Question:
I need detailed, authentic pictures of ancient Egyptian clothing.?
Megan E
2006-10-17 17:21:45 UTC
I have to make a miniature version of an ancient Egyptian outfit for my history of costume class, and I need a picture of what I'm going to make. I searched the internet extensively, and the library here didn't help either. Any suggestions?
Nine answers:
F
2006-10-19 21:31:51 UTC
An excellent source for images of surviving examples of Egyptian clothing and textiles is:

http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/textil/dress.html



Here is one site with a variety of images either drawn from history of historic costume/fashion books or from actual tomb paintings:

http://members.aol.com/egyptart/fashion.html



The Eternal Egypt site also has a very brief discussion of clothing.

http://www.eternalegypt.org/EternalEgyptWebsiteWeb/HomeServlet?ee_website_action_key=action.display.module&story_id=&module_id=220&language_id=1



Another option is to simply look through either history books about ancient Egypt or do a web search for something like "egyptian tomb paintings" or "egyptian statues" and draw inspiration from the original sources. While there is some debate amongst professional scholars as to the accuracy of the depiction of some articles of clothing in ancient Egyptian art (in particular women's clothing), depictions by the Egyptians themselves are your best source.



Overall, the most ubiquitous items of clothing for all classes were:



For men: A simple kilt, usually of linen, reaching to just above the knee with a belt. Belts or girtles for men and women were made of a variety of materials, cloth being the most common. Linen was often used, or woven/braided belts. Leather and beads were also used.

Shirts were worn and examples of these do exist. I believe examples were found in Tutankhamun's tomb, so if you can get your hands on one of the many Tut books floating around, you might find a photo or drawing. The Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago also has an example on display in their Egyptian gallery. Strangely, they are almost never depicted in ancient Egyptian art. This is probably because of the idealizing nature of Egyptian art - in summary, it's always summer :) and also because it would hide the upper body, which is usually depicted as muscular and youthful.



For women: Women also wore kilts (without a shirt) on occassion. Simple sheath dresses were also common, as were dresses with wide bands/straps covering the breasts. Elaborately pleated dresses were popular in the 18th and 19th Dynasties. Female dancers often wore nothing more than a string of beads around their waists.



For children: Children are often depicted in art as having run around naked. Otherwise, they seem to have worn pretty much the same thing as adults.



For everyone: Shawls/mantles of linen or light wool were worn, especially at night or when the weather turned cooler. The popularity of these garments is reflected in the development of a particular category of statuary - the block statue. The inspiration for this type of statue is the pose of a person riding in a sedan chair wrapped in their shawl. The person would sit with their knees up and the shawl wrapped around them, hands resting on their knees or on opposite elbows, giving them a slightly "block" like appearance.

Jewelry of some kind, even if only a single bead or amulet worn on a string, was worn by nearly everyone, even the very poor. Jewelry, or what we call "jewelry" wasn't just for personal adornment - many pieces (amulets) served as protection from evil forces, etc. Popular shapes for amulets include various hieroglyphs, especialy the nfr glyph, animals, and body parts.



Wigs and headgear: Wigs were very popular for men and women. Children are often shown with heads shaved, sometimes with the "sidelock of youth." Facial hair doesn't seem to have been terribly popular, but a few men are depicted with mustaches or beards. The false beard is restricted to the king and deities.

Men and women of high status wore fillets, crowns, etc. The uraeus (snake) was, like the false beard, typically restricted to the king and deities as were various other crowns.

A headcloth was often worn by men.



Specialized people (nobles, the king, queen, priests, deities) often have special identifying garments. The king has his various crowns, occasionally the queen or other royal women wore elaborate crowns. Priests, especially sem priests, wore a leopard skin over their clothing. Viziers are shown as wearing a garment that wrapped around the body at the chest (just below the pectorals or whatever you want to call breasts on men) that reached the ground. It's essentially a huge, long kilt worn Urkel style. (Or so we used to say while studying and trying to be funny.)



