[istultus]

As usual, "Conjecture Presented as Fact in Headline"

They found a fabric in a royal tomb in Greece that fits the description of Alexander's famous sarapis. What is more likely - that this is Alexander's sarapis itself or that a very rich guy had one made just like it?

[ericmay]

> What is more likely - that this is Alexander's sarapis itself or that a very rich guy had one made just like it?

I read through the original article though not very closely, and the authors wrote that the construction of the sarapis was unique in that nobody would have been allowed to construct one, and that the physical construction of the sarapis would have been profoundly expensive.

It could be the case that another rich guy went and had one made, sure, but given the above two priors you'd have to answer:

  Who else at the time could afford to have such a sarapis constructed?
  Is there a record of anyone with a similarly designed and constructed sarapis? Historians seem to have a good idea of who was rich and/or noble in the area at the time.
  If someone at the time constructed a similarly designed sarapis in the region, who would have built it and why wouldn't have someone basically told on them for trying to copy the God King? 

I don't think your point is invalid, but it would raise more questions that as far as I'm aware there seems to be little evidence for and introduce impractical logistics for the time period.

[infecto]

I think people forget that in those times production was tightly controlled and most likely the construction of such a cloth without permissions would most likely be met with execution.

[ipinak]

A very rich guy made one and put it the tomb? Your comment is the conjecture here. Which begs the question, why you even doing that?

[bryanrasmussen]

Alexander looks over crowd..hmm, that guy has a sarapis just like mine! Guards, have that man disembowelled!

[bertil]

That would explain the presence in a tomb…