They’ll Never Be Royals: The “Purple” Textiles of Fag el-Gamous

Abstract

The heavy number of charts and photographs in this chapter appear somewhat differently in the published version, making it so that they are sometimes on a different page than how it appears in this version. In the published version tables and figures are listed as figure 9.1 instead of figure 1, and table 9.1 instead of table 1. Because of the heavy use of tables and figures in this chapter, which often span multiple pages, it is best to cite them by their figure and table number rather than by page number. [page 207] I. Introduction: Excavations at the Fag el-Gamous necropolis have unearthed a unique collection of textile fragments, among which are some beautifully dyed pieces, including several featuring purple threads. 1 The purple threads used in the textiles come in a variety of hues, suggesting different dye sources for the threads. In the ancient world, the source for true, enduring purple dye came from the sea snail, Murex. 2 This dye was highly prized, very expensive, and was frequently used for royal garments. 3 Because of its desirable nature, purple dye was frequently imitated with mixtures of blue and red dyes, such as indigo (plant genus Indigofera) for blue and madder (plant genus Rubia) for red or cochineal (insect family Margarodidae). 4 Due to 1 C. Wilfred Griggs, "Excavating a Christian Cemetery Near Seila, in the Fayum region of Egypt," in Excavations at Seila, Egypt, C.