Dress and identity in Kellis, a Roman-Period village in Egypt

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is to determine the relationship between dress and identity in a Roman-Period village in Egypt. The study is divided into two sections, a practical and theoretical component. The practical component involved the examination and cataloguing of a collection of textiles and associated material, dating mainly to the 4th century CE, retrieved from the site of Ismant al-Kharab, ancient Kellis, in Dakhleh Oasis. During my three seasons of fieldwork in the oasis I examined the collection using current standard methods. In particular, I was able to determine the items of dress from which many textile fragments derive, the fibres used, and the techniques employed in textile production. As Kellis was located on the periphery of Egypt and the Roman Empire, I needed to determine whether the dress of the villagers was different to that of the inhabitants of other contemporary settlements in the province. I compared the Kellis material with that from three other settlements, and found that a similar style of dress was made and worn throughout Egypt at that time. The theoretical component focuses on identity. Identity is complex and involves many aspects. The excavations at Ismant al-Kharab have yielded a wealth of documents, including private letters, which provide an insight into the lives of the villagers. I used this material to investigate aspects of identity associated with the residents’ status as citizens of the Roman Empire, the spread of Christianity, and the social, political and economic environment of the village. For this section of the thesis I developed a model, based upon current theories on style and identity, to assist me in determining the relationship between dress and identity in Kellis. I found that by the 4th century the residents of Kellis had, to a large extent, adopted Roman-style dress as a result of their political and cultural allegiance to the Empire. Even though other aspects of their identity were important in the lives of the villagers, this was not reflected in their dress. I concluded that the strength of the relationship differed between dress and the various aspects of identity I used in my model. This is a new study; it expands the preliminary work undertaken on the textiles from Kellis. It complements current research on Roman dress and identity being carried out in Europe; it also complements other studies being carried out under the mandate of the Dakhleh Oasis Project