The Northern Origin of the Melon Coiffure in Classical Greece

E. Lopes – The Northern Origin of the Melon Coiffure in Classical Greece
Fig. 7 - Small Herculaneum Woman, White marble. Athens,
National Archaeological Museum (photo Ersilia Lopes).
Fig. 9 - Bendis riding a lioness, silver
oinochoe. From Rogozen. Vratsa, Historical
Archaeological Museum (from MARAZOV
1998).
Bollettino di Archeologia on line I 2010/ Volume speciale/ Poster Session 7 Reg. Tribunale Roma 05.08.2010 n. 330 ISSN 2039 - 0076
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Fig. 8 - Scythian warriors on golden plaque. From Kul’Oba.
St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum (from SCHILTZ 1994a).
Fig. 10 - Female heads. Silver skyphos. From Strelcha.
Sophia, Archaeological Institute and Museum (from MARAZOV
1998).
Museum in St. Petersburg provides precious evidence on the exchange between Scythians and Thracians.
The ornament depicts two Scythian warriors holding out their bows (fig. 8) 12 . They wear their hair divided into
bands forming large masses, gathered in impressive chignons. We can thus assume that the Thracians, who
wore their hair in a similar manner, transmitted the comae comptus to the Scythians.
Another important piece of evidence is vital for our analysis: a oinochoe (350-300 B.C.) from
Rogozen in Bulgaria was made by Thracian craftsman and is not strongly influenced by Greek prototypes
(fig. 9). Another vase depicts the heads of several women, whose coiffure foreshadows the “melon coiffure”
(fig. 10) 13 .
12 SCHILTZ 1994a, 185–205, esp. 182–84.
13 TAČEVA 1987, 4, 1–11; EWIGLEBEN 1989, 29–2; BOUZEK and ANDŘEJOVÁ 1990, 81–91; MARAZOV 1996.