ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS FASHION

 

 

 GALLERY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS FASHION, COSTUMES AND OUTFITS

    

                                                       1. Dictynna                            2. Ishtar                     3. Astarte

1.      Labrys a.k.a Dictynna, who lived on the top of Mount Dicta was the goddess of Crete who symbolized feminine energy. She was a very feminine and elegant deity. What you are looking at is a detail from murals at Knossos, circa 2,000 B.C. This detail depicts her as the queen of the feminine beauty who frequently uses double axes referred to as Labrysis or Labryses. The axes represent feminine energy. There are no similarities between this goddess and Armenian female deities, except only one major resemblance in the couture cut around the hips. The centre cut was an Armenian moda. This style of couture began to appear in Greece and Cyprus at the time ancient Greeks during the campaign of Alexander of Macedonia began to collaborate with Armenian masons, architects and artisans on the erection of temples for Greek deities on the Armenian plateau. Before conquering Armenia, the Greek women dresses as well as the Greek goddesses long dresses and short skirts were never ceintre around the hips. Of course, they had a definition and the central cut was shaped around the hips, and the Greek dresses were wrapped around the woman hips with delicate and elegant ribbons or laced ropes but, they were never so close to the body contour. This fashion was introduced in Cyprus and Greece by soldiers and officers who were serving in the Macedonian army at the time Alexander the Great invaded ancient Armenia.

2.      Ishtar, the supreme Babylonian goddess previously discussed. You are looking at a statue found in Zimrilin Palace, Mari, circa 240-1870 B.C.

3.      Babylonian goddess Astarte  previously discussed. You are looking at a statue found in Ras Shamra, circa, 1900 B.C.

 

                                                        1.                                                          2. 

1.      The serpent goddess  of Crete. This statue was found in Knossos, Mari, circa 1,600 B.C. This goddess has puzzled me for long time,  for it was worshipped in the island of Crete as early as 6,000 B.C. and thus preceding almost the majority of all the ancient goddesses we came across in the study of any civilization at any time table. She was always depicted as a very elegant goddess dressed to the nines and lavishly decorated at a time in history, when metal, gold and precious stones mining  and metallurgy were not quite developed, or known outside Armenia. Yet, the inhabitants of Crete were familiar with metal mining and proved to be master sculptors who frequently incorporated precious stones and gold in their artwork. This enigmatic fine metal artwork and very advanced sculpture artistic creativity incorporating precious stones and gold on the island of Crete leads me to entertain the idea of possible early migration or immigration of early Armenians to and from Crete. Consequently, it directs my attention in the direction and possibility of an anterior and a very ancient civilization established by the early Armenians which was never been recorded or it might have been recorded but erased and or lost for ever.

2. The demon goddess as referred to by the Sumerians and Hebrews. She is also known as the hand of Inanna famous  for  sacred sexual rites carried on inside the temple. She is wearing a multi-layered crown over a turban. This goddess was worshiped by both the Sumerians and the Hebrews around 2,000-2,300 B.C. She is considered to be the first winged goddess in antiquity. Humans or human figures with wings  were the illustrative creation of very ancient civilizations such as the Mesopotamians and Assyrians. They were known as guardians of the passage toward the next life . They were first depicted as human-non human entities by the Babylonians long time before the Armenian kingdoms were established. When Armenia was converted to Christianity, the early illustrators of the illuminated manuscripts paintings adopted this pagan iconography  as a Christian symbol representing the Christian angels.

 

 

 

1.      Astarte is a duplicate name for Asherah, the fertility goddess of Babylonia and consort of Baal, the supreme god of the Babylonians and Phoenicians. Her statue( #1) depicts the horizontal and zig zag line patterned  skirt style.

2.       Inanna, the powerful warrior deity, warrior queen and  goddess of battles, wars, storms, earthquakes, and natural catastrophes of the Sumerians.  Notice the sequences of horizontal line patterns and un-fringed border of the long dress. Identical fashion style  shared commonly by Armenian, Sumerian, Mesopotamian and Assyrian deities and supreme goddesses. There is no reason whatsoever, to believe that the Armenian deities were dressed up differently. This was the fashion of the era. Later in time, the style of deities long dresses and gowns  gained less divine ground and was widely adopted by the nobility, women and men of the court and royalty members.

