Paths Less Traveled

It's the middle of Summer where I am, so I figured it was time for something completely different.

Here are links to some very interesting websites containing information about historical clothing that is off the beaten track of ancient Rome/migration period/medieval England and France/Renaissance etc. costume.  Most of the historical periods covered by the websites below are hard for the beginning researcher to find information about. They should help people wanting to explore truly different areas of clothing history, and at the very least they are interesting to read!

1.  Clothing in the Netherlands, 1480-1610:    Between the two of them, Margaret and Karinne show the rest of us how people in the Netherlands dressed between the late 15th and early 17th centuries. I first met Karinne through the now-defunct MedCos forums, and her skills have, if anything, improved since then. Go here to explore Margaret and Karinne's creations and research.

2.  Sarmatian Costume:  Here's an interesting alternative to all those Elizabethans, Vikings, and Romans:  a Sarmatian persona!  The Sarmatians are a Central Asian people who migrated into Southern Russia and the Balkans and settled there between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE.   Jess Miller-Camp's blog, Sarmatian in the SCA, has interesting information about her research into Sarmatian culture, including her work on Sarmatian costume.  You can find the blog here.

3.  Middle Byzantine:  You may be familiar with Timothy Dawson's Middle Byzantine site, Levantia, but Anna, of Anachronistic and Impulsive, covers much of the same costuming ground from a somewhat different perspective.  The blog's home page is here.  As a side note:   Do not miss her post about making ancient Mesopotamian costumes for herself and her spouse!

4.  Medieval Korea:  This information about how a 16th century CE Gisaeng might have dressed is available due to the research skills of Rebecca Lucas LeGet.  Find it here.

5,  Medieval Japan:  There are a number of pages out there on medieval Japanese costume, but this one is fairly detailed and well-organized--for men's costume.  There are places for information about women's costume, but they have not been written yet.  You'll find the index here.

Enjoy the extra reading, and have a good summer (or winter, if you're in the Southern Hemisphere).

Sarmatian Follow-up

Plaque from Kurgan 15, Filippovka

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a recent find of a previously untouched Sarmatian grave at Filippovka, in southern Russia. 

Today I found this free PDF of an article describing earlier finds in the same region. It turns out that the Filippovka area contains a number of kurgans, or grave mounds, and has been the subject of archaeological digs and discoveries for decades. The article contains a number of lovely color photographs of jewelry and other artifacts recovered from various kurgans in the area. I suspect that it will serve as useful background in following the latest discovery in the Filippovka area.  (The photograph to the left appears in the article and is credited to A. Mirzakhanov).

Sarmatian Splendor

From near the the village of Filippovka in the Orenberg region of southern Russia comes news of a recent archaeological find; a previously undisturbed 2,500-year-old grave of a wealthy Sarmatian woman. A news article about this find can be read here. 

Reconstructed costume, Issyk kurgan*

The untouched nature of this find is shown by the picture of the grave in the article.  Sarmatians, like the Scythians who occupied this part of the world before them, liked to decorate their clothing with numerous small gold or sometimes bronze precious-metal plaques.  If the grave had been opened in antiquity by a would-be robber, those items would certainly have been taken, instead of being found all about the woman's remains.  In addition, other valuables were found, including a silver mirror with a decorated gold handle, a large bronze kettle, and what the article describes as containers for cosmetics.  No mention is made of surviving textile fragments, though it's possible that the bronze kettle or other bronze items in the grave may preserve some textile scraps that were not mentioned in the article.

Attempted reconstructions of Sarmatian and Scythian clothing are based on evidence (often from depictions of human figures on jewelry) that those peoples wore simple, long-sleeved tunics and (in the case of men, at least) pants, but decorated them with gold and bronze plaques (which have been found in multiple graves).  Sarmatian and Scythian  women of rank also wore tall headdresses, similarly adorned. No reconstruction image of the Filippovka grave's inhabitant has yet been published, so far as I am aware.  However, the figure on the left, a reconstruction of the costume of a Scythian royal, interred in the Issyk kurgan (grave mound) in Kazakhstan gives a good idea of the type of splendor involved. Interestingly, there is some controversy as to whether the costume depicted in the Issyk reconstruction was worn to the grave by a young woman or a young man.

Since the Filippovka grave was untouched, it seems likely that it will attract greater than average attention from researchers.  I look forward to learning what information is extracted from future research of this rich find.

*  Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.