Scyths and Romans and Normans, Oh My!

As some of you may know (or not!) I have a costuming business that keeps me occupied full-time (but on a part-time basis). Crown and Castle Clothing is my baby. The business focuses on meeting the needs of historical recreationists in a variety of time periods. I have undertaken custom work in later period stuff - think Elizabethan - but my real passion lies in bringing out the very best in the Anglo Saxon and Viking ages with a healthy side of Roman and perhaps a dash of Norman. These are not the clothes that most people consider flashy, there is a general lack of bead-encrustation, purpose-built undergarments and so on, but to me they are the most elegant and certainly under-appreciated to a great degree. (If you agree with any of this, please consider joining the C&C fan page on facebook!)

The great thing about this period is the variability and diversity of the fun things: accessories.

Indeed, in considering this week's post, the hat came to mind. And then there were too many hats...so this will be a multi-part series over time. Today, the Phrygian cap.


This classic little number has had the longest run of any hat style that I can think of. It first comes out in western art in the early Roman period, associated with the Scyths. They were a tribal race 'from the east' as the Romans say - which usually meant something like 'we have no clue about these dudes, man can they fight, damn troublemakers'. There are examples of this hat on Trajan's column, in some dashing marbles and the odd fresco. Let me show you.

A bust of Attis, sporting a Phrygian cap likely from the 2nd century CE:
This fresco from San Apollinare in Ravenna (early 6th century) shows the three wise men trekking out with their goods...AND wearing some snazzy phrygian caps.


This same series of frescos aslo shows some splendid details of the Byzantine emperor, empress and their gangs. They are notable for a few reasons. The details are excellent, the clothing is shown in contemporary styles that are born out in other sources and context couldn't possible be better. Amazing resource.
















A slightly different permutation of the cap is shown in the Ostia mosaics, 2nd-3rd century CE.

There are other examples of course, but the short version is: later romans were into this accessory. The hat continued northwards and appears intermittently in germanic tribal contexts. Some discussions consider the phrygian cap to have informed the shape of northern helms, particularly the crested types common in England and Scandinavia in the early viking age. A plate from a Vendel era helm shows a warrior riding into battle wearing such a helm. The formation of the crest is striking when viewed along side a Phrygian cap. ok ok. I'll show you.


See the curved top and almost floppy tip of that crest? I'm not an armouring scholar but I can certainly see how the theory got its start.

Anyway, the point is, this hat persists. In fact, the Normans thought it was the shizzle as well because they also adopted it as a fashion statement.

The nouveau in-charge Plantagenets sent Geoffrey out (literally, this is from his tomb in Le Mans Cathedral - 12th century if you were curious) with his phrygian hatted-best. Indeed, from the Roman period, the hat began to evolve from simply a solid colour to more decorative and varied. Geoff's has some heraldry on it.

In Chartres Cathedral, there is another example from the same period.

I could go on and on showing off this little beauty of a cap. Suffice it to say that if you were a guy (sorry gals, in the Roman-Norman time period this seems to be only a guy thing) and liked being a sharp-dressed man, you had one of these hats on hand to dress up your melon.


In red or white, these hats bring me back to my childhood and my affection for The Smurfs. Of course that also says that classics never go out of style. Indeed, yesterday while tuning in to a little bit of the FIFA cup, I spotted a French supporter in the stands wearing a bright red Phrygian cap...yup, this hat just won't go away.

I'm making a few of these caps for Crown and Castle. If you know a guy who does historical stuff somewhere between 100 - 1200 CE he could sure use one of these hats!

Next week...umm we'll see!