Elements of Identity to Be Worn: Reconstructing Clothing Culture in the Iron Age Communities of Sicily Through Dress Ornaments
摘要
Evidence for textiles in graves from Sicily is meagre and they are generally preserved through contact with metal artefacts. In contrast, the presence of clothing accessories made from metals or other luxury materials (such as fibulae, pins, bosses, buttons and spirals) points to the use of garments and/or shrouds. Fibulae are the most common accessories in funerary contexts in Iron Age Sicily. They could have been used for both decorative or practical elements of fasten garments and/or shrouds. This paper presents the analysis of dress ornaments from the Monte Finocchito and Fusco necropolises, two main Iron Age cemeteries in eastern Sicily chosen as case studies among indigenous and Greek sites. An attempt to evaluate the function of clothing accessories has been made through the study of their position on bodies, for instance if they were part of the garment of the deceased or part of the shroud and whether they were fasteners or purely ornamental. The analysis of these cemeteries offers the possibility to draw conclusions about the funerary costumes and clothing traditions of their communities.