2.2 Clothing

Question 1

What is the problem with Mycenaean clothing? How do we get our info?

Answer 1

Over time clothes decay so we don’t have any from the time hence we get all our info from Frescos

Question 2

What materials where used to make clothes in Mycenaean times?

Answer 2

Wool from sheep or goats and linen from plants
Some from silk but these are rare

Question 3

What was the process with cloth making?

Answer 3

First made out of wool or linen
Then dyed using natural
Colours where locked in with substances like vinegar or urine which preserves the dye
Then washed

Question 4

Lift all four dyes used in Mycenaean times and there origin ?

Answer 4

Yellow- onion skins and saffron
Red- insect eggs or madder (a plant)
Blue- indigo
Purple- shellfish ink

Question 5

What colours where expensive and hard to obtain ?

Answer 5

Blue and purple so this signifies wealth and status

Question 6

What’s a valuable source of cloth making ?

Answer 6

The Linear B tablets they tell us different of different workers who prepared, spun, dyed and wove the wool.

Question 7

What is the most famous frescoe for clothes in Mycenaean times?

Answer 7

The Mycenaean lady

Question 8

Why is the Mycenaean lady useful ?

Answer 8

It shows a woman wearing a typical Mycenaean garment
Short sleeved top over a thin body
Enables the artist to show off her boobs
Has an intricate hairstyle

Question 9

How are Mycenaean men conventionally dipicted ?

Answer 9

Braised short sleev tunic with a robe over it
Kilt like garment: chiton
Leather boots such as the ones on the warrior vase but conventionally depicted bare foot

Question 10

How were Mycenaean women useually depicted clothing wise ?

Answer 10

Wrap around skirts usually very colourful
Frescoes from Akitori show both longer and short versions
Blouse were short sleeved but may didn’t cover boobs