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Purple Fabrics and Garments in Akkadian Documents

  • Shiyanthi Thavapalan EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: February 20, 2018

Abstract

The following examination of the textual evidence for purple dyeing in late Bronze Age Syria and Mesopotamia highlights a disconnect between the written sources and the physical remains for colored textiles recently unearthed at Qaṭnā (Tell Mishrīfe). By charting the relationship between developments in the dyeing industry against wider economic forces in this period, this essay addresses the impact of Bronze Age technologies on the evolution of Akkadian color language.

Acknowledgment

The author thanks Benjamin R. Foster, Cécile Michel and Thorsten Carstensen, who read this paper and made several suggestions for improvement. Elizabeth Payne generously shared her transliterations of many unpublished texts concerning colored textiles, which she studied for her dissertation.

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Published Online: 2018-02-20
Published in Print: 2018-02-23

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