This paper reviews the published evidence for archaeological textiles from ancient Macedonia and explores what they reveal about the region’s history. One textile is made by felting and the rest are woven in plain tabby, weft-faced tabby, and tapestry weave, typically from single yarns with z twist. This technical repertoire is characteristic of the east Mediterranean. Analyses of the raw materials document the use of flax, wool, gold and silver and purple dye, as well as silk and dyer’s woad in the Roman period. Most of the textiles come from high-status burials, particularly of the second half of the 4th century and the Hellenistic period and cluster around the Thermaic Gulf. This bias explains the high prevalence of otherwise rare precious materials such as gold thread and purple dye. I propose that Alexander’s expeditions against Persia, including the looting of gold-woven textiles and exposure to Achaemenid aesthetics and political habits, brought an influx of gold textiles in the Aegean. As a result, from the late 4th century onwards a wider (though probably still elite) circle of people began to use gold-and-purple textiles in burials. A local workshop for making gold-strip textiles probably appeared as part of this development.
Bela Dimova (Sun,) studied this question.