The Magnificent Hairstyles of Bronze Age Europe

[Music] hairstyles are about much more than just looking good we might braid tie back or cut our hair short for practical reasons so it's out of the way for work or sports but what we do to our hair is influenced most of all by our culture hairstyles can convey information about who we are and the society that we come from it can provide information about our social class and the kind of work we do certain hairstyles can convey a whole set of beliefs that we might hold and what kind of attitudes and behaviors other people might expect from us and of course this was no different for our ancestors people have been styling their hair for at least tens of thousands of years and there is no end to the variations different cultures have employed all over the world ever since now finding evidence for these hairstyles is not easy especially when we look at really ancient and even prehistoric societies where we might only have a few bits of simple artwork to go on but it's still well worth looking at not just to imagine our ancestors accurately when we call them to mind but because of what these hairstyles can tell us about who these people were how they thought of themselves and what their hair was meant to convey to their contemporaries in southern scandinavia during the nordic bronze age we have a few strands of evidence that tell us something about the hairstyles of the people that lived here three and a half thousand years ago by this point in the european bronze age the presence of a warrior aristocracy as a distinct class can be seen in their burial traditions the most visible element of these traditions is the barrow or burial mound which was erected on top of the body beneath there are an estimated 20 000 bronze age burial mounds in denmark today once erected over an original grave they were often reused for more burials over the generations with additional graves being dug into the mounts for family members and descendants these mounds often became the focus of ritual activity where the descendants of those buried beneath came to make sacrifices and commune with their honored ancestors it's these burial mounds that provide the best evidence of the world of the nordic bronze age because these people were often buried with grave goods usually the organic remains like the flesh and bones and the clothing all decompose and were left with stone and metal artifacts but for part of this period and in certain areas there was a tradition of burying people in coffins carved from the trunks of oak trees and in special circumstances the environment within these sealed buried coffins preserved organic remains like the bones of the deceased person their woolen clothing and blankets leather scabbards with fur lining wooden sword handles wooden bowls and cups and very rarely even their skin their muscles and their hair like tombs and burials all over the world most of europe's burial mounds have been looted sometime between the original burial and today people did it for all kinds of reasons from spite to curiosity but mostly they were looking for treasure there are stories about local farmers in the 19th century using the rich soils from the mounds on their property to fertilize their fields when they found a burial they would of course rifle through the contents looking for gold on one of these occasions a farmer opened a coffin burial to find a short powerfully built woman who was in her 50s when she died and she still had her long hair on her head so what was her hairstyle like well we don't know because the farmer rummaged around in her grave and knocked all of her hair off after taking what he wanted he threw out the hair and gave the rest to the local university in this case the academic who took possession of the coffin and its remaining contents found a bit of the woman's hair still in there and included it in his sketch those hairs however were also lost so it's somewhat of a miracle then that we have a full head of hair surviving from both a man and a woman in other nordic bronze age coughing burials the large barrow at borum esso near ahus was erected on a hill with a wide view in around 1350 bc in 1871 the body of a middle-aged woman was found and in 1875 two more coffins were uncovered containing the bodies of an old man and a young man the mound was likely raised over the coffin of the old man who lay at its center and the other two graves likely his wife and son were added later the young man was dressed in a cloak and kilt of woven wool with a leather belt and a pair of leather shoes his grave goods included a bronze dagger and a wooden sword cupboard a bark box a bone needle and a horn comb his body was well preserved with muscles and other soft parts still connecting the bones together his hair was also preserved it's somewhat curly or wavy and it's a bit of a mess right now while the hair looks dark in some photos with low light it was actually quite fair but what we see now isn't necessarily how it would have been in life although surviving hair from graves and tombs has not completely decomposed there are still chemical changes happening over the centuries and millennia straight hair can also curl or become matted or felted surviving hair from graves can be darker than in life as most things tend to become brown as they decompose or it can take on