This lecture explores the splendid costumes of the Minoans and Mycenaeans immortalized in art and by Homer.  Decorated with exquisite patterns and appliquéd with gold and precious gems, the garments were of the utmost luxury. No longer preserved, the costumes are replicated through detailed analysis of art, loom technology, extant Egyptian clothes, comparable Near Eastern garments, and texts.  They are ultimately draped on live models posed as in art and juxtaposed with the sculptures and wall paintings they imitate.  Fragmentary figural frescoes are reconstructed to restore lost scenes of palatial and everyday life.  Together, the replicated costumes and reconstructed wall paintings virtually bring the Minoans and Myceneans to life.

Short bibliography and/or website on lecture topic:

B.R. Jones, 2015 (reprint 2019) “Ariadne’s Threads: The Construction and Significance of Clothes in the Aegean Bronze Age.”  Aegaeum 38, Peeters Publishers.

B.R. Jones 2018 “Costumes of Beauty,” in The Countless Aspects of Beauty in Ancient Art, The Athens National Archaeological Museum, May 2018-April 2019: 177-190.

B.R. Jones, 2009, “New Reconstructions of the ‘Mykenaia’ and a Seated Woman from Mycenae,” American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 113.3: 309-338.

B.R. Jones 2000 “Revealing Minoan Fashions,” Archaeology, 53.3: 36-41.