To translate Bronze Age Aegean Costumes into a Social Language

When two individuals meet, there is a series of events happening silently: perception, judgement, acceptance or denial. The physical appearance as well as the costume is a huge factor for the understanding of another. People wear on themselves the vision they have of the world. What someone choose to wear indicates a bit about himself, about its groups, community, culture... Each layer crystallizes a portion of its thinking and beliefs. To translate a costume demands to confront historical, archaeological, anthropological, sociological, philosophical, psychological viewpoints. Studies of the Bronze Age costumes often follow a typological approach to understand genre mostly, and textile production. Rarely, to not say never, have the costume been studied to comprehend the aesthetics of each group, neither to analyse how the costume was formed and how groups influenced each other in the making of their own costume. To discuss clothing aesthetic is, in a way, aiming to comprehend the social and moral rules of groups. Palatial frescoes as well as burial contexts provide elements that help reconstruct Bronze Age Aegean costumes. What we know of it is sometimes described as a former form of “Haute-Couture”. Indeed, in a period marked by exchange, costumes tend to be more complex as the society hierarchy is more defined. The notion of luxury seems to have appeared during the Bronze Age and tends to show who is benefiting of the political and economic system. Metal goods as well as woollen cloths may express this notion for instance. This paper aim to show how by comparing costumes of different elites in Europe, that archaeology have proved to be in connection, may help the understanding of gender, age and its connection with social roles.