Through the Eras

Fashionslaughtering a bull wearing only such aprons. Men worean apron with a short kilt. This apron was shaped likea four-sided piece of cloth with a half-circle of clothadded to the bottom. Tomb reliefs include representationsof these aprons in the Sixth Dynasty (2350–2170B.C.E.) and again during the Middle Kingdom (2008–1630 B.C.E.). By the New Kingdom (1539–1075B.C.E.), men had a wider choice of clothing types towear with a pointed apron. Some men represented inOld and Middle Kingdom reliefs and paintings wear atriangular apron over their kilts. Artists represent theapron as a triangle that rose above the kilt in the front.One point was tucked into the waistband while oneside of the triangle hung parallel to the hem of the kilt.The artistic emphasis on this item of clothing and thefact that the pleats of the triangle normally run in adifferent direction from the pleats of the kilt have ledmany scholars to believe that it is a separate item ofclothing. Others have suggested that the triangle ofcloth is actually the end of the kilt tied in some elaboratemanner. Since no archaeological examples of thetriangular apron have been recognized, it is not possibleto determine whether it is a separate item of clothingor not.Nykara (center) wears a short kilt with a pleated apron. Hiswife wears a tight v-neck dress that almost surely was an artisticconvention rather than a real fashion. Their son is naked,the common way of representing children. BROOKLYN MUSEUMOF ART, 49.215, CHARLES EDWIN WILBOUR FUND. REPRODUCED BYPERMISSION.examples are either patched or uncut over the area thatwould cover the buttocks. The garment also had tiesthat were part of the hide rather than added as in linenloincloths. Many of the archaeological examples ofleather loincloths have connections to Nubia. There areexamples of leather loincloths from Nubia in the collectionsof the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto andin the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. For this reasonmost scholars believe that this fashion originated inmodern-day Sudan.APRONS. Aprons are cloth strips hanging from abelt or sash that wrapped around the wearer’s waist.Upper-class Egyptians wore aprons over or under othergarments such as kilts while aprons could be a workman’sonly garment while he performed certain labors.In the Fifth Dynasty (2500–2350 B.C.E.) there aretomb representations of men capturing a bull andKILTS. Kilts were wraparound garments that menwore to cover all or part of the lower half of the bodyand legs, and were worn throughout ancient Egyptianhistory. Only a very small number of archaeological examplesof kilts are available for study. There are, however,nearly countless examples of men wearing kilts inEgyptian art. The length of the kilts varies greatly. It islikely that the length varied with economic and socialstatus. Cloth was expensive and so poorer people tendedto wear clothing with less material. The standard wraparoundkilt probably consisted of a rectangular piece oflinen wrapped around the waist. The ends were ofteninserted into a sash worn around the waist. The ends ofthe sash sometimes visibly hung from the waist and overthe front of the kilt. Men often wore two kilts over oneanother. In this case one kilt was pleated while the otherwas flat. Some kilts also included decorations such asfringes, tassels, and pleats. During the New Kingdom,two additional kilt styles came into fashion. The sashkilts were one piece of cloth that were gathered and thentied in the front without a separate sash. The ends of thecloth hung in the front and were arranged in elaboratedecorative patterns of folds. Typically they appear tocover part of the small of the back in addition to thebuttocks. Sash kilts could be worn alone or in combinationwith bag tunics. The sash kilt could also bearfringe decoration on the edge. The scalloped-edge kilts92 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)