TUNICS · The expression of cultural cross-fertilization in Egyptian clothing of the 7th-10th centuries AD.

The expression of cultural cross-fertilization in Egyptian clothing of the 7th-10th centuries AD.

The TUNICS project is an innovative comparative study of the garments people were wearing in Egypt during the Early-Medieval period. The main focus is on the tunic. In all civilizations, clothing has essentially played a similar role, in which the primary function is to protect the body, but additionally, clothing is used to express the wearers’ identity. TUNICS is the first comprehensive study of clothing from this period in Egypt and aims to provide a systematic overview of an almost entirely unexplored field in Egyptian archaeology. This research is foremost an object-based study of tunics from various settings: several museums as well as and the excavation site of the cemetery of Fag el-Gamus (Fayyum) and the of the military settlement of Hisn al-Bab on the Egyptian-Nubian border. The tunic was the most common garment during the Roman and Byzantine period and still remained so after the Arab conquest in 642 AD. From this period onwards, in addition to the type of tunic which had been worn since the Roman period, a new type of tunic was introduced. The TUNICS project focuses on the reciprocal influences of the old style and the new style. The research conducted in the framework of the TUNICS project has been organised around four objectives. • To produce a detailed analysis of the tunics and tunic fragments from Egypt (7th – 10th centuries AD) from selected museum collections and two excavation sites. • Create a new analytical tool and typology of tunics that will address the differences and similarities between the two main styles of tunics worn in the Early Medieval period and the mutual influences of both styles • Comparative study of the analytical results and empirical research • To develop an open access dataset with the main information on the tunics.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union