On Fri, 5 Jan 2007 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Since we're talking about ancient costume, and somebody mentioned > Jewish, does anybody know any reliable books on Biblical costume? I've > always wanted to sculpt a Nativity scene, but I have no idea as to > what appropriate costumes would look like. > > I suppose for the Nativity I could just dress them as Romans, or do a > medieval theme or something, but if there is accurate information to > be had, I'd like to know.
>From what I hear, the costume would be the least of the difficulty in creating an accurate scene. There are also questions about what the setting really was like, given the architecture and living arrangements of the time. Our vision is based primarily on translations of words into "stable" and "manger," and assumptions of later periods as to what those would look like. Not long ago I heard about a scholar who looked at the original terminology in terms of archaeological evidence of building structures and came up with what sounded like a solid interpretation that was completely different. It seems some houses had an upper level that served as a "guest room," while the family slept downstairs. There was also a half-sunken side room that was used for animals in bad weather; the animals were fed from a built-in trough at the side of the human living area, making the trough eating-height for the cattle, etc. The author noted that since Mary had family in Bethlehem, it was unlikely that she would have no place to stay and no one to take her in. He posited an alternative reading that was consistent with the known terminology for the various parts of the structure. "No room in the inn" became "no room in the guest room," so Mary and family were placed not in a separate "stable," but rather in the interior animal room (not sure whether he thought the animals would have been indoors or not -- maybe not), and the "manger" became a convenient place to lay a new baby given the lack of a cradle. I have no idea whether this was shot down, but the idea of re-considering the translation made a lot of sense to me. But a "Nativity Scene" in the barn has a lot of history and resonance to it, and so you could legitimately use a medieval-ish costuming theme that would be consistent with the idea of the traditional nativity setting. --Robin _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
