Saturday, May 26, 2007

Clothing in Ancient Egypt

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770523119
"What did the ancient Egyptians actually wear? Well, not what we thought. That’s what I learned at a presentation called “Style on the Nile” at the North Carolina Museum of Art on May 4. When I told people live models would display the clothes, the universal response was: 'Bare breasts at the museum?'
Well, no. It turns out the higher ranks wore clothes. Slaves and manual laborers wore nothing or almost nothing. But the middle and upper classes wore linen cloth.
But what about those bas reliefs of Pharoah’s wife wearing nothing but a see-through gown? Archaeologist Caroline Rocheleau explained that Egyptian art was not completely representational. The sculptors carved those naked bodies under clothes to indicate a female subject. Then they sketched outlines of dresses."
See the above page for more.

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