one could sometimes suppose that the flounced dress with volants,
well known in the Aegean area, had its parallel in Babylonia.[1]
Egypt furnishes admirable painted and sculptured representations
of the forms taken by the Semitic spiral dress in the
XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties; the highly-coloured and gay
apparel of Palestine and Syria standing in the strongest
contrast to the plain, simple and often
scanty garments of the Egyptians (fig. 5).
While the common Semite wore a short
skirt, often with tassels and sometimes
with an upper tunic, the more important
had an elaborate scarf (extending from
waist to knee) wound over the long tunic,
or a longer and close-fitting variety coloured
blue and red and generally adorned with
rich embroidery. A significant feature is
the kind of cape which covers the shoulders,
it would not and no doubt was not intended
to leave play for the arms; it was the
dress of the leisured classes, and a typical
scene depicts the chiefs of Lebanon thus
arrayed submissively felling cedars for
Seti I. (about 1300 B.C.).
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| Drawn from a photo by Giraudon. Fig. 7. Sargon and his Commander-in-Chief. |
Not until the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties does a change come over Egyptian costume. The Asiatic conquests made Egypt politically supreme, the centre of life and intercourse, and the tendency arose to pay some attention to outward appearance. From the highest to the lowest—with the important exception of the priests—the new age of luxury wiped out the earlier simplicity. The upper part of the body was covered with a tunic fastened over the girdle. Often the left arm had a short sleeve while the right was bare, but flowing sleeves came into use and various pleated skirts became customary. Garments were multiplied, and the cape and long mantle, which had previously been uncommon, were now usual. Fashions changed in quick succession; upper classes were successively copied by those beneath them and were forced to ensure their dignity by assuming new styles. Whether for ordinary or for special occasions a great variety of costume prevailed, and several types can be distinguished among both sexes (Erman, pp. 207 seq., 213 sqq.; see fig. 6). The fashionable material was linen, and although, according to Herodotus (ii. 81), a woollen mantle was worn over the fringed linen skirt, wool was forbidden to the priests in the temple. The preference for fine white linen, quite in keeping with the exaggerated Egyptian ideas of cleanliness, brought the art of spinning and weaving to a singularly high level; in embroidery, as in tapestry, however, it is probable that western Asia more than held its own (see figs. 7 and 8).
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| Fig. 8.—Assyrian Officers. |
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| Fig. 9.—Israelite Tribute-bearers introduced by two Assyrian Officers. |
Quite distinct from the spiral is the old Babylonian cloak, which was thrown over the left shoulder, passed under the right armpit, and hung down, leaving sufficient freedom for the legs. It is often decorated with a fringed border from top to bottom. In time this mantle covered both shoulders and assumed sleeves, and in one form or another it is frequently represented. So Jehu’s tribute-bearers wear short sleeves, trimmed border, and the general effect could even suggest an Assyrian dress (see fig 9). Not unlike this is the style on the bilingual Hittite boss of Tarkudimme, where the skirt ends in a point nearly to the ground and one leg stands out bare to the front—the very favourite attitude. Long fringed robes were worn by Hittites of both sexes, and the women represented at Mar’ash and Zenjīli wear it hung over the characteristic Hittite cylindrical head-dress (fig. 10). On the other hand, the unhappy females of Lachish have a long plain mantle which covers the head and forehead (fig. 11), and the same principle recurs in modern usage, where the tunic will be supplemented by a veil or shawl which (generally bound to the head by a band) frames the face and falls back to the waist. A large mantle could thus serve as a veil, and Rebekah covered her face with her square or oblong wrapper on meeting Isaac (Gen. xxiv. 65). Veiling was ceremonial (1 Cor. xi. 5), and customary on meeting a future bridegroom or at marriage (see Gen. xxix. 23-25). Nevertheless veils were not usually worn out of doors, the countrywoman of to-day is not veiled, and it is uncertain whether there is any early parallel for the yashmak, the narrow strip which covers the face below the eyes and hangs down to the feet.
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| From Der alte Orient, by permission of J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung. Fig. 10.—Hittite Women. |
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| Fig. 11.—Prisoners of Lachish. |
Before passing to the special covering for the feet and head some further reference to the Old Testament usage may be made. Among the Hebrews the outer garment, as distinct from the inner loin wrapper (ĕzōr) or tunic, evidently took many forms.
- ↑ See e.g. Ball, Light from the East, p. 36. On the Aegean dress (Whether a development from spiral swathes or perhaps rather from a series of skirts one above the other), see the discussion of the Aegean loin-cloth by D. Mackenzie, Annual of the British School at Athens, xii. 233-249 (esp. 242 seq.).
