Bryn Gwlad Baronial Champion...

[Gunnora Hallakarva]

>Heh Gunnora!!!
>
>I am most interested in the clothes the Yuks wore at Big High Muck Thing
>can you point me in a research direction?
>
>Lorraine
>
>(Yes Pug Yuks mostest fun)
>
Heilsa!

The Yuks are a little-known tribe of the Sarmatians, a people closely
related to the Scythians who lived in the Steppes area from very early
(maybe 3000BC or so) until the late Middle Ages.  The Yuks were apparently
the peoples described by Heroditus when he wrote his famous work on the
Scuthians and Sarmations...  most Greek writers hadn't so much as a glimmer
of a clue, for the legends of the Centaurs were spawned by misunderstood
accounts of the Scythians, while the Sarmatians, with their philosophy of
equal rights for women, spawned the legend of the Amazons.

The clothing the Yuks wear can be seen in a number of archaeological
contexts.  Several Scythian finds have revealed detailed portraiture by
skilled Greek gold-smiths that show Scythians in their everyday life, down
to tiny clothing details.  Two excellent examples are a vase-like container
of gold, which has scenes of Scythian men engaged in medicine, dentistry,
archery and arts around the bulge of its middle.  Another is a golden comb
which has depicted in tiny detail two Scythian warriors in combat.  Yet
another find is a massive gold pectoral necklet, which has dozens of tiny
Scythians doing everything from making war to milking goats on it.  

Another great source of Scyuthian and Sarmatian fashion is vbeing revealed
in the modern day as archaeologists exhume gravesites left by these
fascinating peoples:  the graves were cut down below the level of the
permafrost on the steppes, and huge hills (not mounds, more like foothills!)
raised over the graves kept theives away (that and th fact that it took huge
fires to thaw the ground enough to dig into them!).  What we find in these
graves are freeze-dried bodies, with clothing, ornaments, hair and even
tattoos intact!  We have thousands of felted items, skin garments, imported
oriental silks and brocades.

The basic fashion for both Scythiansand and Sarmatians is a jacket that
wraps around, somewhat like a smoking jacket without lapels.  The earliest
version of this garment was pieced together from hides, and the legs were
left dangling at the lower hem almost like dagging.  Cloth and felt jackets
were cut to suggest the hide coats, and as a tresult came to long points in
the front of the jacket.  I understand that Lady Jehanne de Avignon has some
quaint artifacts from the gravesite of one Pamyuk, including detailed
patterns for this coat.   Grave finds frequently show embossed metal plates
affixed to the coats. sometimes thousands of these.  These were nomadic
peoples, and they wore their wealth upon their bodies.

Men and women alike seem to have worn very wide, bloused trousers that were
heavily ornamented.  Women sometimes also (or instead) wore skirts.

Shoes were ankle-high boots laced around the ankle, similar to moccasins.
Some very high-ranking burials have had shoes that had soles heavily beaded
and ornamented, a testimonial to a way of life where one's feet never hit
the ground!  A slipper-like shoe ornamented with small embossed metal plates
was found in one woman's burial.

Perhaps the most distinctivbe element of Scythian and Sarmatian costuming is
the Phrygian cap.  Variants of this cap are widely represented.... they even
had their helmets made with this distinctive peaked profile!  The caps
sometimes had flaps to cover the ears and the back of the neck, since the
winds blow straight down from Siberia in the lands where the Scythians dwelled.

Another important costume element would be the accessories.  Both the
Scythians and Sarmatians were horse-archers, carrying a distinctive recurved
laminate bow.  They also used very ornate cases known as gortytos to carry
their bows, along with their arrows and even a short sword or long knife.
Damaris of Greenhill has a reproduction of a gorytos done by yours truly,
ask her to see it sometime!  The warriors of the tribe (men and women alike)
could also carry long swords, maces, axes and lances.  Women always carried
a polished metal mirror.  Men and women frequently used horsehair tassels to
orament their equipment.

The armor used by the Scythians and Sarmatians was also very distinctive.
They used plaques or bands of metal attached to leather as coats of plates,
kidney belts, vambraces and greaves.  Some wealthy chieftains commissioned
armor in the Greek style from Greek craftsmen as well.  Even their horses
were armored in coats of tiny plates.

There are a number of books that can be very helpful in reseraching the
Scythians and Sarmatians.  The Men-At-Arms series has a very
well-illustrated edition on the Scythians.  Another good reference isthe
catalogue of the Scythian exhibit shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
1975, "From the Lands of the Scythians: Ancient Treasures from the Museums
of the USSR, 3000BC to 100 BC."  There are other books,a nd I have several
that I own... but I must get them back from Jehanne and soon!  For cultural
notes, Heroditus is the best bet, and there are a couple of regular
histories that deal with both the Scythians and Sarmatians.

Enjoy!

::GUNNORA::