If you're curious, the debate about women's clothing tends to revolve around issues of practicality, primarily in the depiction of clothing worn by high status/elite women and goddesses. It isn't clear if women would have worn the extraordinarily tight sheath dresses in which they are often depicted as they would be very restrictive, and some scholars wonder that they could even be achieved with the fabric and sewing techniques available. The argument is that these are idealizing depictions of women intended to accentuate aspects of the body considered important for the function of the art itself - frequently themes of sexuality, fertility, etc.
2016-03-15 12:01:06 UTC
thgurkha and shalfat were close to the truth. There are other 2 answers seem to have a racial background. Although I know the answer, it's hard to explain it simply. There is only one book have it all and it's unfortunatley in Arabic. They were not killed off and not blended completly. Egyptian consider themselves Arabs by cultural effects. At the same time the major mixed marrieges that happened in the long history of Egypt was by Arabs as they were accepted by Egyptians. As the Turks stayed also for long and they were Muslims there were some mixed marieges but it didn't effect or changed the Egyptians. The Egyptian copts are considered to be part of the original Egyptians. Most of the invasions melted down in Egypt by time and they were changed by Egyptians and has a little effect on the Egyptians specially in the south. The reason was most of the resources and what the invadors care for was in the North plus the center of power. You can think about it like that most of the occupations and invasions added to Egypt and some of them stayed in Egypt after their troops went back home. You may need to make a complet study on the history of Egypt or read about it to know how was that happened as it was something really different. You may find the Turkish culture stayed the longest time left few words in the langauge and names of some services. Still you can see the same bodies and heads of the ancient Egyptians in many places in Egypt live and moving. Even myself some people told me I look like the ancients. Not here but in real life I mean. If you can read Arabic I can tell you the name of the only great book which have it all. Edit : Moonrise said it better than all of us I think
2015-08-16 23:00:25 UTC
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RE:

I need detailed, authentic pictures of ancient Egyptian clothing.?

I have to make a miniature version of an ancient Egyptian outfit for my history of costume class, and I need a picture of what I'm going to make. I searched the internet extensively, and the library here didn't help either. Any suggestions?
2016-04-10 13:19:41 UTC
For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/axQjz



There is currently a D,.N.A. study being undertaken in the area's of Luxor and Aswan among specially selected family groups. I have mentioned this study by Chicago University in previous questions relating to this topic The study is actually an attempt to determine once and for all, whether any of "the blood of the Pharaoh' s" has actually survived two thousand years of integration. Through 2,000 years of invasion and integration there has been a melting pot of Macedonian Greek, Roman, Arab and various European bloodlines. The school of thought that the ancient Egyptians were of ******* origin has long been disproved This was quite a popular if controversial theory in the 1970s and it is still perpetrated by some, dare I say "Egyptidiot's" websites.Though I know of none who have connection with any University. This is despite all the current evidence of modern forensic technology and studies to determine the D.N.A. from the hair, bone and tissue remains of Dynastic mummies. Specimens have been taken from both royal and common family groups.As well there have been a number forensic reconstructions made of individuals cranio facial features. The most well publicised being that of Tutankhamen. It would appear that there are few exceptions in the many hundreds that have already been studied. With their general appearance not all that different to the faces that you will see on the streets of Alexandria or Cairo in the present era. One of the of the most disputed cases is Queen Tiye,wife of Amenophis III .This is based on an image of her that has the facial features painted black. However in other depictions she is shown as a pale yellow. The ancient Egyptians artists traditionally depicted females as having yellow or cream skin tones.While males were depicted with their features painted in red skin tones. When you look upon the features that are so well defined in the mummified remains of Ramesses II or study the portrait bust sculpture of Queen Nefertitti,then you will see the atypical features that were predominate in the ancient Egyptians. A high foreheaded elongated face with quite well defined cheekbones,aquiline nose with thin lips and straight hair. Which was usually mid to dark brown but in some cases quite fair.It is thought that Nefertitti may have actually had light auburn hair. These are not features that are usual in a person of ******* decadency. There is no doubt that even at that time there was blending of bloodlines. Many minor queens of several Pharaohs were not Egyptian by birth. The mummy of Maiherpri,a child raised in the royal court as a fan bearer, shows strong ******* features and he has retained most of his tight black culry hair.Being of naturally dark complexion with tight curly hair he is artistically depicted as such. As are those in scenes of Nubian dancers and others involved in everyday court proceedings. I have included the words of one of the best known Egyptologist/archaeologists "...on a copy of the Book of the Dead found in the tomb.....,Maherpra is depicted with his face black instead of the normal red,a detailed examination of his mummy,which showed that he died at around 24 years of age,also shows that he was *******,but not actually a *****.' quoted from the report by Reginald Englebach. Black, in the depiction of royal personage and nobles was almost without exception reserved for those who were deceased. It will be very interesting to read the finding of the current study when it is completed. But I suspect that there will be very little of the D.N.A.of those of the great Pharaonic Dynasties still existing in anything else but the spirit and pride and the essence of what it is to be an Egyptian.
imkay527
2006-10-17 19:25:10 UTC
Try here I love this site! Costume manifesto is wonderful for research when it comes to historically accurate costumes.



http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/egyptlinks.htm
jess g
2006-10-17 22:46:29 UTC
no such things exist as ancient eygptian clothing rotted away long before the camera came into being.
Barkley Hound
2006-10-17 17:27:01 UTC
There are lots here:

http://images.google.com/images?q=Egyptian%20clothing&sa=N&tab=wi
lil goth
2006-10-17 19:03:09 UTC
try this website.
Dianne C
2006-10-17 17:58:41 UTC
try googling "isis" or "isis goddess"...


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