My mad attempt to make Tyrian purple turned into a stinky mess

I got super into the idea of recreating that famous purple dye from ancient times. You know, the one from sea snails that was worth more than gold? I thought, how hard could it be. I ordered some muricid snail shells online and started trying to follow old notes. Big mistake. First off, it smells so bad when you start crushing and heating them. I mean, rotten seafood and chemicals bad. My whole kitchen reeked for a week, and my partner was ready to kill me. After all that gross work, all I got was this dull, dirty brownish liquid, not that rich purple. It just makes me wonder even more how they figured it out in the first place and got the color so perfect. The whole process is still such a weird mystery.