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Document Details : Title: Beneath the Headdres Subtitle: Dress and the Women of Dura-Europos Author(s): BAIRD, J.A. , ROTHE, Ursula Journal: Eastern Christian Art Volume: 14 Date: 2025 Pages: 7-20 DOI: 10.2143/ECA.14.0.3295403 Abstract : The dress styles worn by women in Roman Syria, as depicted in sculpture and wall painting, have long been interpreted as a continuation of ancient Near Eastern styles going back millennia: their clothing has been regarded as traditional, conservative, and even parochial. Why are women in the Roman East depicted the way they are, and how did that relate to what they wore in daily life? What social realities might we access if we push beyond orientalist tropes? Few archaeological sites in the Roman East provide both visual evidence for the appearance of ancient women, such as wall paintings, and the artefactual evidence for what real women wore, including textiles and small finds such as brooches and other jewelry. At Dura-Europos on the Syrian Euphrates, extensive artefacts from the settlement and the necropolis testify to the real lives of women behind the clothes. This article examines the variation and dynamism of women’s dress from this evidence, and the agency portable material culture could provide to local women in how they expressed their taste, status, gender, and cultural identities. |
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