Iliana Borisova-Katsarova

       Assist. Prof., Dr.

       Sofia University „St. Kliment Ohridski“, Faculty of History, Archaeology Department

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Archaeological evidence of luxury textiles from Late Antique Serdica.

Evidence of archaeological textiles from antiquity, and in particular of luxury textiles, has long attracted the interest of researchers. Clothing in every historical period is among the clearest markers of prestige and social status. Unfortunately, we have very little published material from today's Bulgarian lands. Here I present some finds from the Eastern and Western necropolises of Serdica, which shed some light on the spread and use of gold-woven textiles in Late Antiquity. We have eleven examples that represent clothing and funeral textiles. In most cases, only the golden threads are preserved, but in some cases organic threads are also preserved, which are subject to additional interdisciplinary analysis. In addition to the archaeological finds, examples from the fine arts have been attracted to complement our idea of ​​luxury textiles in Late Antiquity.