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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
They’Ll Never Be Royals: The “Purple” Textiles Of Fag El-Gamous, Bethany Jenson, R. Paul Evans, Kerry Muhlestein
They’Ll Never Be Royals: The “Purple” Textiles Of Fag El-Gamous, Bethany Jenson, R. Paul Evans, Kerry Muhlestein
Faculty Publications
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. 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. This dye was highly prized, very expensive, and was frequently used for royal garments. Because of its desirable nature, purple dye was frequently imitated with mixtures of blue and red dyes, such as indigo (plant genus Indigofera) …
Textiles And Jewelry At Fag El-Gamous, Joyce Smith, Kerry Muhlestein, Brian Christensen
Textiles And Jewelry At Fag El-Gamous, Joyce Smith, Kerry Muhlestein, Brian Christensen
Faculty Publications
Elsewhere in this volume we discuss extensively the burial practices of the common man as represented in the Fag el-Gamous sand cemetery. While these burials must represent the common, or poorer, people of the area due to their large numbers, they are remarkable in regards to the amount of resources used for a common burial.1 The two most frequently used types of goods associated with these burials, and probably the most expensive, are textiles and jewelry. In order to better understand these burials and the requisite resources marshaled by the deceased during their life and their loved ones after their …