Assyrian Costumes and Jewelry

The monarch himself in early times donned the scarf over all his other attire, but in after days, from B. The official dress of the priests was quite unlike that of the high Court functionaries, and even the costume worn by the king as head of the priesthood was altogether distinct from that which indicated his royal rank. In any case, the official costume of the priest was not less magnificent or imposing than that of the courtier.

File:Assyrian woman jewelry.jpg

It seems probable that a special material-bleached linen was used by the priests, and by them exclusively. There were two styles of priestly costume, used in different ceremonies. In the one case the priest wore the long, short-sleeved shirt, and over it a garment that swathed the body from the feet up to the loins or even to the shoulders. The shorter style Fig. The other side was considerably longer, and the third and longest side of the triangle was fringed.

Assyrian and Babylonian culture. Mesopotamia. Fashion history.

The garment was put on in this way. It was spread round the person so that the longer of the two sides containing the right angle encircled the waist at an equal height all round. It was kept in place by a cord passing round the body. The fringed side thus encircled the body in an ascending spiral The double lines in Fig. This garment was swathed round the body as before, but in order that the bottom edge with the fringe should encircle the body in an ascending spiral the material was kept moving upward and disposed at the top in folds running obliquely round the body.

These folds were concealed by a girdle. This swathing process was so carried out that the garment was pulled up across the back, and the back of the excision reached well up to the nape of the neck. The two peaks, held in position by the girdle, were then brought forward over the shoulders so that the triangular peak could be drawn over the right shoulder, covering the upper right arm, while the rectangular peak passed over the left shoulder, hiding almost entirely the upper left arm. The other type of ceremonial priestly dress also included the short-sleeved shirt as under-garment.

This did not, however, reach to the feet, but only to the knee.

File:Assyrian woman www.newyorkethnicfood.com - Wikimedia Commons

As in all other forms of ceremonial dress, the bottom edge was trimmed with rich braid and with tassels see Fig. The high priests, the head of whom was the king himself, wore over this a cloak-like garment cut all in one piece Figs. It was drawn through under one arm and fastened on the opposite shoulder in such a manner that the front fell back over the upper arm. On the open side the back of the cloak was tied to the front with cords sewn to the inside, their tasselled ends hanging low down.

This arrangement caused the garment to fit fairly close over breast and back. All the edges of this apron, except that at the top, had a double row of tassels and fringes. These were attached in such a way that the tassels hung down behind the fringes, and were therefore visible only on the inside of the garment, while only the fringes could be seen on the outside. This apron was kept in position round the body by long cords, whose tasselled ends were long enough to reach the feet. Over the shoulders a long scarf or stole with long fringes was worn. The priests occasionally wore a garment slightly different from this one.

This was merely an apron reaching from the waist to the knee, adorned with braid and tassels. It was flung round the lower trunk and thighs and kept in place by cords with tasselled ends. Brief overview of the cultural epochs by using selected characteristic elements of style. Architecture, costumes, decoration, furniture, weapons. Nineveh is located on the left bank of the Tigris River opposite the city of Mosul.

From research the Assyrian history has been divided into three periods. The old, the middle and the new Assyrian empire. It was towards the end of the 10th Century BC. The new Assyrian Empire ca. The language of the Assyrians was a dialect of Akkadian, which was closely related to the Babylonian. As a scripture the Assyrians used the cuneiform writing. Assyrian king in ceremonial robe, followed by musicians, court, civil servants. Bas-Reliefs at an Entrance to a small Temple at Nimroud. Part of one side of the entrance near which stood the bas-relief of the King. The group is believed to represent the god to whom the temple was dedicated, driving out the evil spirit.

On the opposite side of the doorway the same figures were repeated. Supposed to represent the god Dagon of the Philistines. It formed part of the same entrance as the bas-reliefs last described. From an entrance to a small temple at Nimroud. Its length is eight, and height thirteen feet. At the opposite side of the entrance was a similar Lion. Rich as has been the harvest gathered by Mons. Layard from the ruins of Assyrian Palaces, the monuments which they have made known to us do not appear to carry us back to any remote period of Assyrian Art.

Like the monuments of Egypt, those hitherto discovered belong to a period of decline, and of a decline much farther removed from a culminating point of perfection. The Assyrian must have either been a borrowed style, or the remains of a more perfect form of art have yet to be discovered. We are strongly inclined to believe that the Assyrian is not an original style, but was borrowed from the Egyptian, modified by the difference of the religion and habits of the Assyrian people.

On comparing the bas-reliefs of Nineveh with those of Egypt we cannot but be struck with the many points of resemblance in the two styles; not only is the same mode of representation adopted, but the objects represented are oftentimes so similar, that it is difficult to believe that the same style could have been arrived at by two people independently of each other.

The mode of representing a river, a tree, a besieged city, a group of prisoners, a battle, a king in his chariot, are almost identical,— the differences which exist are only those which would result from the representation of the habits of two different people; the art appears to us to be the same. Assyrian sculpture seems to be a development of the Egyptian, but, instead of being carried forward, descending the scale of perfection, bearing the same relation to the Egyptian as the Roman does to the Greek.