COMMON FEATURES IN ANCIENT ARMENIAN, MIDDLE AND NEAR EAST DRESS-MAKING, COSTUMES AND DRESSES FASHION.

WOMEN DRESS AND MEN TUNIC

 

At the very beginning, women in all the Near East, Middle East, Asia Minor and ancient Armenia wore long simple dresses that concealed the figure. Men wore long linen tunics reaching the ankle. In winter time, ancient Armenians wore an additional garment made out of wool on the top of their tunics. The Armenian rich upper class tunics were ornamented with borders edged with tassels and double fringes. Similar tunics and men costumes were wore by Sumerians, Assyrians Babylonians and Persians. Some of the characteristics of early Armenian women dresses and costumes were for instance, the off-white color, the creamy white silk, the vibrant red silk, the broidery and elegant patterns on the front of the dress, sleeves and around the collar executed with finesse and enriched with golden threads.

APPAREL & ACCESSORIES: Wealthy and upper class men  from the beginning of time until the  early 20^th century in Asia Minor, Armenia, the Near and the Middle East carried a stick in the right hand. In ancient times, the stick was referred to as rod or staff. It was a symbol of power, importance and wealth. Equally important was the seal, a fashion which faded and completely disappeared in the late 17^thA.D. Noble Armenians frequently used the stick. Contrary to a common belief, the stick or the staff was not used exclusively by older men as a tool to lean on or to use as a walking stick. The Armenian staff was a symbol of predominance and social status. THE FOOT WEAR: In ancient times, everybody wore sandals; they were the footwear of the populace, the nobles, the rich and the soldiers. Men and women sandals looked very similar. They were made out of leather, flat in shape and mono-colored.  Some women sandals had an incorporated heel and fastened to their ankle with leather ribbons or thin laces. Early Armenian sandals were flat, made out of leather and other thick clothe materials and were usually fastened to the ankle and between the big and two first toes. The most elaborate ones were the sandals of the wealthy Greek and Roman women, and most certainly the Roman emperors. HEADWEAR: Headweare was the ultimate status symbol in ancient times. Even today, headwear in some countries remains as meaningful and as expressive as it was in ancient times and antiquity in almost all the countries of the known world beginning with the cave men, the Babylonian, the Incas, the Mayas, the American Indians with their feathers rings and continuing with members of royal families in Europe. Headwear fashion and hats styles developed very rapidly and distinctively in the countries of Near East, Middle East and Asia Minor. An amazing variety of headwear and hats  appear throughout the ages in that part of the world, to name a few: turban, fez, tarbooche, kelbabk, alousi, lafiyeh, eigal, fedora, alfiyeh, birnayta, yamaka, including hundreds of imperial and royal crowns and clergymen headwear at all levels and various hierarchies for an infinite number of religious affiliations and denominations encompassing Catholic Armenians, Orthodox Armenians, Coptic, Nastourian, Gnostics, Assyrians, Ashourians, Maronites, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Jesuits, Shiites Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Syriac,  Bahai, Kurdish, etc……

 

 

 

Armenians adopted almost all kinds of headwear that appeared in their surrounding areas and or in countries that invaded them and ruled their lands, except the Armenian kings and Armenian clergymen who had a very particular headwear style, typically Armenian and extremely distinctive and different from all other styles, shapes and forms starting with their first official king to the current Holiness Catholicos of all the Armenians.

THE FRAGRANCE AND SCENTS

Men and women alike contributed a major importance to fragrances. The wealthy and upper classes used fragrances extracted from fruits, wild roses and flowers, the less privileged classes used fragrances extracted from herbs, leaves and a combination of olive oil and other greasy ingredients. The most sought and the most expenses fragrances were made by the Arabs and were referred to “Outor”. Later on in history, the Greek and Roman emperors would become notorious for excessive use of fragrances they acquired from North Africa and the Near Eastern countries. There is no sufficient evidence or written document to ascertain that ancient Armenians accorded a major importance to fragrances. Legends tell us that Armenian laces and silk were often perfumed with scents extracted from dried fruits and wild herbs. Phoenicians who settled in the new city of Carthage in Tunisia, and particularly queen Didon of Carthage praised the Armenian laces and scents.

 

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN ANATOLIAN DRESS AND COSTUME STYLE AND ITS LINK TO ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS, DEITIES AND MYTHOLOGICAL SYMBOLISM

 

Photo: Neo- Assyrian bronze band at Shamash Temple in Khorsabad representing king Sargon II, circa 721-705 B.C.

 

 

 

Neo-Assyrian bas-relief fragment from the  period  of the reign of
king Sargon II, circa721-705 B.C.  found in the ruins of Throneroom palace in Khorsabad.
 

This bas-relief detail ties us up to the kilt previously mentioned in the Saragon II bronze band. It depicts half-dressed Assyrian soldiers in the process of towing a massive boat made out of cedar wood from ancient Phoenicia. A great number of tablets and bas-reliefs in the Middle and Near East represented naked or half-dressed soldiers and workers on a temple ramps, in royal palaces, in a hunting scene, and quite often in battles. This is very a propos to the countries with hot weather in the Near and Middle East. I have never encountered any carved stone, pillar, column or tablet that depicts a naked or half-dressed Armenian workers or soldiers, even during their Assyria and Anatolia campaigns. Ancient Armenians considered improper for men to appear half dressed or half naked in public. Armenians did not practice slavery, yet several Armenian nobles and members of the royal courts had servants they captured during military campaigns and later they assigned them to their household services. Even though, they were captured servants, none of them served or worked half-dressed. They were fully clothed and well fed.

  

                                            1.Vesta                                                                        2. Demeter

 
1.Vesta, the Roman goddess of household harmony is the equivalent to the Greek goddess Hestia meaning hearth. This tablet depicts her in the company of a donkey-god symbolizing fecundity, abundance, fertility and productive labor. Circa 2^nd century A.D. The dress of Vesta is evidently a pure Greek outfit. It has no similarity with ancient Armenian goddesses gowns and long dresses. Yet, some Greco-Armenian engravings depicted Armenian goddesses wearing a Greek dress. This clearly shows the influence of Hellenic influence on ancient Armenian arts and particularly sculpture and garments fashion and dress-making. Also, it reveals the artistic collaboration of Greek and Armenian artisans, construction workers, architects and builders of Greek temples  and other pagan edifices in ancient Armenia.

2. Demeter, the Mycenaean goddess who brings prosperity and growth to all things under the sun.  This ancient engraving depicts her in a scene where she is bringing back to earth Persphone known also as Kore. She is seated under the Tree of Life. The double headed axes or Labrys you see in the engraving represent the power and status of Demeter as goddess of fertility and sexual energy. Circa, 1,600 B.C. The Tree of Life sometimes was referred to as the Tree of Wisdom or Tree of Knowledge. This symbolic engraving appeared in many ancient Armenian tablets and engravings. Later, it was adapted and adopted by the early Christian Armenian church. Pagan gods and goddesses were replaced by biblical figures, Apostles, disciples and saints, as well as by the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ the Savior. It was a common theme in the ancient world and was regularly depicted in Assyrian, Sumerian, Babylonian and Egyptians engravings and tablets. A keen observer would notice the similarity in the style of personages, monarchs and deities dresses and costumes of various civilizations including the Armenian civilization. Almost all outfits in a Tree of Life engraving were long dresses falling simply and gracefully to the ankle. Sometimes, the women or goddesses dresses were ornamented with straight horizontal and parallel lines starting from the bottom of the dress, all the way to the hips. This style of outfits was almost shared by all the civilizations of the known ancient world. It is difficult to ascertain which civilization dress fashion influenced which. Nevertheless, it is a direct link of the ancient Armenians to the early civilizations of the Near and the Middle East.

 

  END OF THE ARTICLE