CHRONOLOGY OF ASIA MINOR

The history of the Armenian dress-making began in the 9^th century B.C. during the reign of the kingdom of Urartu. This has been established in virtue of records and documents found in the excavations of the ruins of Urartu and other sites at Toprak Kale near lake Van, Meker Kapusi (Door of Mithridates), Dhuspas and the tablets of Xerxes. At the beginning, the Armenian clothing style was heavily influenced by the Persian fashion. This extended to hairdo, shoes and footwear, sandals, belts, brooches and various male and female apparel. This was clearly visible on the Urarturian minted coins which depicted Urarturian monarchs, kings, gods and goddesses wearing outfits stylized with Persian fashion features as well as Assyrian and Babylonian long gowns style. Even, the men’s beard style , hair style and the Urarturian faces resembled those of the Persian and Assyrian empires.

Urarturian deities were not immune. Their fashion was equally influenced by Mesopotamians, Hittites and Persians. The gods and goddesses of the Urarturian pantheon were dressed up like the deities of the Hittites, Phoenicians and Assyrians. Yet, a mutual and reciprocal fashion influenced by and upon European, Asian and Middle Eastern countries was widely applicable. Armenians were influenced by foreigners and foreigners were equally influenced by Armenians.

ARMENIAN POSTAGE COMMEMORATING ARMENIAN TRADITIONAL DRESSES AND COSTUMES

Unfortunately, Armenians of Urartu, Cilicia and medieval to pre-modern era did not keep good records and accounts of their dress making styles, history, industry and fashion development. The majority of what we know about the Armenian dress-making and costumes styles comes from outsiders, from foreign countries, neighboring nations, ancient Middle and Near Eastern kingdoms, even from Armenian invaders and foes. The most documented and revealing accounts pertaining to Armenian folkloric dresses and costumes were provided by Assyrian and Babylonian records, and not by Armenian annals or inscriptions. Later, the Greeks annals will shed more light on the Armenian national costumes. What we do know for certain is what the Hittites, Babylonian and Assyrians historical tablets and inscriptions revealed.

For instance, those records and inscriptions tell us that the Armenians used to dress up like them. “Them” refers to Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Orentes. In other words, the Armenians have adopted the fashion of the era. Armenian Women and men adopted dresses and costumes manufactured in foreign countries. Therefore, one of the most pragmatic methods to describe Armenian costumes and dresses would be a comparative study of Middle and Near Eastern countries fashion and national costumes of the era. The attention should henceforth focus on countries which were in contact with Urartu, Cilicia and other short-lived Armenian states and counties. “Contact” can be interpreted as friendly relationship, commerce, trade, goods and products exchange, import, export, or wars, conquests, dominations, uprisings, struggles, as well as any form or shape of interaction between Armenians with their neighbors and inhabitants of far distant lands in the Near East, Middle East, Africa, Asia, even Europe. The most likely countries to have caused their seal on the Armenian ethnic and folkloric costumes and dresses would be Assyria, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Turkey, Greater Arabia, Greece and Rome. Those were the countries which invaded and ruled Armenia.

The only three civilizations or ancient people who did not invade Armenia or cause any hostile frictions were the Hittites, the Phoenicians and the Israelites; the Aramaic people. This is why, I have always believed that the early Armenians were either the descendants of or the ancestors of the Aramaic tree which branched out to the inhabitants of Phoenician/Syria, Israel/Palestine and lands of the Hittites.

COMPARATIVE STUDY AND ANALOGY OF DRESSES AND COSTUMES OF THE ERA WHICH INFLUENCED THE ANCIENT ARMENIAN DRESS MAKING AND FASHION

Neo-Assyrian relief from the reign of Sargon II (721-705 B.C.) in Khorsabad, Iraq. u

This neo-Assyrian relief is extracted from a palace room walls adjacent to the throne room of Sargon II. The relief depicts two Eunuchs walking toward the Assyrian monarch.
The ankle-length robes are ornamented with square patterns, a front sash and are trimmed with fringes in a plisse style cut in vertical lines, a fashionable design of the era, as well as a religious symbol, for the horizontal lines represent in ancient cults and mythology, the different levels of ascension and spirits world. The vertical lines represent the state of the man or the woman in relation to the deity. Both personages wear either polished bronze or silver earrings, minted wrist bracelets, and leather sandals. The ancient Armenians were not very fond of chest sashes. The Armenian women dresses in their majority were not decorated or ornamented with fringes bordered with horizontal lines. Yet, the Armenian men costumes were! This ornamental male couture appeared on a great number of minted Armenian coins and other historical inscriptions. Ancient Armenian women used to wear precious metal earrings but the Armenian men did not wear them as many of the monarch of ancient civilizations did!

tAn ancient Babylonian goddess bronze statue from the 18^th century-17^th century B.C.

This bronze statue represents the goddess of winds and rainstorms in ancient Babylonia and she is holding in her hands a jar or a small urn from which water flows abundantly over her long dress creating a linear pattern symbolizing the wealth and fertility of good soil. The long dress has no borders or fringes. It flows gracefully and covers the goddess ankle with a bombe shaped edge, strikingly similar to the Arubani long dress. The goddess is wearing a long crown shaped after an old Babylonian temple with four facades symbolizing the four directions of the wind. A meticulous descriptive detail is given to the shape of the nose, the lips and eyes brows.

In many of the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian tablets, bas-reliefs and inscriptions, we notice that Middle and Near Eastern deities were not dressed like human beings. The pantheon gods and goddesses had their own fashion. Ancient Armenian, Egyptian, Roman, Hittite and Phoenician deities were depicted in dresses, long gowns and uniforms similar to those worn by monarchs, nobility and rich upper classes.

WOMEN AND MEN COSTUMES AND SUITS FROM

[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Next ]