Cut of a Median hood

[Sean Manning]

I’m doing experiments to produce a Median hood/tiara/kybarisia (apparently we aren’t sure what a Mede or Persian would have called one). The final version will be made of fairly heavy linen, but right now I’m experimenting with patterns on cotton. I’m using a two-piece pattern, since it is relatively simple and I have a basic hood of that cut handy.

The neck flap and long cheek flaps are easy to make, but right now I’m trying to figure out how to get the extra space on top without having the hood sink too low. Adding a diadem (knotted headband) helps a lot, but this doesn’t seem to have been worn by everyone. (Knotted in front, it was part of the royal dress which it was treason for anyone else to adopt). So far my two ideas are cutting the top of the cap into a rounded triangle, so that my skull supports it at the front, or giving the hood two layers- an inner one which fits closely to the head, and an outer one which is full in the top and can be folded over. Perhaps some Scythian reenactors have other thoughts?

My main sources are the Darius Mosaic from Pompeii, the Alexander Sarcophagus from Sidon, and some famous gold plaques in the British Museum, although a lot of other pieces of art have proved helpful. The Encyclopaedia Iranica’s article on “Clothingâ€

[Sean Manning]

A crude sketch of the possibilities should be attached to this post. I had to crop and rotate it to get it to fit within image size restrictions, and the scan hasn't been touched up.

[Sean Manning]

Well, I can now confidently say that a two-layer pattern could work: see my Bronze Age Center thread.

[Jona Lendering]

Sean Manning\\n[quote]My main sources are the Darius Mosaic from Pompeii, the Alexander Sarcophagus from Sidon, and some famous gold plaques in the British Museum, although a lot of other pieces of art have proved helpful. The Encyclopaedia Iranica’s article on “Clothingâ€

[Jona Lendering]

A Parthian:


A Sagartian:


Three Saka Tigrakhauda ("point-head Saka"):

[Jona Lendering]

A Sogdian:


A Thracian:

[Paullus Scipio]

Maybe its the material - I seem to recall it was made from felt........

[Jona Lendering]

Or perhaps it was filled with something. The hood itself was used for centuries: this is the Khan of the Tatars on a Renaissance engraving.

Maybe a specialist on medieval dress knows more about Tatar caps, and can help us with earlier hoods.

[Sean Manning]

Thanks Jona. I did use the Persepolis reliefs- I don't know why I missed them in my list of sources. Thanks for the digital images. The Cappadocian is good for showing that the cheek-flaps could be tied back behind the head when not wanted in front of the face. I think one of the Parthenon scupltures shows an Amazon/Scythian doing the same thing.

A stuffed hood is an interesting idea. Maybe that was how the royal tiara was held upright? I would be interested if anyone knows anything about similar forms of dress in other societies. I suspect that the two-layer, four-piece pattern may have been more complicated that the historic version.

Strabo and Herodotus mention Persian felt tiaras:

Herodotus 7.61: First, there were the Persians, dressed as follows. On their heads they wore tiaras, as they call them, which are loose, felt caps, and their bodies were clothed in colourful tunics with sleeves <and breastplates> of iron plate, looking rather like fish-scales. Their legs were covered in trousers, and instead of normal shields they carried pieces of wickerwork. They had quivers hanging under their shields, short spears, large bows, arrows made of cane, and also daggers hanging from their belts down beside their right thighs. (This from the Oxford World's Classics translation by Robin Waterfield, I think).

Strabo, Geography, 3.15.19: They serve in the army and hold commands from twenty to fifty years of age, both as foot-soldiers and as horsemen; and they do not approach a market-place, for they neither sell nor buy. They arm themselves with a rhomboidal wicker-shield; and besides quivers they have swords and knives; and on their heads they wear a tower-like hat; and their breastplates are made of scales of iron. The garb of the commanders consists of three-ply trousers, and of a double tunic, with sleeves, that reaches to the knees, the under garment being white and the upper vari-coloured. In summer they wear a purple or vari-coloured cloak, in winter a vari-coloured one only; and their turbans are similar to those of the Magi; and they wear a deep double shoe. Most of the people wear a double tunic that reaches to the middle of the shin, and a piece of linen cloth round the head; and each man has a bow and sling. Persians dine in an extravagant manner, serving whole animals in great numbers and of various kinds; and their couches, as also their drinking-cups and everything else, are so brilliantly ornamented that they gleam with gold and silver.

