cities were politically independent of each other. The territory over which each one of them exercised its dominion was surprisingly small, with an extension of land sufficient to feed all its inhabitants with its harvest.

Within this expansion that took place along the western coast of the Mediterranean, it is necessary to highlight two of its most important cities, Tyre and Sidon.  

One of the most characteristic activities of Tyre was the extraction and the purple industry. This production was so typical of the Phoenicians that it could be at the origin of their name (Phoinix in Greek means purple). The Greeks used this name as a gentile to refer to the people from the Phoenicia region during the first millennium BC.

From all the Phoenician cities, Tyre was the most famous in the production of this coloring substance. This was obtained from a seashell, the murex. These shellfish were recovered from the sea in the early spring, during the reproduction period and before spawning, and transported to the shore where they were placed in large vats. There, the mollusks were crushed in order to release the colored pigment contained therein.

This substance, with refined colors was used for textile dyeing (wool pieces, linen or fine cotton) and leather. These products enjoyed an international economic prestige, also related to the excellence of the Phoenicians weavers.