Ariadne's Threads

This book is the first to deal comprehensively with the construction,
significance, and function of the full range of garments of Aegean women
and related attire of men from the Neolithic to the end of the Bronze
Age. As valuable as precious metals, a significant commodity of trade,
luxurious in design and decoration, Minoan dress rivaled that of its
Near Eastern and Egyptian neighbors. Yet, Aegean costumes and textiles
have been among the least understood of the major artistic achievements
of the Minoan civilization.


Since ancient Aegean textiles and garments have not survived, the study
collects, analyzes and compiles a typology of the corpus of garments
represented in sculpture, frescoes and glyptic to glean evidence for
construction. It further considers the manufacturing techniques of
extant Egyptian clothes, comparable images of ancient Near Eastern
garments, textile manufacture on the warp-weighted loom, and dress
documented in Mycenaean Linear B, Greek and Near Eastern texts. The
combined evidence is buttressed by experiments in replicating Aegean and
related Near Eastern garments as well as the weave structures of
patterned cloths and bands. The replicated clothes are arranged on live
models who assume the various positions of the clothed figures in the
frescoes and sculptures they imitate, thereby bringing the ancient
figures to life.


This all inclusive study not only illuminates every aspect of Aegean
costume, but the resultant understanding of dress and the way it drapes
on the body has led to new restorations of the missing parts of
fragmentary garments on figural sculptures and wall paintings.