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Costumes consisting of kings’ kilts, queens’ garments, gods’ vests, and goddesses’ gowns are recorded in royal and non-royal tomb paintings of the New Kingdom from Thutmose IV to Ramesses XI. I believe these depictions represent real cloth. While examples of patterned fabrics can be seen in the clothing painted in the Aegean frescoes of Thera and Crete, the gift-bearing Minoan Keftiu in a scene from the Tomb of Rekhmira (TT100), and the well-dressed Levantines in the caravan of the Aamu of Shu (seen in the Tomb of Khnumhotep, BH3), such highly coloured garments were reserved in Egypt for royals and the elite.
The Tomb of Thutmose IV (KV43)
The scenes in one particular tomb inspired me to begin an ‘experimental archaeology’ project to discover, decipher, draft, and weave these patterned fabrics. This was a wall painting in the Tomb of Thutmose IV (KV43) depicting the goddess Hathor wearing blue, red, and gold rishi-patterned gowns. Because of my earlier research on woven Tutankhamun textiles, I was sure that such goddess gowns were depictions of hand-woven patterned fabrics, and not bead-dresses as suggested in the literature. I created a hundred hand-woven samples of the patterns found on the costumes, publishing the research in a series of 15 articles in the Complex Weavers Journal between 2013 and 2025.
The goddess gowns are impressive, and my interpretation of their fabric designs closely matches the painted patterns. Though I believe the gowns actually worn by the elite were probably shapeless shifts, the sleek sheaths in the artwork fit the canonical female figures. The style of the gown, which was set in the earliest tomb paintings of Thutmose IV (c.1400-1390 BC) and Amenhotep III (c.1390-1352 BC), persisted with few changes – even in the Graeco-Roman temple paintings at Esna and Dendera. A single shoulder strap on the earliest gowns changed to a pair, and much later gowns were strapless. Below the breast and at the hem were narrow or wide patterned bands. Dress fabrics were all-over patterns in a colourful palette. Dressing a goddess in a patterned gown became an enduring part of the iconography, and the fully rendered figures in panoramic scenes, first seen in Thutmose IV’s tomb, set the style of tomb decoration for the pharaohs who followed. The wall paintings and the costumes worn by goddesses, gods, and kings in the tomb of his son Amenhotep III were extraordinary.
The hip patterns… are exactly the same chevron pattern found on Tutankhamun’s Amarna belt.
Tomb of Amenhotep III (WV22)
The west wall painting from the Antechamber of WV22 shows six images of Amenhotep III being honoured by four goddesses, Anubis, and Osiris on a celestial blue background. Eight goddesses, identified as Hathor, the Western Goddess, and Nut, are seen in different rooms of the tomb, each wearing a gown with distinctive patterns, which I have recreated. Simple block patterns are on the breast and hem bands. In the west wall painting, the Western Goddess has an interesting green gown.
The king himself is dressed in some astonishing costumes in these paintings. Some are the familiar wrap-kilt of plain linen with a protruding, triangular panel, patterned belts, and aprons, but others show fitted hip-wraps beneath the triangular panel, and wraparound skirts with chevron patterns. The hip patterns, which are in different colourways, are exactly the same chevron pattern that is also found on Tutankhamun’s Amarna belt.
Because of the political and religious upheaval following the reign of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten (c.1352-1336 BC), no depictions of patterned gowns were found during this period – not even on the goddesses in the paintings from Tutankhamun’s tomb (KV62). However, there were patterns on cushions, curtains, and other textile items; in paintings; and on gilt or golden artefacts at this time.
Tutankhamun textiles
My study of the patterned bands on Tutankhamun’s ‘Syrian’ tunic and the ‘Amarna’ belt fragment from his tomb showed that the fabric designs depicted on the gowns of Hathor and Isis in the earlier tomb scenes can be woven with the same method of pattern weaving.
The tunic bands and belt fragment, though previously cited in the literature as warp-faced textiles (where the lengthways yarn is most visible), are identifiable as being weft-faced pattern weaves (where the horizontal yarn dominates the front surface), proving that weft-faced pattern weaving was a known technique during the Eighteenth Dynasty. In weft-faced weaving, the taut warp ends stretched on the loom are covered by weft picks. The visible colour and pattern come from multiple, tightly packed rows of weft yarns. That type of cloth can be woven with a counting and pick-up method of patterning on any of the horizontal, vertical, or warp-weighted looms of the prehistoric world. My recreations of ancient patterns were woven on a time-saving modern loom, but the structure would be identical woven on any loom. The design can be an all-over pattern or have horizontal registers of different patterns and colours. The design does not need to be preconceived, but can develop during the weaving process at the hand of a creative artisan. A weft-faced pattern is easily drafted from an actual or painted textile once the method of weaving is understood.
