On Wednesday 03 January 2007 10:16 am, Sylvia Rognstad wrote:
> When did this evidence about Egyptian beaded net dresses surface? I
> never heard of it before nor is it in my old costume history books.
> It's been decades since I studied the history of costume, but since I'm
> going to be teaching it this January I'd really like to keep up on
> recent developments.
I believe I saw a picture of such a beaded net dress in Archaeology magazine
about two or three years ago.
I think I still have the issue. If so, it may indicate when the find was
actually made.
Ooops! I was wrong--it wasn't Archaeology at all, and it was longer ago than
a few years. The article I have in mind was in KMT: A Modern Journal of
Ancient Egypt. Winter 1995-1996, vol. 6, No. 4. It's by a Rosalind Janssen,
an assistant curator at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at
University College London ("Petrie Museum") and it's called, "An Ancient
Egyptian Erotic Fashion: Fishnet Dresses." Turns out that more than one
have been found, and there are pictures of two restored (i.e., restrung)
dresses accompanying the article. One is dated to the 4th Dynasty. The
caption on the photo claims it was found during George Reisner's excavations
at Giza in 1927 and is now at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (MFS
27.1548). Another was found by Brunton at Qau in 1923-24; the article has
two pictures of this one; one as it was incorrectly restored in the 1960s and
a more recent restoration; it is now in the Petrie Museum. A picture of what
the caption calls "macrame" (but looks more like a net with beaded motifs at
the bottom) and a mesh referred to as a "netted linen fragment" also appear,
along with a painted statute and tomb painting that appear to show similar
garments.
In light of the age of the relevant finds and the tomb art, I'm surprised no
reference to such a garment showed up in the older books. Anyway, I can send
you scans of the photos (possibly even of the whole article) by private
e-mail if you are interested. The article also discusses evidence for
garments made of linen netting that would have been as erotic and more
comfortable to wear.
[Heather said:]
>
> On Jan 2, 2007, at 9:34 PM, Heather Rose Jones wrote:
> > From the description, it sounds like it might have been inspired by a
> > surviving Egyptian "bead net" dress -- a very open network made of
> > threaded beads. The one I'm thinking of is basically a tubular sheath
> > with shoulder straps and at the bottom hem it has a "fringe" of
> > dangling flower-shaped beads.
This description tallies pretty well with the "macrame" fragment pictured in
the KMT article, though Janessen says the MFA dress has stylized bead flowers
along the hem, too. (I'm not sure I think so, from the picture, though.)
The macrame fragment is also in the MFA, so I'm not clear which item she
means.
> > _Might_ -- I'd have to see the original
> > to know if the suspicion holds up. There's a rather dark photograph
> > of the item I'm thinking of about halfway down the page at:
> >
> > http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/sexuality.html
The "dark photo" referred to on the URL cited above appears to be a bad shot
of the rear of the garment from the Petrie Museum. The KMT article has
full-length shot of that garment, in color and from the front.
--
Cathy Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point
of doubtful sanity." --Robert Frost
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