colours from the surrounding environment or even become chemically bleached but bearing all that in mind this young man is described as having a page boy hairstyle this is a style that was popular in the 1970s but what i think they mean is that it was of a medium length falling below the ears but above the shoulders the inclusion of a comb with the grave goods is also interesting relationships between grave goods and the person they're buried with is much debated in archaeology what meanings do these objects have were they meant to equip the dead for their activities in the afterlife were they owned by the dead person in life or were they parting gifts from their relatives the answers to these and countless other questions will be different for different cultures and even individual burials but patterns in grave goods can tell us what certain societies thought were important and in bronze age europe there emerged a kind of cult of the body amongst the warrior aristocracy it is seen in the appearance of a collection of certain grave goods along with weapons like swords spears axes and daggers in male graves these included razors tweezers needles combs and even polished bronze mirrors the razors and tweezers were for hair removal the combs were for keeping hair neat and clean and the needles were likely for tattooing the skin these items were part of the warrior cultural package and so we know that male grooming at this time was bound up in the idea of what it meant to be a warrior these were the elites of their society and ostentatious displays of wealth and power set them apart from common people servants and slaves this was done not only by wearing beautiful items of gold and silver and gemstones but by displaying beautiful hair skin and bodies the warrior virtues of strength and vitality were reflected in the strength and health of the body these could be accentuated by modifying the body with tattoos and shaving and plucking hairs we'll not speculate here about exactly what male hair was shaved and plucked but clearly hairstyles were of particular importance in conveying a warrior's social status and even perhaps their seniority we know that in indo-european societies from ireland to india there was an initiation tradition where youths were ejected from their tribes in small warrior bands if you haven't already then watch my video series on the choreos for details about these traditions but the relevant aspect here is their hairstyles while undergoing these rights the youths were not permitted to cut or comb their hair or shave their beards if they had them only when they were accepted back into their tribe could they shave and comb their hair in some indo-european societies even into historical times adult warriors could swear an oath dedicating themselves to the god of the warband until a specific task was completed during this sacred time the warrior would not shave or comb his hair it would signify that he stood apart from his society stood beyond its rules and laws raises then were about more than just standing above the commoner they could have profound ritual and social importance and perhaps symbolized passing the initiation and becoming a full member of the tribe with all its rights and responsibilities no beard hair has been found in the oak coffin burials so the men from these areas during this part of the nordic bronze age were all as far as we know clean shaven or perhaps they were given a ritual shave in death to cleanse the body for burial another young man in a nordic bronze age coffin burial had one of the most extreme mullets you will ever see the sides were cut rather short while from the crown of the head down to the back of his neck the hair was left long perhaps this style would have conveyed something to his people about his age or life stage and perhaps his specific status within the warrior aristocracy but as with so much in ancient history the specific meaning is hard to decipher understanding the meaning in this case is more difficult because the rest of his body had decomposed and only the mullet remained what we do know is that for the elites of bronze age scandinavia a man's hairstyle conveyed information about that man as a warrior and his role in his tribe and his wider society this video is sponsored by keeps now two out of three men will experience hair loss by the time they're 35 and keeps offers clinically proven research-backed treatments to stop hair loss and improve hair growth with keeps you get quality expert care without ever visiting your doctor's office or a pharmacy all their treatment plans are doctor 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southern jutland from somewhere else maybe three to four years earlier it's possible she came from somewhere like southern germany to marry a local chief but tragically died before her life really got going at least one researcher believes that due to the length of her belt she was pregnant when she died at 170 centimeters or five foot seven inches she is considered exceptionally tall compared to her contemporaries one paper from the 1940s said she had unusually long slender limbs and with her magnificent hairstyle piled on top of her head she would have been taller still she was buried wearing a short-sleeved top with embroidery on the sleeves and neckline and a long skirt with a belt to hold it up and she