History of Fashion : Mesopotamian civilization

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Mesopotamian civilization
Mesopotamia lies between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; the name Mesopotamia means "between the waters" in Greek. Here farmers learned to build irrigation systems that turned the dry valley into a prosperous center of agriculture supporting many people. This is an early example of how humans can change the natural environment. ......As settlements in southern Mesopotamia grew into busy cities, this area called Sumer became the world's first civilization. The Sumerians built walled cities and developed the earliest-known writing called cuneiform, in which scribes (record-keepers) carved symbols onto wet clay tablets that were later dried.

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Early civilizations of Mesopotamia, included

Commonly known as the "cradle of civilization", Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. In the Iron Age, it was ruled by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and NeoBabylonian Empire, and later conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It mostly remained under Persian rule until the 7th century Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire. Under the Caliphate, the region came to be known as Iraq.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Mesopotamia housed some of the world's most ancient states with highly developed social complexity. The region was famous as one of the four river civilizations where writing was first invented, along with the Nile valley in Egypt, the Indus Valley in the Indian subcontinent and Yellow River valley in China The origins of philosophy can be traced back to early Mesopotamian wisdom, which embodied certain philosophies of life, particularly ethics, in the forms of dialectic dialogs, epic poetry, folklore, hymns, lyrics, prose, and proverbs. Babylonian reasoning and rationality developed beyond empirical observation

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

In the Near East, many varieties of the wild cereal grasses, wheat and barley, shown below were exploited as major food sources.

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Religion
Mesopotamian religion was the first to be recorded. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc, surrounded by a huge, holed space, and above that, heaven. They also believed that water was everywhere, the top, bottom and sides, and that the universe was born from this enormous sea. Early religions usually worshiped several gods, a practice called polytheism. Religion was extremely important in Sumer where priests were originally the most powerful person in society. Later, warrior kings would take control. Priests supervised the worship of seven great gods: earth, sky, sun, moon, salt water, fresh water, and storm. Sumerians believed their gods lived in statues housed in temples including large pyramid-like structures called ziggurats. Priests clothed the god statutes and fed them daily.

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Culture

Hunting was popular among Assyrian kings. Boxing and wrestling feature frequently in art, and some form of polo was probably popular, with men sitting on the shoulders of other men rather than on horses
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Culture..
Songs were passed on through many generations until someone wrote them down. These songs provided a means of passing on through the centuries highly important information about historical events that were eventually passed on to modern historians.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

 Ur had been a leading centre of Sumerian civilisation, and it was in royal tombs of that period that Sir Leonard Woolley discovered the famous art treasures with which his name is associated Wealth flowed into the capital by way of the Persian Gulf
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Great quantities of carved ivory have been found at Nimrud, the site of the ancient capital Calah

On some of the plastered walls there were still to be seen the original mural paintings
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

THE ORIGINS OF WRITING: Tokens are small geometric clay objects (cylinders, cones, spheres, etc.) found all over the Near East from about 8000 B.C. until the development of writing. The earliest tokens were simple shapes and were comparatively unadorned; they stood for basic agricultural commodities such as grain and sheep. A specific shape of token always represented a specific quantity of a particular item. For example, "the cone ... stood for a small measure of grain, the sphere represented a large measure of grain, the ovoid stood for a jar of oil." Thus, the tokens presented an abstraction of the things being counted, but also a system of great specificity and precision.

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

With the development of cities came a more complex economy and more complex social structures. This cultural evolution is reflected in the tokens, which begin to appear in a much greater diversity of shapes and are given more complicated designs of incisions and holes.

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CUNEIFORM: The Sumerian writing system during the early periods was constantly in flux. The original direction of writing was from top to bottom, but for reasons unknown, it changed to left-to-right very early on (perhaps around 3000 BCE).

