The development of the traditional royal costume on the example of the depictions in the Chamber of Linen at Edfu
Abstract
Looking at the vast majority of relief representations, not only in Edfu, but in all the temples of the Ptolemaic-Roman period, one easily has the impression that the clothing of the ancient Egyptians, whether of the king or of the various gods, was very plain, usually consisting only of a kilt or simple dress. As the clothing of figures in the Chamber of Linen in Edfu shows, however, one must not be misled by what remains today as relief alone, but it must be remembered that these reliefs were once richly painted and thus depicted many elements of the clothing that are now unknown to us.
It is in the Chamber of Linen that many remains of coloured relief still can be observed, and it is probably one of the best examples in this respect in Edfu. Each figure has a different degree of preservation in the paintings but taken together we can establish, at least to a certain degree, what the king was wearing in the other scenes where no remains of painting survive at all.
These depictions can help us to trace the development of the royal costume, or at least its public presentation, which probably differed from what the king actually wore. They also remind us that what we see is only a small fragment of what the ancient Egyptians really intended to depict, and it is never possible to draw any conclusions about a garment solely on the basis of reliefs where no painting is preserved.