Daughters of Isis - Joyce Tyldesley

by Daughters of Isis- Women of Ancient Egypt (epub)

  To cause the hair to fall out: burnt leaf of lotus is put in oil and applied to the head of a hated woman.

  Ebers Medical Papyrus

  Women did not necessarily regard their natural hair as their crowning glory. Indeed, throughout pharaonic times it was common practice for upper-class men and women to wear their natural hair closely cropped or even shaved as a practical response to the hot climate and a means of avoiding uncomfortable tangles. Fashionable wigs, which protected the near-bald heads against the fierce Egyptian sun, were worn for aesthetic reasons on more formal occasions, and false hair developed into an important commercial industry. Most wealthy people owned at least one hairpiece, and the convenience of a convention which combined cool comfort during the day with elegance at night must have been much appreciated. The best and most natural looking of the wigs were made of over 120,000 human hairs woven into a mesh and glued into place with a mixture of melted beeswax and resin.3 The worst and least natural were made entirely of coarse red date-palm fibre and must have presented a startlingly bizarre appearance.

  Recipe to make the hair of a bald person grow: fat of lion, fat of hippopotamus, fat of crocodile, fat of cat, fat of serpent, and fat of ibex are mixed together and the head of the bald person is anointed therewith.

  Ebers Medical Papyrus

  Despite the evident popularity of shaved heads, mummies of all periods have been recovered with well-dressed heads of natural hair, and the surviving romantic poetry makes it clear that clean and shining tresses were much admired. Indeed, the mummified body of Queen Ahmose Nefertari, who died at an advanced age having lost most of her natural hair, wore a wig of human braids thoughtfully supplied by the embalmers who presumably wished to save her from the indignity of being reborn bald in the Afterlife. The medical papyri supplied useful recipes to enhance the appearance by curing such social embarrassments as unwanted baldness and persistent dandruff, while helpfully suggesting that the fat of black snakes, the blood of black oxen or even a repulsive-sounding compound made from the pulverized genitals of a bitch could usefully be employed to disguise unsightly grey hair. A slightly more acceptable and presumably less smelly means of changing hair colour was the use of henna paste which could also be used to decorate finger and toe nails. Henna is still used as a skin and hair dye in modern Egyptian villages.

  Fig. 24 Old Kingdom queen wearing a striking red and yellow wig and perhaps the earliest shoulder-pads in the world

  Women’s hair and wig styles changed far more frequently than either clothing or jewellery fashions, graduating from the rather severe cuts worn throughout the Old Kingdom to the longer and more elabor ate styles favoured at the zenith of the Egyptian Empire. It is tempting, although perhaps over-simplistic, to see a direct correlation between the wealth of Egypt and the time and money made available for hair and wig care. During the Old Kingdom the most trendy women sported a short, straight bob such as is frequently seen today. This style gradually became longer, until by the Middle Kingdom shoulder-length hair and heavier wigs had been adopted by all classes. The longer hair was either worn loose or dressed in the so-called ‘tripartite style’, with the hair at the back of the head hanging free and bunches of hair on either side of the head pulled forward to frame the face and expose the ears. This tripartite style was originally confined to females of low status in society, principally the unmarried, but its use gradually spread to higher-ranking married women. Indeed, a more intricate version, the ‘Hathor-style’, which involved binding the two sections of front hair with ribbons and wrapping them round a flat disk-shaped weight, became hugely popular and was the firm favourite of most 18th Dynasty queens. In contrast the Amarna royal ladies, who liked to do most things differently, favoured the rather more masculine ‘Nubian’-style wig based on the short and curly haircuts of Nubian soldiers. As the New Kingdom progressed hair and wig fashions became less standardized, growing generally longer and far more exaggerated, perhaps due to the increasing foreign influence being felt throughout Egypt at this time. A 19th Dynasty vogue for fuller wigs and a corresponding increase in the use of supplementary hairpieces to pad out both wigs and natural hair led to the abandonment of the tripartite hairstyle, and the formerly simple strand wigs were rejected in favour of wild-looking wigs of curls and thin plaits ending in fringes.

  The barber labours until dusk. He travels to a town, sets himself up in his corner, and moves from street to street looking for a customer. He strains his arms to fill his stomach, like the bee that eats as it works.

  Middle Kingdom Satire of the Trades

  Wealthy ladies did not dress their own hair or wigs, but were assisted either by a female servant or by a daughter, mother or friend.4 There was no ancient Egyptian equivalent of the beauty salon, and barbers were either attached to the staff of the larger establishments or worked as itinerant tradesmen servicing the less affluent members of society. Inscriptions dating to the Old Kingdom show that these professional hairdressers, who were invariably male, were regarded as people of some importance with a possible ritual function; the association of human hair with witchcraft and superstition has been a frequent one throughout the world and hair-cutting often forms an important part in rituals or rites of passage. Indeed, the cutting of male hair has even been regarded by some psychoanalysts as a symbolic form of castration, as genitals are apparently at a subconscious level invariably associated with hair. The biblical tale of Samson and Delilah, which tells how Samson lost all his male strength as a direct result of his unscheduled haircut, appears to lend some support to this rather ingenious theory. However, by the Middle Kingdom female hair and wig-dressers had become far more common and any ritual significance in their work had been lost. The hairdressers are usually depicted standing behind their mistress, who keeps a close eye on the proceedings through a polished metal mirror which she holds in her hand. A variety of specialized equipment was available to those wishing to enhance the hair, and tombs have yielded curlers, hairpins, and wooden and ivory combs all similar in design to their modern counterparts. Many women chose to weave fresh flowers into their newly dressed locks, while more formal ornaments – including diadems, circlets specifically intended for wear over wigs, hair-bands, hair-rings and hair-weights – provided the final touch to the elegant coiffure.

