• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Has Alexander The Great’s Legendary Purple Robe Finally Been Found?

October 30, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Among the many perks that came with being an ancient Macedonian king was the exclusive right to dress in purple, and Alexander the Great certainly made the most of this royal entitlement. The legendary ruler is believed to have to have donned his aubergine apparel at every opportunity, and a new study suggests we may have finally located one of his most famous purple garments.

According to the Ancient Greek author Ephippus of Olynthus, Alexander exercised his purple privilege almost every day, rarely going anywhere without his mauve tunic-like robe, known as a chiton or sarapis. Now, it seems this well-used frock may have been stashed alongside some of the monarch’s other items inside the tomb of his half-brother.

Advertisement

Originally excavated in 1977, the so-called Great Tumulus of Vergina in northern Greece contains the remains of several of Alexander the Great’s relatives, although it took until the tail end of last year for the identities of the interred to be confirmed. Of particular interest is a burial known as Royal Tomb II, which features a golden chest – or larnax – that houses the bones of Alexander’s semi-sibling Philip III Arrhidaeus in addition to armor and other objects that belonged to the king himself.

Among these items is a purple and white material that was once thought to have served as wrapping for Arrhidaeus’ bones. However, re-examining the ancient cloth, study author Antonis Bartsiokas from the Democritus University of Thrace has reached an altogether different conclusion.

Reviewing a series of molecular and microscopic analyses of the fabric, Bartsiokas reveals that the item is in fact a purple-dyed cotton textile with a white center, likely blanched using the mineral huntite. The author therefore concludes that “the physical description exactly fits the description in the ancient sources of the sacred Persian mesoleucon sarapis which belonged to Pharaoh and King Alexander the Great”.

Not holding back, Bartsiokas goes on to describe the old rag as “the most precious object in antiquity.”

Advertisement

It’s worth noting, however, that the Royal Tombs of Vergina remain the subject of great academic debate, and Bartsiokas’ assertions are sure to be discussed and contested by other scholars. Seeking to strengthen his argument, the researcher points out that Tomb II is adorned with a frieze depicting Alexander the Great wearing the very robe that was found inside the larnax.

In the image, the king can be identified by the fact that he is also wearing a purple hat known as a kausia, which features a diadem and was only worn by royalty. He is depicted hunting a lion, apparently poised to deliver the fatal blow, all the while draped in his fabulous purple chiton.

Thus, while the final resting place of Alexander himself remains a mystery, Bartsiokas suggests that the great ruler’s iconic clothing was buried with Philip III Arrhidaeus, who died in 316 BCE and was the last king of the Argead dynasty.

The study is published in the Journal of Field Archaeology.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Cricket-Manchester test likely to be postponed after India COVID-19 case
  2. EU to attend U.S. trade meeting put in doubt by French anger
  3. Soccer-West Ham win again, Leicester and Napoli falter
  4. Was Jesus A Hallucinogenic Mushroom? One Scholar Certainly Thought So

Source Link: Has Alexander The Great’s Legendary Purple Robe Finally Been Found?

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Andromeda, Solar Storms, And A 1 Billion Pixel Image Crowned Best Astrophotos Of The Year
  • New Island Emerges In Alaska As Glacier Rapidly Retreats, NASA Satellite Imagery Shows
  • With A New Drug Cocktail, Scientists May Have Finally Found Flu’s Universal Weak Spot
  • Battered Skull Confirms Roman Amphitheaters Were Beastly For Bears
  • Mine Spiders Bigger Than A Burger Patty Lurk Deep In Abandoned Caves
  • Blackout Zones: The Places On Earth Where Magnetic Compasses Don’t Work
  • What Is Actually Happening When You Get Blackout Drunk? An Ethically Dubious Experiment Found Out
  • Koalas Get A Shot At Survival As World-First Chlamydia Vaccine Gets Approval
  • We Could See A Black Hole Explode Within 10 Years – Unlocking The Secrets Of The Universe
  • Denisovan DNA May Make Some People Resistant To Malaria
  • Beware The Kellas Cat? This “Cryptid” Turned Out To Be Real, But It Wasn’t What People Thought
  • “They Simply Have A Taste For The Hedonists Among Us”: Festival Mosquito Study Has Some Bad News
  • What Is The Purpose Of Those Lines On Your Towels?
  • The Invisible World Around Us: How Can We Capture And Clean The Air We Breathe?
  • 85-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Eggs Dated Using “Atomic Clock For Fossils” For The First Time
  • Why Shouldn’t You Kiss Babies? New Study Shows Even Healthy Newborns Can Become Severely Ill With RSV
  • Earth Has A New Quasi-Moon – And It Has Probably Been Around For Decades
  • Want To Kill Your Prey? Do It Feather-Legged Lace Weaver Spider Style And Vomit All Over Them
  • IFLScience The Big Questions: Are We In The Anthropocene?
  • The Wildfire Paradox Affecting 440 Million People Has As Worrying A Solution As You’d Expect
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version