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In addition to describing weapons and equipment, the Iliad mentions the fighter's headgear. This hat or helmet rose in two tiers to a point, and the hard part, needed to resist a blow to the head or deflect an arrow, was provided by tightly spaced slices of boars' tusks, sewn flat to the leather surface. Such helmets have been found at sites contemporary to late Bronze Age Troy. Now we can understand that going on a boar's hunt (mentioned so often in the myths and legends) had a very practical purpose and was not just a chance for men to have fun! 
At the end of the Bronze Age, during Troy VII, a new dress custom is marked by the presence of the fibula, a sort of pin for holding together kilts and other clothes. Fibulas appeared all over Europe during the Iron Age. The fibula shown here was found in the West Sanctuary of Troy and may have also been used to dress a cult statue, or simply to fasten the cloak of a person of relatively high status during very early Troy VIII times. |
During later Troy VIII and IX periods there was a great "globalization" of culture, with people from one end of the Mediterranean to the other sharing similar styles of clothing, architecture, leisure activities, food, language, religion-- almost everything! A well-dressed woman such as the one shown in this terracotta (baked clay) figurine wore several layers of attractively draped cloth, |
fastened with brooches and fibulae. Her maid obviously spent some time arranging her hair. And from the popularity of bottles and jars for all sorts of cosmetics, she probably smelled nice too! |
