Amazing 4,500-Year-Old Egyptian Bead-Net Dress Found In Giza Tomb Restored

[Judi Lynn]

AncientPages.com | June 27, 2023

Amazing 4,500-Year-Old Egyptian Bead-Net Dress Found In Giza Tomb Restored
AncientPages.com | June 27, 2023 |

Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - In 1927, a team of archaeologists led by George A. Reisner excavated at Giza, Egypt, where they unearthed a remarkable ancient treasure. The scientists discovered the only complete ancient Egyptian bead-net dress found to date in one of the tombs! Most ancient Egyptian tombs have been looted, but the owner's burial had remained undisturbed, giving archaeologists a unique opportunity to examine the incredible clothing.

Inside the Giza Mastaba tomb G7440 were the skeletal remains of an unidentified female. Riesner was a thorough archaeologist who photographed and documented everything inside the tomb. He also wrote a daily diary describing everything of importance concerning tomb G7440. Thanks to this diary and Riesner's archaeological methodology and highly controlled recording techniques, scientists could reconstruct the incredible dress found in tomb G7440 60 years later.

As a research associate for a prospective MFA exhibit on the burial practices and funerary beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, I was assigned the task of solving the mystery tiny round boxes and their bead-contents. Some 7,000 of the latter, of varied color, size, and shape, suggested that I was dealing with an object of major proportion; but what form would these beads assume when restored to their original configuration? Millicent Jick recalls.

Sitting in the basement storage room of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Jick read the archaeological diaries and counted and sorted the thousands of beads in the small boxes. He was trying to determine what it all meant. The fact he was familiar with large ancient bead-net burial shrouds was, of course, an advantage when trying to solve this ancient mystery.

. . .



Beadnet dress - Egyptian Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, reign of Khufu2551–2528 B.C.Findspot: Egypt, Giza, Tomb G 7440 Z. Credit: MFA Boston

More:
https://www.ancientpages.com/2023/06/27/egyptian-bead-net-dress/

[OhNo-Really]

1. Millicent is a genius!

[MLAA]

2. Who knew Ancient Egyptians were the precursor to Kardashian fashion (?)

[Tetrachloride]

9. The Egyptians

[Chainfire]

3. I wonder if it was worn with underclothes?

Just the dirty old man in me I guess.

[Warpy]

7. Those were a recent invention, at least the lower part

Both men and women went commando until very recently, the long skirts on women preventing creepers from upskirting.

Underwear for both sexes was the chemise, an extremely loose fitting garment made mostly of linen, worn under outer clothing during the day and used as a nightgown at night. For women, the bra predated the corset, the former worn under the chemise and the later over it. Considering how hard women had to work, I think the popularity of the corset was because of the additional support it gave to their backs.

This is European. Other places had other rules and nudity wasn't a big deal until the missionaries came in and freaked out about it.

[Lunabell]

4. That's an amazing piece of artwork!

Gorgeous.

[Warpy]

5. They were great weavers and she might have

at least designed that honeycomb fabric herself, if not woven it herself. It's a fantastic party dress, topped off by a gorgeous necklace. The whole thing would have been topped by a heavily styled wig. She must have been a stunner in that outfit.

This is stuff that I love, the amazing objects owned by real people. In this case, she had to be a pretty wealthy head of household to sport that kind of necklace and go places that required that kind of dress. Drag that elaborate was generally reserved for the upper crust of society, maybe the wife of a Pharaoh 'b brother, deceased to ensure power but his wife and children maintained in style.

[Timeflyer]

6. Gorgeous--some celebrity somewhere is telling their designer "I want that."

[LakeArenal]

8. I love fashion.

[Metro135]

10. Don't tell Kim Kardashian

She'll want to wear it to the next MET gala

[swong19104]

11. Better than most

modern fashion.

I wonder if Zara will come out with a knock-off in a few weeks.

[dobleremolque]

12. Amazing indeed! n/t

[Deep State Witch]

13. Beading Life Goals

I would love to make something like this, let alone re-create it with the same beads.

[Botany]

14. So Bob Mackie lived in ancient Eygpt?

[Wicked Blue]

15. I wonder what size it is

The dress, and its reconstruction, are breathtaking.