Egyptian sculpture gradually declined from the time of the Pharaohs to that of the Greeks and Romans; the forms, which were at first flowing and graceful, became coarse -and abrupt; the swelling of the limbs, which was at first rather indicated than expressed, became at last exaggerated; the conventional was abandoned for an imperfect attempt at the natural. In Assyrian sculpture this attempt was carried still farther, and while the general arrangement of the subject and the pose of the single figure were still conventional, an attempt was made to express the muscles of the limbs and the rotundity of the flesh: Many modern statues differ in the same way from the Venus de Milo, as do the bas-reliefs of the Ptolemies from those of the Pharaohs.

Assyrian Ornament, we think, presents also the same aspect of a borrowed style and one in a state of decline. It is true that, as yet, we are but imperfectly acquainted with it; the portions of the Palaces, which would contain the most ornament, the upper portions of the walls and the ceilings, having been, from the nature of the construction of Assyrian edifices, destroyed.

There can be little doubt, however, that there was as much ornament employed in the Assyrian monuments as in the Egyptian: What we possess is gathered from the dresses on the figures of the bas-reliefs, some few fragments of painted bricks, some objects of bronze, and the representations of the sacred trees in the bas-reliefs. As yet we have had no remains of their constructive ornament, the columns and other means of support, which would have been so decorated, being everywhere destroyed; the constructive ornaments which we have given in Plate XIV. Assyrian ornament, though not based on the same.

In both styles the ornaments in relief, as well as those painted, are in the nature of diagrams. There is but little surface — modelling, which was the peculiar invention of the Greeks, who retained it within its true limits, but the Romans carried it to great excess, till at last all breadth of effect was destroyed.

The Byzantines returned again to moderate relief, the Arabs reduced the relief still farther, while with the Moors a modelled surface became extremely rare. In the other direction, the Romanesque is distinguished in the same way from the Early Gothic, which is itself much broader in effect than the later Gothic, where the surface at last became so laboured that all repose was destroyed. With the exception of the pine-apple on the sacred trees, Plate XII.

The natural laws of radiation and tangential curvature, which we find in Egyptian ornament, are equally observed here, but much less truly,—rather, as it were, traditionally than instinctively. Nature is not followed so closely as by the Egyptians, nor so exquisitely conventionalised as by the Greeks. The colours in use by the Assyrians appear to have been blue, red, white, and black, on their painted ornaments; blue, red, and gold on their sculptured ornaments; and green, orange, buff, white, and black, on their enamelled bricks.

The ornaments, 12 and 16, from Sassanian capitals, Byzantine in their general outline, at Bi Sutoun, contain the germs of all the ornamentation of the Arabs and Moors. It is the earliest example we meet with of lozenge-shaped diapers. The Egyptians and the Assyrians appear to have covered large spaces with patterns formed by geometrical arrangement of lines; but this is the first instance of the repetition of curved lines forming a general pattern enclosing a secondary form.

By the principle contained in No. The ornaments from Tak I Bostan,— 17, 20, 21, 23, 24—are all constructed on the same principle as Roman ornament, presenting only a similar modification of the modelled surface, such as we find in Byzantine ornament, and which they resemble in a most remarkable manner. Babylonian and Assyrian helmets and ornaments. Assyrian King with his entourage, minstrels. Relief and Portal from Chorsabad. Built by King Sargon in BC. The palace was the largest ever created residence of the Orient. Dur Sharrukin was surrounded by a massive wall with towers and seven gates.

Part of glazed brick of a palace in Chorsabad. Sequel to the enclosure wall to the city. Main Courtyard of the front building. Middle courtyard of farm buildings. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Summary [ edit ] Description Assyrian woman jewelry. Something of the twenty-seven villages built here by the League of Nations.

The women's national costume has disappeared all but the jewelry.

File history

LC-DIG-ppmsca digital file from original on page 62, no. The following other wikis use this file: Whiting Usage on da. The earliest type of costume here is a rather elaborate shawl drapery worn without any tunic underneath. Later comes the tunic with various-fringed shawl draperies worn in addition, and some of the latest types have the tunic worn alone without the shawl draperies.

The dates given for the costumes illustrated in this style have been verified at the British Museum.

Assyrian, Babylonian costume history. Mesopotamia.

It should be remembered, as in the case of ancient Egyptians costume, that the dresses changed very slowly indeed, and most styles of this era were worn literally for hundreds of years. The knee-length and full-length tunics with short sleeves are the most common dress worn to different types of headdress. There were essentially only two types of garment generally found in the representations of ancient Assyrian costume: The most common material for clothing was wool , although linen had been known from an early period and was often used for better-quality garments. Cotton did not become available until Sennacherib introduced it into Assyria in about BC, from which time it was used for the making of cloth.

Other materials sometimes used were leather and papyrus. The skins and furs of animals and metal were also in use, but chiefly for military and hunting costume. Though the actual specimens of these costumes are not possessed, it can still be inferred from the lavish ornament and, from references in the Old Testament writings that rich coloring prevailed.