Strabo, Geography, 3.15.15 on the Magi: And there, entering daily, they make incantations for about an hour, holding before the fire their bundles of rods and wearing round their heads high turbans of felt, which reach down over their cheeks far enough to cover their lips. (These from Lacus Curtius' online text of the Loeb by H.L. Jones)

[Artabanos]

@Sean Manning

Nice work, I also want to have one of these hoods someday.


The space in the upper part of the hood which hangs down to one side is reserved for as Strabo calls it the tower-like hat, the tiara or even helmets in combat.

The Iranic style of these hoods have also a sun protection layout, it appears that without the head/forehead band around the hood, the frontal part normally covering the forehead went up to protect against the sun. This layout is also visible in the Alexander mosaic (there is an infantry soldier with a red breast armour wearing it in that way). It seems that the upper frontal part had an insert of something elastic/solid in it.
For the amount of space needed for the upper part you must simply imagine a tiara, as seen on the Persepolis relief and even among Persian tribesman today in Iran, fitting in.



I have made an illustration of a Persian horseman with the Iranic hood and a helmet fitted inside it:



In this layout the hood has two cheek flaps on each side, one is joined with the one of the other side at the chin and the other is joined with the one of the chin at the sides. However how these were connected to each other is unknown to me.

[hoplite14gr]

I will strongly agree with you Bahram on the "sun protection".
From personal experience I know that cloth covered metal is more bearble in heat.
And a question. Do you believe that the purple robe you reconstructed here was the reason that Athenian Eplilektoi though that Masistios was unarmored?

Kind regards

[Artabanos]

@hoplite14gr

Yes either it was a kandys coat or a shirt. The main problem is that the breast armour together with the upper arm protection would make a heavy cavalryman like Masistios most likely too big to fit into an ordinary kandys.

I have several solutions to that problem:

1. Masistios had taken off his arm protection at the time his horse was hit because they were shooting their arrows and didn't expect close combat. In this way a kandys could have fitted.

2. He had an extra "combat kandys" for fully armoured fighting.

3. He actually wore a wide shirt over the armour, something that might be displayed on a sarcophageus of a high ranking general.

In my picture he wears the kandys on his shoulders, a large and wide one; this was done for parading it was a noble pose to wear the kandys on the shoulders.


Temprature is a good point additional to this Persians tried to protected their skin against the sun, a hood like seen on that certain soldier in the Alexander mosaic acts somewhat like a baseball cap.

[hoplite14gr]

Thanks Bahram all 3 all plausible.
What is the source of the reconstructed mace please?

Kind regards

[Artabanos]

@hoplite14gr

The mace is the most speculative part in the illustration. I read in an Ospry book about Sasanian cavalry that maces were used by the Achaemenid. The mace is an important weapon in the Indo-Iranian mythology and the cow/ox/bull too. The latter was a popular motive during the Achaemenid dynasty. And here comes the main source into play; the ox headed mace is the usual weapon of the most mythical Iranic heroes which are mentioned in the Shahnameh; the most important mythological and historical work that survived the Islamic conquest (the work itself is from the 11th century A.D. but its sources are lost originals).
It is imo unlikely that the ox-headed mace was just used in the Parthian era on, its roots must be in the Achaemenid era and older for several reasons.

The design of the mace has no model, the ox head is more or less Achaemenid in style and the rest is a typical mace.

[hoplite14gr]

In the "Saroglou collection" in the Greek War Museum there is a horned mace pretty similar to the one you depicted.
There is a catch though. It is undated and I cannot promise a pic.
I will try though.

Kind regards