Viking-era Women's aprons & the loros of the Byzantines?
An addendum to my July 2nd post about Viking clothing and What I Don't Know ...
I came across an interesting idea this week, which originated with Margrethe Watt (Danish archeologist, I believe), that the Lejre Freya/Odin Miniature portrays a dress in imitation of the Byzantine's empress' dress, with the hanging frontal piece. She also mentions other "elite women" such as saints being depicted with it. I believe she's referring to the "loros" or ceremonial "toga" worn by the emperor and empress. The emperor's version until about the 11th century still had a definite, although stiff, wrap to it, while the empress' often does appear as simply a long rectangle hanging down over the dress. That said, the Lejre miniature looks so much like the typical the apron or "forecloth" (the "tea towel" apron, as it has sometimes been disparaged) in Viking-era women's dress and that it is making me wonder ... could the apron/front cloth have been adopted in imitation of Byzantine fashion? Note that I'm talking here about the front panel suspended from the twin brooches, not the so-called "apron dress" (the "smokkr", aka hangerock, traggerock, hanging dress, harness dress, or pinafore dress).
To test the plausibility of that I need to answer a number of questions:
1. What's the dating of the Lejre miniature?
2. When do the forecloths appear in Scandinavian art? (Migration era? Vendal/Merovingian?)
3. How much contact did the Scandinavians have with Byzantium (directly and/or indirectly) prior to that time?
4. What was the nature of the contact? Is it plausible that Norse women would be motivated to copy an element of Byzantine dress?
5. Could it be that the apron/front cloth was only worn by high status women?
6. Which archeological finds are pointed to in support of the separate forecloth (Bau's theories, IIRC)? Any outside of Birka?
I came across an interesting idea this week, which originated with Margrethe Watt (Danish archeologist, I believe), that the Lejre Freya/Odin Miniature portrays a dress in imitation of the Byzantine's empress' dress, with the hanging frontal piece. She also mentions other "elite women" such as saints being depicted with it. I believe she's referring to the "loros" or ceremonial "toga" worn by the emperor and empress. The emperor's version until about the 11th century still had a definite, although stiff, wrap to it, while the empress' often does appear as simply a long rectangle hanging down over the dress. That said, the Lejre miniature looks so much like the typical the apron or "forecloth" (the "tea towel" apron, as it has sometimes been disparaged) in Viking-era women's dress and that it is making me wonder ... could the apron/front cloth have been adopted in imitation of Byzantine fashion? Note that I'm talking here about the front panel suspended from the twin brooches, not the so-called "apron dress" (the "smokkr", aka hangerock, traggerock, hanging dress, harness dress, or pinafore dress).
To test the plausibility of that I need to answer a number of questions:
1. What's the dating of the Lejre miniature?
2. When do the forecloths appear in Scandinavian art? (Migration era? Vendal/Merovingian?)
3. How much contact did the Scandinavians have with Byzantium (directly and/or indirectly) prior to that time?
4. What was the nature of the contact? Is it plausible that Norse women would be motivated to copy an element of Byzantine dress?
5. Could it be that the apron/front cloth was only worn by high status women?
6. Which archeological finds are pointed to in support of the separate forecloth (Bau's theories, IIRC)? Any outside of Birka?