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Several bas-reliefs show scribes noting down the claims of Assyrian warriors as to their prowess in battle and the number of their victims

Aryan migrants of the second millennium who introduced the horse-drawn chariot as an instrument of war
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Mesopotamia Civilization :: Glazed Coffins from Warka

Bowl of pre sumarian period

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Architecture

In Mesopotamia, each town and city was believed to be protected by its own, unique deity or god. The temple, as the center of worship, was also the center of every city. Around the year 2000 B.C., temple towers began to be built to link heaven and earth. The towers, called ziggurats, were very large, pyramid-shaped structures on top of which the temple was built. The ziggurats were built of mud bricks with 3 to 7 terraced levels.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Ziggurat of Ur Nammu

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Social and political organization:

The King: he had military powers. The Governors: they governed the territories of the kingdom. They were generals and judges at the same time. The aristocracy: they were priests and traders. The peasants: the people who work the land.

The King The Governors The Aristocracy The Peasantry

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

 Mesopotamia across its history became more and more a patriarchal society, in which the men were far more powerful than the women. As for schooling, only royal offspring and sons of the rich and professionals such as scribes, physicians, temple administrators, and so on, went to school. Most boys were taught their father's trade or were apprenticed out to learn a trade. Girls had to stay at home with their mothers to learn housekeeping and to look after the younger children. Unusual for that time in history, women in Mesopotamia had rights. They could own property and, if they had good reason, get a divorce.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

The Babylonian marriage market, from the painting by Edwin Long, in the Royal Holloway College

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Clothing
Although the earliest civilizations used animal skins to protect themselves from the environment, people soon learned how to pound wool and goat hair into felt or weave it into cloth. Wool was the most common fabric used to make clothing in Mesopotamia and was used for practically every type of garment from cloaks to shoes. Looms for weaving fabric were in use as early as 3000 B.C.E. The skill of early weavers is extraordinary. Some fragments of linen discovered in royal tombs are almost as finely woven as modern-day linen fabric. Linen was a more luxurious fabric and was woven for the clothing of the wealthy, priests, and to adorn statues of gods. Other finely woven fabrics also became available for the wealthiest in Mesopotamia. Soft cotton was introduced in Assyria around 700 B.C.E., and silk became available later.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Clothing..
The evidence of these civilizations' clothing remains on sculptures, pottery, and in writings left on tablets and royal tombs. It indicates that a thriving textile or fabric industry existed in the Textiles were used for trade purposes and were also given as gifts to kings and queens. In early times both sexes wore sheepskin skirts with the skin turned inside and the wool combed into decorative tufts.

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Early Sumerian men typically wore waist strings or small loincloths that provided barely any coverage. However, later the wraparound skirt was introduced, which hung to the knee or lower and was held up by a thick, rounded belt that tied in the back. All classes of men seem to have worn these skirts. For the men and women living in Mesopotamia , a fringed shawl was a typical garment. Fringe adorned the two most basic garments worn in Mesopotamia: the skirt and the shawl. The upper part of the torso was bare or clothed by another sheepskin cloaking the shoulders.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

The Sumerians made their clothing by using the natural resources that were available to them. Clothing was made from wool or flax which Sumerians could raise and harvest. How thick or how coarse the clothing was meant the season in which the clothes would be worn.

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

The dress worn in Mesopotamia by the Babylonians (21051240 bce) and the Assyrians (1200540 bce) evolved into a more sophisticated version of Sumerian and Akkadian styles. Ample evidence of this more elaborate draped costume can be seen in the large relief sculptures of the age.

king of Assyria, with an elaborately dressed beard, wearing full-length tunic decorated with embroidery and tassels.
(Alabaster relief from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrd, Iraq. In the British Museum.)

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

The Assyrian king

The headdress worn by the Assyrian king is called a polos'. The polos' consists of a conical cap with a turban wrapped around had long pieces of embroidered cloth hanging from the back.

The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II is shown wearing a long, decorated tunic was probably made of brightly coloured wool or linen and tied at the waist with a wide belt.

