Escolar Documentos
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Cultura Documentos
HELLENISTIC PERIOD
Sotirios D. Lambropoulos*
HE
79
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the selection of their materials of manufacture (silk,
fine wool), by their decorative elements (gold threads)
and their coloration (purple-dye) (BLANK, 1976:
31f.). The new lords of Egypt adopted the titles, the
signs and mostly the attire of Pharaohs and they undertook their role in the religious perceptions and rituals. The royal garments were similar to those of aristocrats and those of the middle-class citizens, with an
important exception concerning the colour and the
material of the textile. The Ptolemies usually wore a
short tunic strapped around the waist, and with a purple-dyed chlamys, mostly during wartime or in cult
ceremonies. Murex-Dye, was extremely expensive
and symbolized wealth.
The king and the high rank officers wore purple
and violet-dyed headgear (kansiva ), tall boots, and of
course chlamys, that had round long side (WUESCHERBECCHI, 1904: 93f). They adopted the signs and emblems of their Asian and Egyptian predecessors, and
in some certain cases they vested all their attire. Furthermore, they replaced the simple protocol of Macedons court, with the imposing and elaborate formality that characterised the imperial life of the East.
Priests, clad in white, initiated people into Ptolemys
cult by baptism submerging them in the Nile.
In Egypt, himation, resembling those of travellers
and horsemen of Northern Greece, followed as fashion from all the immigrants of the Hellenistic kingdoms. The Macedon Veterans and their descendants
were depicted like that in tombstones, dressed with
short chiton, covered most of the times, by armour,
and with a chlamys placed over their shoulders. The
image of a Greekness was reflected on the clothes, as
a social and cultural sign.
The farmer and villager of the Hellenistic countryside and the city-slave could be recognised from
their dressing. The chiton was short with small or
without sleeves and fastened with a fibula over the
mans shoulders. The cloth worn by the manual workers, was called ejxwmiv, hanged by the left shoulder. Fisher men and poor people in general were depicted, half-naked, with their torso not covered.
Against sun, rain and wind, the women of the Hellenistic world, wore broad brimmed hats made of
straw (foliva ) (THEOCRITOS, 15, 39).
The Seleucids, presented themselves successors
of the Achaemenids and kings of Babylon for their
Iranian subjects. Of course, these new rulers continued to dress, as the kings of Macedon. We have to
underline, that already from the 5th B.C. century, luxurious clothes from Persia, (savrapi, kalavsiri,
aktaiva ) sown all over with gold sheet, were known
to mainland Greeks and to those who lived in the
colonies. Rich citizens with the intention of reestablishing their social status, bought these clothes.
Sotirios D. Lambropoulos
Unfortunately, Organic decay, due to the proliferation of bacteria, is the leading cause of the deterioration of clothing products. Generally, hair and wool fibres survive well, while flax, a cellulosic vegetative
fibre, decays rapidly in such conditions. In Egypt and
the Middle East materials such as cotton, linen, wool,
and silk fabrics have been preserved. Specifically, the
Middle Eastern city of Dura-Europos has afforded archaeologists with all four of these types (BELLINGER,
1945). During the Hellenistic period, clothes, textiles
were manufactured basically originating from plants
such as (cotton, linen, cannabis) or animal, for instance (wool, hair, silk, leather) (FORBES, 1956,
vol.4). Mineral fibers, such as amiantus and metals
such as gold and silver were used in the production of
threads and textiles.
From all these materials, the most important was
the lambs wool (evrion). The weaving of it, was developed considerably. To the native sheep of every region, were added also other breeds too. Silk was one
of the most precious animal fibres (shrikovn nhvma )
which was created by the silkworm (Bombyx Mori)
imported from The Greeks became aware of the genuine Chinese silk by the end of the 5th century according to a burial found at the cemetery of Kerameikos
(HUNDT, 1969: 59f.) Pliny, (NH 11, 75) mentions Assyria as the homeland of a species of a wild silkworm. Aristotle (Hist. anim. 5, 551b) relates that the
inhabitants of the island of Cos, were turning it to
textile. Particularly strenuous dresses such as
(savkko) were made by goat hair.Cotton came from
the Far East, from Eastern India, Greece and Upper
Egypt. Linen came from regions, such as Northern
Europe, Orient, Greece and mainly from Egypt. The
delicate linen textile was exported from Alexandria to
other regions of the Hellenistic world that produced
linen too. Skin of animals originating from deer,
sheep, ox, bear, wolf, leopard, colt, sable, lion, sometimes served as cloth or clothing material. Special establishments existed for the carding, bleaching and
coloring. Natron, the Alexandrian craftsmen obtained
it, by paying a special tax (nitrikhv). In Alexandria,
an important dye craft of high quality was developed,
due to the significant demand of court and the creation and presence of enormous networks of commercial routes that converged there.
Technical improvements were marked regarding
the production of goods of great value. Thus, began
the production of textiles with imprint decoration
that. Smaller changes included the adaptation of certain craft-based products from the East, to the needs
and preferences of the Greeks, as well as the imitation of Greek prototypes. Alexandria gathered the
major part of weaving workshops and dye, as an
amount of raw materials was sent there, weaved or
81
The only authentic attires, textiles of any form that
have been preserved in good condition, date from Late
Antiquity. All these kinds of textiles came from Egypt.
Most of the cloth remains were found in Achmim Panopolis and in Antinoopolis (pl. VII). The so called
Coptic textiles and clothes belong to a period set
chronologically to the late 3rd B.C. century, when the
practice of burying the dead wearing their clothes replaced the custom of mummification (TRILLING, 1982:
41; DOSOGNE-LAFONTAINE, 1988: 51).
The nomads Kushana, destroyed the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. They were charmed and finally copied
the Greek culture of the Hellenistic era. They started
to follow the Greek fashion, customs and traditions.
These tribes until then were dressed in a simple shirt,
short coat and above it a long smock. Now, their
dresses were decorated with thousand of gold plates
(SARIGIANNIDIS, 1996: 52-45).
In conclusion, analysing textiles and clothing
materials provides us with a considerable amount of
indirect information about Hellenistic culture hoping
to gain a better insight into the Hellenistic period.
During this period there existed regional differentiations, concerning clothing, in a typological manner,
in a social frame, and according to climatic conditions and ecosystems. Ancient fabrics that have survived hundreds of years often provide useful information about the Hellenistic textile industry, the
methods and materials of textile manufacture and
dyeing, and about many other facets of Greek and indigenous culture.
Bibliography
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BUSCHOR, E. (1912). Beitrage zur Geschichte der griechischen Textilkunst (Die Anfange u. d. oriental Import).
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Sotirios D. Lambropoulos
MOMMSEN, H. (1976) Der Affecter = KERAMEUS. Forschungen zur antiken Keramik, 2e Reihe. Vol. 1, Mainz, 105,
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Archaeology, London, p. 41.
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ANIMAL FIBRES
PLANT FIBRES
ANIMAL SKINS
SILKWORM
SHEEP
GOAT
CAMEL
MOLLUSC
HORSE
COW
RABBIT
MINERAL-ASBESTOS
COTTON
FLAX
RAMIE
JUTE
MALLOW
NETTLES
HEMP
WOLF
BEAR
OX
DEER
OTTER
LEOPARD
SHEEP
SABLE