Hairstyles and hair ornaments

Not much is known about the beauty rituals, adornment methods, and hairdressing traditions of Arab women in pre-Islamic Arabia before the emergence of the era of Islamic caliphates. The paucity of artworks and archaeological objects referring to women’s coiffures and hairstyling techniques of pre-Islamic Arab women has hindered archeology researchers’ ability to fully interpret the cultural and historical development of the peninsula’s inhabitants.

Unlike the rest of the Arabian Peninsula (except for the Levant and Iraq), sculptural art originating from the south of the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen) is more abundant with artistic representations.

Ancient Yemeni sculptures depicting various female figures (common, noble, priestess, or goddess), particularly falling within the typology of native South Arabian style, show that woman coiffed their hair in many hairstyles. The vast majority of hairstyles on Yemeni sculptures had short hair that reached the shoulder or just below the earlobe. It has an angular shape on both sides and is pulled back, and the bottom is wavy or curly. Some are parted in half, twisted and tied at the back in a bun, and banded with a circlet in the form of a ring. Some female figurines have long, flowing hair that is pulled back and braided into one or two braids.

Since the different regions of Arabia had different trading partners and political allies and were at varying distances from centers of state power, they were exposed to different foreign influences.¹ Naturally, aesthetic ideals and external physical manifestation, whether in attire, hair, jewelry, or cosmetics, would reflect the prevailing influences emanating from the sociopolitical hegemons in the region.

The iconography from various parts of Arabia throughout the Bronze Age to the 1st century CE reflects the diversity in their artistic forms based on which dominant empire/civilization was nearby. East Arabia was greatly affected by Mesopotamian and later by Persian ideas, and Hellenism had an impact in the northeast. South Arabia initially cultivated its own local forms but became progressively more influenced by Hellenistic and Roman art, and North Arabia was, of course, bound to feel the pull of the great empires of the Middle East that often sought to bring it into their orbit. ²

The only source for gauging the contemporary adornment of pre-Islamic Arab women is archeological finds from excavations.

The geographical situation of Arabia, sandwiched between various Asian and Mediterranean civilizations, has converged it into a commercial hub for the exchange of mercantile goods and commodities between these tripartite economic nuclei. The inhabitants of Arabian settlements, especially those residing along the coastal shores of Arabia and on the trade port cities imported objects used in quotation activities like pottery, vessels, cooking wares, utensils, objects for religious rituals, weights, and also toiletries for personal grooming, and Jewelry from civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Levant, Iran (Elam and Bactria) and the Indus Valley (Harappa and Meluhha). Settlements on the eastern coast of Arabia began at least around the Ubaid era (c. 5500–3700 BC) based on excavated Ubaid-period pottery and material objects.

Archeological finds in various ancient Arab kingdoms/city-states/polities erected across the wide territorial bounds of Arabia have unveiled intricately crafted personal adornment tools such as necklaces, earrings, finger rings, bracelets, anklets, combs, pins, mirrors, glass bottles, flasks, and beads. These objects were either physically imported from these regions or made locally but emulated in Mesopotamian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Iranian forms, or sometimes initially created from the previous prototypes and later adapted into local forms.

Hair-styling tools like combs, hair pins, and mirrors were found in burial sites along with deceased female figures, in addition to other personal ornaments like beads, brooches, pendants, jewelry, and jewelry chests as far back as the 2nd millennium BC. Hair ornaments could include intricately carved ivory combs, beads, pendants, amulets, bells, and decorated hairpins.

Archeologists have unearthed a large amount of ivory combs across various excavation sites. Some were tucked behind the back of the skulls of buried women or situated just a few centimeters away, as though it was stuck into the hair that had long since decomposed. A long hairpin used in conjunction with a comb was found in some cases. This indicates that these women were buried with hairpins and combs inserted into their hair or placed beside them when they were laid into their final resting place, presumably to be carried with them in the afterlife.

In two separate excavation sites (Tell Abraq & Dibba Al Hisn) in the UAE, ca. 2000 BCE–200 CE, women were buried with decorated ivory combs in tandem with hairpins situated behind their crania. These combs and the accompanying hairpins bear a unique style of concentric surface decorations, probably imported from Bactria (ancient Iranian civilization), or are a local replica of Bactrian archetypes.