  Fig. 25 Girl wearing a fish ornament in her hair

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  Western societies traditionally make a clear distinction between medicinal and beauty treatments, with health farms sitting uneasily on the fence between the two. An even firmer line is drawn between the many cosmetics used by women and those few considered socially acceptable for men, with cultural conditioning tempting us to view makeup as a rather trivial matter of purely feminine interest. The Egyptians approached this matter very differently, regarding their cosmetics as an important aid to health and enhanced good looks for both sexes, with magical and amuletic benefits providing an added bonus. A well-stocked cosmetic chest was a prized masculine possession at a time when a well made-up face conveyed a message of high social status rather than effeminacy.

  I wish to paint my eyes, so if I see you my eyes will sparkle.

  New Kingdom love poem

  Both men and women adopted a dramatic 1960s-style makeup with heavy emphasis on the eyes. Kohl, or eye-paint, was used to enhance beauty while providing healing and protective powers against the fierce Egyptian sun. The paint was applied to the upper and lower lids, outlining, defining and exaggerating the eyes and lengthening the eyebrows; frequently a bold line drawn from the outer corner of the eye to the hairline completed the look. Even allowing for artistic exaggeration in tomb paintings and statuary, it is clear that the ‘natural’ look was not much admired. Two pigment colours were widely available from the Predynastic period onwards. Green (malachite) was by far the most popular colour during the earlier Dynastic period, but dark grey (galena) gained in popularity during the New Kingdom. The most fashionable ladies used the two colours in combination, with green applied to the brows
and corners of the eyes, grey to the rims and lashes. Black kohl is still widely used as an eyeliner by Egyptian peasant women, as it is believed that it will decrease reflected glare from the sun and reduce the chances of eye infections. Other cosmetics were far less common, although some women used a powdered rouge made from red ochre. There is little indication of the use of lip paint by either sex, although the Turin Erotic Papyrus does show a prostitute painting her lips with the aid of a modern-looking lip brush and a mirror.

  More permanent body decoration was demanded by those women – the professional dancers, acrobats and prostitutes – who relied on displaying the charms of their bodies to earn a living. This could be achieved by the tattooing of intricate patterns on the arms, torso and legs. Tattooing is a traditional Egyptian form of female adornment whose popularity has lasted from the Dynastic era until the present day, as Miss Blackman recorded:

  The implement used in tattooing consists of seven needles fixed into a short stick, which is bound round the end and then plastered over to keep the needles firmly in position. Sometimes smaller needles, and only five in number, are used for tattooing children. Lamp black is the pigment employed, and this is usually mixed with oil, though some people say that water is used.

  Unfortunately, tattooing is a practice which leaves little tangible trace, so that although female figurines with incised and painted body decorations have been found in Dynastic graves of all periods it is not until the Middle Kingdom that the mummified bodies of ladies tentatively identified as royal concubines confirm its use.5 The tradition appears to have died out by the New Kingdom, although some New Kingdom entertainers and servant girls displayed a small picture of the dwarf god Bes high on each thigh as a good luck symbol and a less than subtle means of drawing attention to their hidden charms. It has been suggested that this particular tattoo may have been the trade mark of a prostitute, but it seems equally likely to have been worn as an amuletic guard against the dangers of childbirth, or even as a protection against sexually transmitted diseases. Tattooing seems to have been confined to lower-class women and to men, who were tattooed less extensively.

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  Although artistic conventions decreed that women should be depicted as fashionably gaunt, there is very little direct evidence to show whether Egyptian women struggled to lose weight. The loose untailored clothing could have been worn by women of any size, and we do not have the equivalent of ancient diet sheets or exercise routines, while the medical papyri remain tantalizingly silent in this area. Comparison with modern rural Egypt suggests that although women may have been expected to be thinner than men the almost skeletal appearance currently admired in western societies would not have been appreciated. It seems that only in societies where famine is unthinkable is this female body type greatly admired. Naked female figurines recovered from tombs generally have gently rounded figures with relatively wide hips and slightly prominent buttocks. These figurines were included among grave goods for men, women and children, not as models of individual women but as generalized fertility symbols representing the whole process of Egyptian family life including reproduction and child-rearing. They suggest that, perhaps above all, a good child-bearing physique would be the most widely admired female physical type.

  Most Egyptians were very comfortable with their own bodies and were not offended by nudity in others. Nakedness in its correct place was not regarded as in any way shocking or indecent, and tomb owners showed no false modesty when depicting scenes of daily life which included fishermen or other workers whose occupations would have made the wearing of clothes inappropriate to their task. Nakedness could be used by the artists as a means of indicating low social status, and children were often illustrated nude although we know that they were normally dressed in clothes similar to those worn by their parents. During the New Kingdom female nudity, or semi-nudity, became common for those lower-status women whose employment was in some way related to their physical charms. Dancers and acrobats, for example, were depicted wearing either an eye-catching girdle or a practical short flared skirt, sometimes with narrow straps crossed over the breasts for purely decorative purposes. Servant girls at work wore a simple kilt with no blouse, and were frequently portrayed as either entirely naked but for ornamental bead collars and belts, or dressed in flimsy see-through garments. The trend for New Kingdom female nudity even extended to the gods, with a few naked foreign deities such as the Asian war-goddess Astarte developing cult followings in Egypt at this time.

  It would, however, have been both inaccurate and inappropriate for the upper classes to be shown without their clothes. All indications are that those of high rank delighted in showing off their finery, and viewed elegant garments as a means of underlining their social position. It was only during the short-lived Amarna period, when all the old conventions were turned on their heads, that royal ladies allowed themselves to be depicted either naked or wearing casually unfastened robes which left nothing to the imagination. Whether nudity was, in fact, common in private life, ‘off camera’, we have no means of telling, although it seems reasonable to assume that nudity would not have been popular during the cool winters or in the chilly early mornings.

  My lover, it is pleasant to go to the pond and bathe myself while you watch me. In this way I may let you see my beauty revealed through my tunic of finest white linen, when it becomes wet and clinging… I go down with you into the water and come out again to you with a red fish which lies beautiful on my fingers… Come and look at me.

  New Kingdom love song

  Clothes serve the basic function of protecting the naked body from the elements while preserving modesty by concealing those parts which society prefers to leave to the imagination. However, a quick glance down any high street shows that clothing, or more particularly fashion, also sends out clear social signals indicating such diversities as financial status, aspiration, occupation and even religious persuasion. The businesswoman, the student and the young mother may be wearing variants of the same shirt and skirt but differences in style and cut will be apparent to the most casual observer, while the individualistic punk dressed in torn plastic and bondage chains is wearing a uniform as indicative of group membership as the habit worn by the nun. Just as a modern Egyptian peasant woman can glean many accurate facts about a stranger by observing and analysing subtle variations in dress-style which pass unnoticed by the uninitiated western observer, so we can assume that the dress of the ancient Egyptian woman conveyed a wealth of information to her contemporaries. Unfortunately, without the cultural key necessary to decode the message we are unlikely to extract anything more than the most obvious inferences from any study of Egyptian fashion.

  At first sight the Egyptians have provided us with a great deal of evidence for a study of their clothing.6 We have a little written information, a few surviving garments and numerous statues, engravings and paintings which combine to provide an illustrated catalogue which may be used to chronicle changing styles throughout the dynasties. However, there are certain problems inherent in relying on this representational type of evidence. By their very nature the illustrations tend to depict the upper echelons of society recorded under atypical conditions. Just as today people prefer to be photographed in their best clothes, we must assume that those affluent enough to be recorded for posterity would choose to display their most elaborate or formal costumes. Clothing shown in depictions of the Afterlife may have had an additional ritual significance which is now lost to us. Given the strict conventions of Egyptian art it is highly likely that the artist chose to depict traditional or stylized garments indicative of femininity rather than those actually worn, and in many cases the subtle nuances of female dress may simply not have been recognized by the male artist who would have painted the majority of his portraits from memory or from a pattern book rather than from a live model. In fact, basing a discussion of garments solely on the types of evidence described above may well be analogous to basing a discussion of contemporary western styles o
n a collection of formal wedding portraits and ultra-fashion haute couture photographs taken from the pages of Vogue. Nevertheless, and despite inaccuracies in depiction, the clear message which reaches across the centuries from the tomb walls is the sheer delight with which both women and men pose to display their finery. Certainly clothes were important to the Egyptians.

  Linen was the material most often used in dressmaking. Cotton and silk were both unknown in Egypt before the Graeco-Roman period and, despite the farming of large flocks of sheep, woollen clothes were apparently rare in pre-Roman times. Herodotus, who was the first to mention this aversion to wool, supposed that it must have been a ritual avoidance as ‘nothing woollen is taken into their temples or buried with them as their religion forbids it’; his theory was echoed by Plutarch, who noted that ‘priests, because they revere sheep, abstain from using its wool as well as its flesh’. However, it seems far more likely that woollen garments were relatively uncommon because of a scarcity of good-quality wool; the rather bald Egyptian sheep which were bred principally for their milk and meat were evidently unsuitable for full-scale wool production. Archaeological evidence is now beginning to indicate that Herodotus may have been writing under a misapprehension, and that although people preferred to be illustrated in their traditional linen garments, woollen clothes might have been a great deal more common than has been supposed. There is certainly no contemporary evidence for a strict taboo against wearing wool and, while linen is certainly an appropriate material for clothing in a hot climate, being both lightweight and comfortable to the touch, the warmth of a woollen shawl or cloak would have been much appreciated on a chilly winter’s evening.