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Document Details : Title: Women's Robing in the Sasanian Era Author(s): GOLDMAN, Bernard Journal: Iranica Antiqua Volume: 32 Date: 1997 Pages: 233-300 DOI: 10.2143/IA.32.0.519271 Abstract : This brief description is intended as an introduction to women’s dress in Sasanian times with comparanda that helps to place the Iranian styles within the general history of late antique dress in Western Asia. Unfortunately, the task is self-limiting, bringing to mind the platonic metaphor of dancing shadows on the cave wall. The habiliment of early Iranian women, like all other early Asian dress, has not survived except as a few bits and pieces of woven stuff. Our knowledge, then, must derive from those shadowy costumes cast on a few rock reliefs, on some luxury tableware, glyptics and coin types, and on less than a handful of painting and mosaic fragments. The fragility of this type of evidence accounts no doubt for the scant attention Sasanian costuming has received and, when it is remarked, too often the tendency is to accept these shadows as if they were the substance. A further complication in any discussion results from the relatively small numbers of pictured women in the several art media, and most of these examples are not easily controlled as to date or place of origin. |
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