Project Prehistoric Hair

[Siv]

So I started looking into prehistoric hairstyles (because, nerd ) and collected som illustrative pictures that I thought I'd share. I also figured I'd make my own thread even though there are some really good ones on general historical hairstyles as well as specifically on the prehistoric Elling woman braid.

A lot of the prehistoric hair that we know of are from bog bodies (typically people sacrificed to the gods by being drowned in a bog - Danes, I'm looking at you especially!) and they are not the prettiest to look at nor the easiest to actually see what the hair looked like in the pictures of them online. So I looked at said morbid pictures and read the descriptions and found approximative pictures of hairstyles that are similar.

I've looked at bog bodies for northern Europe (~Bronze age) as well as Venus figurines from central Europe (~23 000 BCE). There are definitely depictions of hair from Ancient Greece and Rome that are somewhat contemporary with the younger pictures I've included, but I haven't focused on them simply because I was more interested in the peoples that feature in my own ancestry, i.e. Bronze age northern Europe and Palaeolithic continental Europe. (also some ancient Steppe/Siberian in there but while they had cool tattoos, I didn't find much on hair!)

(Imgur album is here)

From youngest to oldest:



Not dated, bog body from Denmark
51 cm / 20.5 inches long hair
Similar hairstyles are depicted in the Viking era (793-1066 CE) so I'm adding the picture at the top
FOR REFERENCE, what it looks like on me >>>



~ 54 BCE - 128 CE Netherlands
Ca 50 cm or 20 inches long
FOR REFERENCE, what it looks like on me >>>



~ 150 BCE Germany
~ 100 CE Germany
Called a "Suebian knot", described in Roman documents
FOR REFERENCE, what it looks like on me >>>



~ 300 BCE Denmark
Shaved hair, thought to have been shaved as part of a sacrificial ritual



300 BCE Ireland
Shaved forehead, oiled hair, a top knot folded forward in a "fake mohawk" - could it simply have come loose a bit?
FOR REFERENCE, what it looks like on me >>>



~ 350 BCE Denmark
Thought to be a "big chop" at big life events like marriage
Possibly sacrificed to the gods in the bog
One was described as 40 cm long but as you can see they are of varying length. On me (I'm 166cm/5'5") a 40 cm braid would roughly reach from neck to slightly above WL. So my WL hair would probably have a 40 cm long braid.

[Siv]

Loepsie has a great tutorial on this!!: https://youtu.be/G56p539otag
~ 350 -150 BCE Denmark
90 cm long hair (possibly measured from middle part?) on me (166 cm/5'5") it's about classic length

FOR REFERENCE What it looks like on me >>>




~ 1300 BCE Denmark
Hairdo with a hair rat
Description:

"The Skrydstrup woman, though only around 18 years of age, dates to around 1300 BC and had an elaborate hairdo, with the hair pulled forward over a pad (possibly made of her own hair), then tied round the head with thread plaited into the hair. This was then covered in a hairnet made from horse hair. The National Museum of Denmark has created a handy do-it-yourself guide (left)."

Source: https://richlyadorned.wordpress.com/...storic-europe/



~ 1350 BCE Denmark
Described as "page boy haircut"



~ 1370 BCE Denmark
Described as shoulder length (female). Was found with a hair net in the grave.
On me, shoulder length from middle part is 33 cm or 13 inches.



~ 1400 BCE Denmark
Basically milkmaid braid that was secured via hair taping. A leather cord was wrapped around the braids, not braided into them as shown in the picture.
I need about BSL hair or about 50 cm / 20 inches from middle part
FOR REFERENCE, what it looks like on me >>>



~ 3000 BCE Austria/Italy
~ 41 BCE - 128 CE Germany
Shoulder length hair (male)



~ 5000 BCE Bulgaria (left picture)
Not a lot of literature on these ones but I'm seeing: corn rows, short center parted hair, hair cover or curly hair à la the venus figures?



~ 23 000 BCE venus figures of central Europe (the two top rows of pictures)
Several figurines have been found with ambiguously depicted hair around central Europe, e.g. Germany and Slovakia. It's been theorised that they're representing some sort of hair cover, curly hair, or corn rows. Could the hair cover be a hair net like the one depicted in the sketch above (which is from much later in ~1370 BCE)?

[Feral_]

What a fantastic thread! Great links and information.. I too am a nerd for such things. Amazing the preservation qualities of organic matter in bogs. When I worked on an archaeological dig in the southern UK we found leather shoes very well preserved in peat bogs. Makes you wonder how many unearthed bodies there are. Ireland still has peat bogs, so potential for discoveries there, I think all of the UK ones have been dug now.

[Bri-Chan]

Siv thank you for this thread!

[Eastbound&Down]

So fascinating! Thanks for doing all that hard work to share with us!

[baanoo]

I love this! Thank you so much, Siv, for starting it.

[Siv]

Thank you all for taking an interest

And @Feral_ being present at a dig must've been so cool! Consider me jealous!!

[GordonMurphella]

Oh. My. Goodness.

This is easily the coolest thing I've ever seen. Thank you Siv, this just. Cool. Cool cool cool. Thank you for this post!

[Siv]

Thank you @Gordon!

I had another thought if someone has interests in other prehistoric cultures: I think Ancient Egypt existed the BCE-era and I suppose it would count as prehistoric? They're bound to have a bunch of material on their hair like carvings and paintings in graves, mummies, etc. Also China and surrounding areas had mummies in ancient times, as well as loads of other material I'd bet. Just off the top of my head I'd suggest the Terracotta Army which I believe was made in the 200's BCE.

[SelenVinland]

Silvousplaits on YouTube did tutorials for the suebian knot, the ehling woman, the arden woman and a few other bog body hairstyles.

I’m also a bit of a nerd for this stuff, the bog bodies are really interesting just because of how well they’re preserved. Very interesting stuff IMO.