wore large gold earrings you can imagine the heads turning when she walked into the hall in her finery with her long slender arms bared her hair is perhaps the most remarkable thing of all it was first combed forward and a woolen cord was bound around her head which was then platted across the forehead from temple to temple after the hair was combed back finally the hairdo was covered with a hair net made from horse hair her hair has become matted but originally it would have been both ornate and neat a style like this takes time to construct and no doubt she would have had a servant or two to help her along with her gold earrings and surely her clean and soft forearms and hands it marked her out as an elite woman while the survival of her hair is of course unusual there are plenty of other nordic bronze age burials where clothing or at least fragments of clothing survive the most famous example is the eggved gill found in a barrow in 1921 the grave dates to 1370 bc aged about 16 to 18 when she died she was slim 160 centimeters or 5 foot 3 tall and wore a loose top with short sleeves a bare waist and a short corded skirt this scandalous provocative outfit caused a sensation when it was first discovered a hundred years ago the grave goods included bronze bracelets and a wooden belt with a large disc decorated with spirals and a spike she had short blonde hair and a plain cord was found in that hair which likely held her hair back from these and other examples researchers reconstruct two kinds of women's clothing styles for this era one with short corded skirts and fairly short hair with a hairband and the other with long skirted women whose long hair was placed in elaborate hair nets exactly what these two clothing and hairstyles represent is debated some believe the hair nets and long skirts are for older women while those with hair bands and cord skirts are for younger women another argument sees the hair nets being worn by unmarried women who cut their hair when they marry others suggest they are summer and winter outfits or perhaps the corded skirts and short hair are for special ceremonies all of these suggestions have at least some contradictory evidence so it's hard to say for sure but all these elite women conveyed their social status through their hairstyles and in almost every case they were buried with a horn bone or even bronze hair comb and these are almost always fastened to the woman's belt this shows how important hairstyles were for these women and their societies unfortunately for much of the rest of europe for the rest of the bronze age we don't have many surviving bodies because a widespread and long lasting tradition of funeral cremation emerged but as combs tweezers razors and mirrors continued to be used we know that hairstyles continued to be important in defining identities in life and in death there is some evidence however in bronze age artwork the rock art of scandinavia was tapped into large flat rock panels so the figures are usually just not detailed enough to show hairstyles except in some cases where figures with what is interpreted as long hair are shown there is a famous one showing two figures engaged in hiroshamos a sacred union between god and goddess perhaps ritually recreated by mortal participants the motif of the figure with the long hair is seen in other images on other panels like this one showing twin goddesses turning moving or at least holding the sun while male divine twins hold the other side and three other figures emerge from its top and bottom there's another goddess with this long hair she has a cup mark between her legs emphasizing her feminine nature along with the symbol below her feet that might represent divinity so this long hair motif seems to be associated with goddesses but whether it relates to a real world haircut isn't clear researchers often call it a ponytail but these artworks are so stylized i don't think we can say anything for sure and much of the surviving bronze age artwork elsewhere in europe is of a similar stylized nature there is rock art in galicia in northwest liberia and in valcomonica in the italian alps but you just can't pick out hairstyles and there are stone funerary steely from the european steppes to the alps and iberia but the hair doesn't tend to be emphasized and it isn't usually discernable surely there were more detailed depictions of people carved in wood and painted on rocks or plastered walls but none that we know of have survived the millennia since then in the tiny bronze figurines from nirajic sardinia we find most of the figures have their hair hidden under their horned helmets or hats some figures do have their hair shown but it's not always easy to discern the styles or to take much meaning from them across the mediterranean in the aegean however we are fortunate to have beautiful bronze age palace frescoes in mycenaean greece and on minoan crete [Music] the minoans had an enormous cultural influence on the myceneans which is shown especially in art styles although there are differences and later on influence flowed the other way too it's possible that hairstyles were closely related to a person's age in minoan society or at least it is depicted that way in their art where there may be four distinct stages of youth and two of adulthood shaved heads are represented by the color blue perhaps showing the