Gold, Silk and Purple: Restricted Raw Materials and Their Imitations in the Antique Mediterranean  

In antiquity, textiles with gold threads, silk fabrics, and purple dye were the most precious textile products. At the same time, imitations in cheaper materials and techniques were manufactured, showing the influence and dependency of production on luxury goods. 

Antique textiles survive mainly in Egypt, where the favorable climate preserves luxury as well as everyday textiles. Gold threads, silk fabrics, and purple dye were the ultimate luxury in Roman and late antiquity textiles; they were precious, and their availability was limited. In antiquity, like today, luxury items were copied with cheaper materials and techniques.  

Gold threads consisted of gold foil strips wound spirally around a core thread. They were woven in selected places of decoration only. By using a bright yellow woolen thread, a similar glowing and shimmering effect could be achieved (fig. 1 + 2). 

The silk fiber from the cocoon of the silkworm (Bombyx mori) was appreciated for its luster and fineness. It also had the reputation of being exotic, because until the 6^th century AD it was imported from Central Asia. Late antiquity silk fabrics are characterized by a grid pattern with repeat motifs, woven in the complex samite weaving technique. These silk fabrics were cut into panels and sewn as decoration on tunics. The grid pattern was adopted by simple wool tapestry weaving, where this design, including intentionally woven “cut” motifs at the outer edges, became popular (fig. 3 + 4). 

Fig. 3: Neck and shoulder trimming of a silk samite fabric. London, Victoria and Albert Museum inv. 292-1887 (photo: Victoria and Albert Museum).

Fig. 4: Shoulder trimming in woolen tapestry weave, imitating a silk fabric. Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Inventar-Nr. T 55 (photo: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Th. Goldschmidt).

The precious or “real” purple dye is gained from mollusk snails in an elaborate procedure. A purple color tone can also be produced from cheaper dyestuffs from plants of the Rubiaceae family or from kermes lice (Kermes vermilio). “Real” mollusk purple and plant/lice purple are not distinguishable with the naked eye, but today we can detect by chemical analysis which dye source was used (fig. 5 + 6). 

Fig. 5: Chemical analysis revealed that the wool for weaving this band in a linen fabric was dyed in “real” mollusk purple. Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie Mainz (LEIZA), Inv. O.03261. https://www.leiza.de/ (photo: Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie Mainz, V. Iserhardt).

Fig. 6: The wool in these bands is dyed with the cheaper plant dyestuff from the Rubiaceae family. Egypt, 410–540 AD. Antwerp, The Phoebus Foundation Inv. KTN 489 (photo: The Phoebus Foundation).

Was there an intention behind these transmaterial copies of gold, silk, and purple in antique textiles? Were they meant to be forgeries to simulate wealth? This is unlikely, as the antique observer must have noticed the difference between the “original” and the “fake” immediately. It is more likely that these precious materials of limited availability simply created fashion trends. 

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Further Reading

Bogensperger, Ines, 2015. Purpur: eine Farbe als Statussymbol. Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 145, 155–172. 

Linscheid, Petra, 2017. Spätantike und Byzanz. Bestandskatalog Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Band II: Textilien (Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident, Band 8.2). Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.385. 

Thomas, Thelma K., Jennifer Ball, Edward Bleiberg, Kathrin Colburn, Helen C. Evans,  

Christine Kondoleon, Brandie Ratliff, and Elizabeth Dospel Williams. 2016. Designing Identity: The Power of Textiles in Late Antiquity. Exhibition catalogue, New York, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, Princeton University Press.