clothing

   The first good indications of clothing in ancient Mesopotamia come from about 3300 B.C., when early sculpture and writing appeared. At that time and in the next several centuries, the Sumerians were the dominant people of the region. At first Su-merian men and women wore sheepskins or goatskins. The men were generally bare above the waist and wore their skins ankle-length and belted; the women covered themselves above the waist and draped their outfits more like a toga, with one shoulder covered and the other bare. When textiles came into wide use in the third millennium b.c., they steadily replaced animal skins, although for a while the style of dress remained roughly the same. Some leather was still used, but the chief fabric became sheep's wool; linen, made from plant fibers, was reserved for formal dress or for priests and nobles. Shoes, hats, and some other accessories were made of felt, consisting of crushed sheep's or goat's hair. Cotton was not used until the Assyrians imported it from Egypt circa 700 B.C.And silk, which came from China, was unknown until the early first millennium a.d.

   A major change of fashion swept Mesopotamia in the Akkadian period, beginning circa 2300 b.c.Manymen adopted robes that draped over one shoulder, and women covered both shoulders and adopted a V-neck style. Women also wore short-sleeved dresses. In the first half of the second millennium b.c., fashions retained the same basic look, except that the hems of men's garments became much more elaborate. Another change of dress occurred beginning in about 1400 b.c., when Assyrian men and women began wearing wide robes belted at the waist, with tassels hanging down between the legs. Men also wore decorated kilts. In the first half of the first millennium b.c., many Mesopotamian men adopted short-sleeved, belted tunics that stretched from the neck to the knees. Upper-class men added an elegant linen cloak dyed blue, red, or purple. The nature of footwear in these periods is somewhat uncertain. It appears that many people went barefoot much of the time, although some Assyrian men - mostly hunters and warriors - wore sandals or high boots, and some women wore sandals or slippers.

   The simple tunics and kilts adopted in the early first millennium B.c.seem to have long remained the standard dress of common folk, who always made up the bulk of Mesopotamia's population. Sometimes people accessorized these garments, for instance, adding outer cloaks and/or jewelry items or sporting fancy walking sticks. The Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Babylon in the fifth century b.c., observes:

   The dress of the Babylonians consists of a linen tunic reaching to the feet, with a woolen one over it, and a short white cloak on top. They have their own fashion in shoes, which resemble .. . slippers. ... They grow their hair long, wear turbans, and .. . everyone owns a . . . walking stick specially made for him, with a device carved on top of it - an apple or rose or lily or eagle or something of that sort. (Histories 1.195)

   Not everyone in Mesopotamia dressed this way in Herodotus's day, however. At the time, the region was part of the Persian Empire, and he also described the outfits worn by soldiers and many courtiers, which featured the usual tunic but added trousers and a felt cap. The Persians had borrowed this style, Herodotus said, from the Medes, whom they had conquered and absorbed in the preceding century. This fashion borrowing was corroborated by the Greek adventurer and writer Xeno-phon, whose biography of the Persian king Cyrus II tells how upper-class Persian men also adopted Median shoe lifts and makeup to enhance their appearance:

   He [Cyrus the Great] chose to wear the Median dress himself and persuaded his associates also to adopt it; for he thought that if anyone had any personal defect, that dress would help to conceal it, and that it made the wearer look very tall and very handsome. For they have shoes of such a form that without being detected the wearer can easily put something into the soles so as to make him look taller than he is. He encouraged also the fashion of penciling the eyes, that they might seem more lustrous than they are, and of using cosmetics to make the complexion look better than nature made it. (Cyropaedia 8.1.40)

   Later, following Persia's downfall at the hands of the Greeks, the Seleucid rulers introduced Greek fashions of the day. Evidence suggests, however, that the only locals who readily adopted these foreign styles were members of the upper classes who were trying to get ahead in a society controlled by Greeks. The common people of Mesopotamia continued to wear the traditional clothes of their regions, usually some mixture of tunics, kilts, and/or trousers.

   See also: grooming; jewelry; Medes