Preamble
There is another post in this series and for your convenience I have listed it below.
Ancient Egyptian Dress - Part I
Introduction
The ancient Egyptians were descended from the Ethiopians. Hence all human figures in the coloured hieroglyphics display a darkened complexion. Every Egyptian depicted in statues and monuments display spreading toes, splay feet, bow-bent shins, high meagre calves, long swinging arms, sharp shoulders, square flat hands, skinny lips, depressed nose, high cheek bones and large unheeded ears.
Mycerinus and his Queen (4th Dynasty, Old Kingdom, ca. 2500 BC).
The male Egyptians generally shaved their heads and beards close to their skin. However, if hair was evident it was uniformly of a wooly texture. Also the lower classes wore little clothing. Many male figures display no other garment than a short apron or a piece of stuff, fastened around the waist by a belt and descending half way down the thighs; and in many representations of the personages of both sexes, the whole upper part of the body appears entirely bare or only adorned with a profusion of necklaces, belts, armlets and bracelets.
Panel of Desire, Saqqara (ca. 2750). Note: The apron appears thin in constitution.
For the upper classes of the society it was not unusual to wear a tunic that reached all the way from the neck to the feet.
King Smenkhare and Meritaten (?), Tel-el-Amana (ca. 1360). Painted limestone relief.
Note: The length of her garment.
The bibles or papers plant provided the material for some of the shorter and tighter coverings. The ampler dresses were in general made of flax; more rarely of cotton; and never of silk until after the Roman conquest. Fabrics were richly dyed in greens, yellows, reds and blues.
Hippopotamus Hunt of Ti (ca. 2400 BC).
The Egyptians adorned their heads with a variety of caps, sometimes rising to a great height above their heads and other times descending very low on the chest, in the shape of lappets. Those of the priest and of their attendants are often loaded with a profusion of symbolic decorations, composed of feathers, lotus leaves and other natural decorations; and in some of the head-dresses of Isis and of her followers disks and horns can easily be recognized as well as the orb and phases of the moon.
Akhenaton from the Temple of Aton, Karnak, 18th Dynasty, Amarna Period.
Note: The height of the head-dress.
Queen Hatshepsut, from the Mortuary Temple at Deir el Bahari (ca. 1450 BC). New Kingdom, 18th dynasty.
Note: The head-dress which descends very low on the chest in the shape of lappets.
In religious processions it was common to wear masks that encompassed the whole head and neck down to the shoulders. These represented the head and bust of various sacred animals, such as the ibis, the hawk, the bull, the dog and the ram etc.
Now Anubis lays me down to sleep.
Numerous rows of rich beads were worn by both sexes around the neck; a belt encircled the body immediately under the paps of the breast, and another confined the small of the waist. Gorgeously worked straps crossed the shoulders and met or supported these zones.
University of Manchester researchers say in the journal - Meteoritics and Planetary Science - that ancient Egyptians used meteorites to make accessories. In 1911, archaeologists dug up strings of iron beads at the Gerzeh cemetery, about 43 miles south of Cairo. The Gerzeh bead is the earliest discovered use of iron by the Egyptians, dating back from 3350 to 3600 BC. The bead was originally thought to be from a meteorite based on its composition of nickel-rich iron.
Armlets, manacles and rings around the ankles were common. The kings wore long staffs or sceptres and the priests carried wands, decorated with the heads of birds and various insignia.
Ancient Egyptian anklet.
In later times the Egyptian garments were influenced by the Greeks and Romans. The statues of Isis and of her priestesses found in Italy, indicate that under Roman domination, Egyptian women not only wore ample tunics, falling in easy folds like those of their neighbours but cast over these a veil or mantle, of which the ends drawn from behind the back over the shoulders across the chest, were made in front, by means of a large knot, to tie with and uphold the middle part.
Roman statue of Isis (Hadrian era).
Ancient Egyptian Dress - Part II[1]
The drawings presented below of the costumes of the Ancient Egyptians were procured from reference[1]. It should be noted that these were drawn from statues, reliefs and from other material that the author saw over a lengthy period of time.
Egyptian dresses from statues in the Capitol.
Egyptian priest and priestesses from statues in the Capitol.
Egyptian priest and priestesses from Denon.
Egyptian head-dresses worn in religious processions.
Egyptian priests and harp from Denon.
Egyptian capital from Denon.
Egyptian priest from a statue in the Capitol.
Egyptian female.
Isis with her sistrum (see above for the actual statue).
Reference:
[1] T. Hope, Costumes of the Greeks and Romans, Dover Publications, Inc. (New York) 1962.
There is another post in this series and for your convenience I have listed it below.
Ancient Egyptian Dress - Part I
Introduction
The ancient Egyptians were descended from the Ethiopians. Hence all human figures in the coloured hieroglyphics display a darkened complexion. Every Egyptian depicted in statues and monuments display spreading toes, splay feet, bow-bent shins, high meagre calves, long swinging arms, sharp shoulders, square flat hands, skinny lips, depressed nose, high cheek bones and large unheeded ears.
The male Egyptians generally shaved their heads and beards close to their skin. However, if hair was evident it was uniformly of a wooly texture. Also the lower classes wore little clothing. Many male figures display no other garment than a short apron or a piece of stuff, fastened around the waist by a belt and descending half way down the thighs; and in many representations of the personages of both sexes, the whole upper part of the body appears entirely bare or only adorned with a profusion of necklaces, belts, armlets and bracelets.
For the upper classes of the society it was not unusual to wear a tunic that reached all the way from the neck to the feet.
Note: The length of her garment.
The bibles or papers plant provided the material for some of the shorter and tighter coverings. The ampler dresses were in general made of flax; more rarely of cotton; and never of silk until after the Roman conquest. Fabrics were richly dyed in greens, yellows, reds and blues.
The Egyptians adorned their heads with a variety of caps, sometimes rising to a great height above their heads and other times descending very low on the chest, in the shape of lappets. Those of the priest and of their attendants are often loaded with a profusion of symbolic decorations, composed of feathers, lotus leaves and other natural decorations; and in some of the head-dresses of Isis and of her followers disks and horns can easily be recognized as well as the orb and phases of the moon.
Note: The height of the head-dress.
Note: The head-dress which descends very low on the chest in the shape of lappets.
In religious processions it was common to wear masks that encompassed the whole head and neck down to the shoulders. These represented the head and bust of various sacred animals, such as the ibis, the hawk, the bull, the dog and the ram etc.
Numerous rows of rich beads were worn by both sexes around the neck; a belt encircled the body immediately under the paps of the breast, and another confined the small of the waist. Gorgeously worked straps crossed the shoulders and met or supported these zones.
Armlets, manacles and rings around the ankles were common. The kings wore long staffs or sceptres and the priests carried wands, decorated with the heads of birds and various insignia.
In later times the Egyptian garments were influenced by the Greeks and Romans. The statues of Isis and of her priestesses found in Italy, indicate that under Roman domination, Egyptian women not only wore ample tunics, falling in easy folds like those of their neighbours but cast over these a veil or mantle, of which the ends drawn from behind the back over the shoulders across the chest, were made in front, by means of a large knot, to tie with and uphold the middle part.
Ancient Egyptian Dress - Part II[1]
The drawings presented below of the costumes of the Ancient Egyptians were procured from reference[1]. It should be noted that these were drawn from statues, reliefs and from other material that the author saw over a lengthy period of time.
Reference:
[1] T. Hope, Costumes of the Greeks and Romans, Dover Publications, Inc. (New York) 1962.
No comments:
Post a Comment