stubble of newly growing hair these shaved heads along with isolated long locks might be indications of childhood for the minoans as elite minoan girls grew into the final stage of youth their heads were no longer shaved and the upper part of their long hair was tied in a bun and when they became women their hair cascaded down to their shoulders bound in thick tresses signaling their health and vitality they also incorporated headdresses bands and beads there is a female figure believed to be a goddess largely due to her mix of hairstyles while her body and clothing are that of a mature woman her hair appears to incorporate all the youth age groups at once with long tresses tied in the bun of youth and the isolated locks of children along with a shaved area behind her ears a human cannot be all ages at once but a goddess can the influence of these female styles is clear in the depictions of mycenaean women most clearly of all perhaps in a famous figure excavated at mycenae known as the myconia or the lady of mycenae which is one of the most complete mycenaean human figures ever discovered most of the frescoes are just fragments and the reconstructions we are perhaps more familiar with are the products of extrapolation comparison with other frescoes and sometimes imagination even missing the top part of the hair the myconia's hairstyle is certainly ornate and detailed the fringe across her forehead is styled in spirals she has a lock of hair falling over her left ear down her face and along her shoulder a lock on the other side of her head does the same all the way to her elbow where it separates into at least two more tresses and she has an elongated hair bun bound up in a loop with bands the mayakinaya is thought to represent a mature woman she's described as having full breasts and a double chin and her hairstyle reflects that of a mature minoan woman apart from her loose locks which for minoans were reserved for the young so either this figure represents a goddess or a woman presenting herself as a goddess while these hairstyles have developed different meanings in mycenaean culture the lady with a pixis from tyrons is one of the most widely known mycenaean processional figures but it's also one of the most reconstructed it was assembled from fragments of different figures including at least three female heads even so the fragments that do survive include much of the hairstyle she has elaborately curled forehead locks and long tresses fall down both sides of her body bound in some way before separating into more tresses and she has a bun with a ponytail at the back the figure is similar to those from other mycenean palaces at thebes and pylos it's thought that in all these palaces the elite women would have taken part in ritual processions carrying sacred objects passing by these frescoes of women doing the very same thing while the body poses and backgrounds and other stylistic elements change over the 200 years or so that these frescoes cover the hairstyle does not so there's no doubt that this is the proper hairstyle for mycenaean women at least when participating in ritual activity those ornate forehead locks especially what about the mycenean men well there are frescoes showing men but they are usually doing male activities like hunting and fighting and many of them wear a helmet which obscures their hair there is one figure of a bull leaper from pylos but it was badly burned which makes it hard to see what was going on but he has some kind of forehead lock and his hairstyle looks very similar to if not the same as the hair on the famous bull leaping panel from late minoan crete this likely dates to after 1500 bc when the mycenaeans came to dominate the minoans politically and when cultural influence started flowing in the other direction from the mainland to crete this hairstyle might be how all elite young men wore it in their youth or it might be a special style just for the bull leaping rights the ladies in blue fresco also from late minoan crete is one of the most famous images of the era however very little of the hairstyles is actually on the surviving fragments of plaster the reconstructions of the faces in the hairstyles are based on other frescoes and from what we've seen of those other frescoes it might not be far from the truth but we just can't say for sure what we can say is that besides being beautiful or practical the hairstyles of the elites in the bronze age aegean clearly represented an individual's age status or position and the special activities they carried out within their society thank you to my patrons for supporting the channel if you enjoyed this video please subscribe to see more videos like this in future and let me know if you're interested in a video dedicated to the bronze age warriors cult of the body now please watch this video about the sudden fashion for horned helmets and what it tells us about connectivity in late bronze age europe thank you for watching

Channel: Dan Davis History

Views: 394,139

Keywords: bronze age history, history of europe, history documentaries, ancient history documentary, ancient civilizations, mycenaean greece, minoan crete, nordic bronze age, Akrotiri, Thera, Palace frescoes, Bronze Age Hairstyles, Skrydstrup Woman, Egtved Girl

Id: TdRhhSF5bK8

Length: 23min 25sec (1405 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 17 2022