Assyrian wickerwork shield

quiver contained the king's arrows, were probably made of metal and hide

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Assyrian costume consists of a simple to the knee tunic with sleeves. The outfit is made complete with 2 decorative shawls wrapped into position over the tunic.

The Assyrian working woman of about 700 B.C. wears a long tunic with a long fringed shawl.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Babylonian king

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Babylonians and the Assyrians Men were bare chested and wore skirt-like garments that tied at the waist.

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Assyrian High Priest, Assyrian King, Commoner,

Men of high status, such as kings and military officers, also wore woolen cloaks dyed blue, red, purple, or white.

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Assyrian Soldier with Standing Shield, Soldier with Small Shield, Archer, Assyrian Court Official, Assyrian Noblemen

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

COSTUMES OF MESOPOTAMIA & PERSIA

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Women
Early Sumerian women seem to have worn only a shawl wrapped around their bodies. These shawls were often decorated with simple border patterns or allover patterns. Later Sumerian women typically wore sewn outfits covered with tiers of fringe. These included skirts much like those worn by men and shawls or tops that were also fringed.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Women
Later on women usually wore gowns that covered them from their shoulders to their ankles. Women wore their hair long, but they usually braided it and wrapped it around their heads. When entertaining guests, women would place headdresses in their hair.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Jewelry
While slaves and the poorest people wore simple, functional clothes, the wealthiest could afford beautifully made jewelry. Men, women, and children all wore jewelry. A royal tomb from Sumeria dating from around 2500 B.C.E. included an abundance of beaded necklaces, rings, bracelets for the wrist and ankles, stickpins, and other jewelry. Made of gold and silver, the jewelry was set with decorative gemstones such as deep blue lapis lazuli, red carnelian, white alabaster, and sparkling crystals. Mesopotamian jewelry was large and elaborate. A pair of gold hoop earrings discovered in a queen's tomb, for example, are so large that they must have been worn hooked over the ears because they would have been too heavy to hang from the earlobes.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Clothing historians have studied carved statues, the artifacts of royal tombs, and written tablets that show and describe the decorative accessories these people wore.

Sumerian gold and faience diadems from Queen Pu-abis tomb, Ur, c. 2500 bce. In the British Museum.
Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Footwear
The available evidence indicates that the people who lived in Mesopotamia, even though had developed needles for sewing garments, looms for weaving, and the skills to make beautiful gold jewelry, they worked, entertained, worshiped, and went to war with unadorned bare feet. Statues of kings and queens in elaborately fringed outfits and carefully styled hair show these people without shoes. Although no samples of Assyrian footwear have been discovered, sculptures, statues, and bas-reliefs, or wall carvings, on the ruins of palace walls show men wearing sandals for some occasions, women in slippers with toe coverings, and warriors wearing boots with laces tied below the knee. Not until 550 to 330 B.C.E., when the Persians ruled, was footwear common. Regrettably, almost nothing is known about the details of how these shoes were made.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Coiffure
Care of the coiffure was very important for men and women among both the Assyrians and the Babylonians. The hair was grown long and carefully curled and ringleted, with false hair added if needed. Perfumes, oils, and black dye were used on the hair. Men grew long, carefully tended curled beards. A band of metal or fabric encircled the brow, or a woolen, felt, or leather cap shaped like a fez was worn. The royal headdress resembled a pleated crown or a mitre and had dependent lappets at the rear. Jeweled ornamentation to the costume was rich and heavy and of high quality.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

Summary..

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

 www.tamut.edu
mesopotamia.mrdonn.org
Roaf, Michael. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. New York: Facts on File, 1990. The Visual Dictionary of Ancient Civilizations. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1994. MULTIMEDIA Cradles of Civilization, CD-ROM Society for Visual Education, 1996. Time Machine Trivia, CD-ROM Instructional Fair, 1997.
Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore