Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus | Explore & Learn

Clothing and Personal Adornment: Mesopotamia and Syria

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Only a few fragments of decayed textiles have survived from Mesopotamia and Syria, and information on dress comes mostly from art, in particular designs on seals, but also sculpture and metalwork. From the late fourth millennium B.C. there are depictions of a bearded man wearing a knee- or ankle-length skirt and a fillet around his head. During the Early Dynastic period (ca. 2900–ca. 2250 B.C.) the skins of sheep and goats were used as skirts for men and robes for women, at least for ritual purposes. Women also wore plain, bordered, calf-length robes, draped over one shoulder, or shawls fastened by pierced pins (toggle pins) from which hung beads or seals. Silver pins topped with jeweled flowers were worn in the hair of women buried in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, as well as other elaborate jewelry and toggle pins. A form of royal and divine adornment consisted of plaited hair and a bun, which may in some cases have been a wig, and a garment draped over the left shoulder. During the Akkadian period (2300–2159 B.C.) a tiered robe was adopted by important figures and deities. In the later third millennium B.C. a plain, fringed robe was wrapped around the body, under the right armpit and over the left shoulder, such as depicted on the many statues of Gudea of Lagash. Throughout the third millennium B.C. men might be either clean-shaven or bearded, but priests generally seem to have been clean-shaven and to have had their heads shaved. Most people went barefoot regardless of class, but sandals and boots with upturned toes are sometimes represented.


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Images, from top to bottom: Female figure with clasped hands, ca. 2097–1989 B.C.; Ur III. Mesopotamia, Girsu (modern Tello). Musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités Orientales, Paris AO 295. Bead with filigree and cloisons, ca. 2550–2400 B.C.; Early Dynastic IIIA. Mesopotamia, Ur, PG 580, U.9779. Trustees of The British Museum, London BM 121427. Puabi's headdress, ca. 2550–2400 B.C.; Early Dynastic IIIA. Mesopotamia, Ur, PG 800, Puabi's Tomb. A: Comb. U.10937. B16693. B: Hair rings. U.10890. B16992a,b. C: Wreaths. U.10935a, U.10936. B17709–11. D: Hair ribbon. U.10934. B17711a. E: Earrings. U.10933. B17712a,b. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia. Standing figure of Ishqi-Mari (formerly read Lamgi-Mari), ca. 2400–2250 B.C.; Early Dynastic IIIB. Syria, Mari, Ishtar temple, Level a, room 20, M.174. National Museum, Aleppo, Syria 10406.

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