Nineteenth Dynasty
The decorative patterns re-emerge in the costumes of the Nineteenth Dynasty. In the Valley of the Queens, the elegant tomb scenes in the Tomb of Nefertari (QV66, c.1255 BC) include a hexagon pattern on a red field which can be seen on the curtain behind Nefertari’s bier, on the Isis gown, and also on the dresses of Selket, Neith, and the Mistress of the West.
In QV55, the Tomb of Prince Amenherkhepshef, son of Ramesses III (c.1184-1153 BC), the king is depicted in the most astonishing garments in the paintings framing a doorway (see below). He is bedecked in a colourful, complex costume of crowns, scarves, bands, belts, ribbons, aprons, and elegant, patterned, multi-tiered skirts. The swirling skirts have rishi motifs formed of chevron patterns in different colourways, and rishi-scallop patterns cover the hips – enough feather patterns to fly him to the netherworld! The feather pattern on the hip panel resembles the blue rishi pattern on Hathor’s blue gown in the painting from the Tomb of Thutmose IV. Centuries apart, the rishi pattern, with its symbolic, protective power, continued to be popular.
Foreign imports
The clothing stash from Tutankhamun’s tomb, which consisted of other tunics with unusual weaving and sewing techniques, suggests that these garments were imported. During the Late Bronze Age, trade flourished with the people from the ‘Great Green Sea’, the Near Eastern kingdoms, and those to the west and south.
Thutmose III brought home quantities of handsome textiles and captured Syrian artisans from his conquests, quite possibly wool weavers among them. Thutmose IV married an eastern princess who came to Egypt with a hundred handmaidens and her dowry. Amenhotep III had three brides from the Mitanni Empire who brought gifts, including ‘cloth of many colours’, and a retinue of servants and artisans. Elegant textiles, materials, methods, loom technology, and craftsmen filtered into Egypt with these princess-brides.
The polychrome-patterned fabrics from the Levant’s ‘Wool Age’ were so unlike Egypt’s traditional ecru linens. The ancients at this time lacked the knowledge of how to dye flax fibres in a full spectrum – that skill developed far into the future. Only wool fleece could be dyed in the complete palette of the ornately patterned costumes of the goddesses, gods, kings, and queens in the tomb scenes. So the colour-rich patterned fabrics found on the costumes in New Kingdom tomb paintings were inspired by the imported textiles of wool from the Mediterranean world. There is literary evidence for the importation of these colourful textiles. There are also rare fragments of wool cloth from the workmen’s village in Amarna, but those remnants do not represent the rich woollen fabrics that came from the east. Sadly, none of the Egyptian garments have survived: the fancy fabrics disintegrated over the ages, or were devoured by hungry critters.
Experimental archaeology
I had no idea when I began my project to analyse a blue Hathor gown and a red Isis gown that I would find such a wealth of patterned material. I believe that the depictions of patterned gowns were neither beaded dresses nor figments of the painter’s imagination, but were imported textiles of wool, or were garments made by Egyptian weavers trained in the weft-faced method. The fabrics were ephemeral – destined to disappear as trade and skills diminished when Egypt’s golden age faded away. The colourful costumes in the tomb paintings remind us of the beautiful patterned fabrics that once were a part of royal regalia.
Nancy Arthur Hoskins has an MS in Art History, Art Education, and Fine Arts/Weaving. A former college weaving teacher, she is a published author, an exhibiting artist, and an independent scholar researching Pharaonic, Coptic, and Early Islamic textiles. To find out more about her work, visit her website at http://www.nancyarthurhoskins.com.
Further reading:
• N A Hoskins (2011) ‘Woven patterns on Tutankhamun textiles’, in Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 47: 197-213.
• N A Hoskins (2016) ‘Fabric patterns found in royal New Kingdom tomb paintings from Egypt: the Tomb of Amenhotep III’, in Complex Weavers Journal 112: 23-38.
• N A Hoskins (2025, forthcoming) New Kingdom Costumes of Patterned Fabrics found on Goddesses, Gods, Kings, and Queens: a compilation of fifteen articles (Skein Publications).
All images: the author, unless otherwise stated
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