Masculine clothing ensembles in ancient Cyprus, an anthropological and typological analysis

Abstract

The study of cypro-archaic and cypro-classical clothing presents a genuine key for the general understanding of society. Within the existing literature, the systematic study of individual pieces of clothing allowed us to acquire a better, although limited, understanding of fashion considering the lack of consideration for clothing ensembles as an object of study, while those are essential to create a deep understanding of everyday life practices. During our master thesis we approached different garments, how they were produced and worn through the analysis of a 268 objects corpus. The conclusions and statistics drawn from this study,were then applied to two specific masculine ensembles to try and define their specific characteristics. We were thus able to show the large variety of use of the first ensemble and establish its potential different uses, as casual and votary garments as well as identifying a previously feminine garment as a mixed one through the study of an unicum. This study highlights the importance of the still extremely rare study of ensembles, and shows their use in the anthropological study of ancient Cyprus. This study is limited to masculine ensembles and could be enriched , in the future, by a consideration of feminine ensembles.

Keywords: Cypriot clothing, cypriot statuary, Cyprus, masculine clothing, antiquity, Iron age