Perhaps the most ubiquitous ornament found in excavations was beads of several materials. Pearls, Carnelian, lapis lazuli, gold, onyx, quartz, silver, copper, soft stone, and alabaster were among the many base materials for beads. These could be strung on a thread or cord to be worn as jewelry or as a forehead ornament, such as a headband, or they could also adorn the hair by inserting them into intricately arranged plaits and tresses.

Several archeological sites during the Middle Bronze Age across the Caucasus, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the ancient Near East have attested to the presence of spiral-shaped rings used as personal adornments, most likely as hair-rings. ⁴ There are many examples of such adornments found in Pharaonic and Sumerian tombs of queens who were buried in graves filled with funerary goods and jewelry. Their heads were crowned with golden headbands and hair wrapped with gold-plated ribbons, and locks of hair were decorated with circular or spiral rings of various materials.

Nine small bells were found at the ed-Dur site in Umm Al-Quwein, UAE, ca. 2000 BCE – 200 CE. Six are very alike and spherical, while the other three bells are rather conical.⁵ Bells fulfilled a variety of utilitarian functions in many Near Eastern cultures. They were worn as protective amulets against evil and a part of jewelry or were sewn on garments. These bells and amulets would’ve been hung on the hair, headdresses, or veils, providing spiritual and cultural expressions. This tradition is still present in several Arab vestments today.

Several hand-held bronze mirrors used for personal grooming were found in various archeological sites across Arabia.

Some ornaments and jewelry buried with deceased figures were made from precious metals and encrusted with gemstones imported from the Indus Valley (Tin and Carnelian), Central Asia (Gold), Afghanistan (Lapis Lazuli), Iran (lead-silver, Gold, and red ochre), and locally within Arabia (soapstone, copper, and obsidian from Yemen).⁶ Pliny the Elder noted that the Arabian Peninsula was particularly renowned for its high-quality pearls.

In Mesopotamian cuneiform sources around 4000 BCE, Magan (ancient Oman and UAE) was the main supplier of copper. Excavations in burial sites in Dilmun (Bahrain) and Failaka (Kuwait) have found copper bracelets and rings made on the peninsula for local consumption.⁷

Exquisitely made golden jewelry buried along with the deceased as part of funerary rituals in graves dating back to the 1st-3rd century CE in Qaryat Al-Faw and Tylos (Bahrain) have been dug up around the period when Hellenistic culture was dominating the region. One earring from Tylos depicts Eros with wings riding a goat, a popular theme in the Hellenistic world. Gold mouth covers and eye covers have been found on deceased bodies, which signifies the prominence of Hellenistic burial traditions in the region.

Excavations from necropolises and burial sites from ancient Bahrain (called Dilmun, from 2300 to 600 BC) and Tylos (from 300 BC to AD 300) have unearthed various objects, including glass bottles, pottery, vases, jewelry, and seals. Ancient Bahrain was the seat of various local civilizations and was an important trading nexus connecting Mesopotamia, Iran, Arabia, and the Indus Valley.

Terracotta figurines and funerary stelae from Tylos between the 1st century BCE and the 2nd century CE reflect an adoration of Hellenistic and Parthian prototypes. There is a figurine of a wailing woman pulling down her hair and clad in a doric chiton that is girt with a belt and has let their hair long in loose waves. Another figurine depicts a woman with an elaborate coiffure, her hair combed in a top bun and a band encircling it. She is wrapped in a large mantle leaving her right shoulder exposed over a tunic.

Another excavation in Thaj, an ancient city in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern region has found a 1st-century CE burial chamber containing the remains of a small girl of the highest social status. She was laid on a funerary bed with metal legs in the form of human figures who all wore Hellenistic dress.

The girl wore a face mask, long gloves, buttons, and a belt all in gold. Her gold necklace was inlaid with pearls, and her earrings included emeralds, rubies, and pearls. The pearls were the product of the oyster beds of the Arabian Gulf, while the emeralds and the rubies were probably brought via the Indian Ocean sea route to the Far East.⁸ She also wore three gold bands on her head and was surrounded by four golden statues and more than 200 gold buttons in different sizes.

Examining funerary reliefs, sculptures, and busts stemming from Northwestern Arabia and the Southwestern Levant (where Arab settlements took place, -i.e Nabateans and Ghassanids), and also wall paintings from Qaryat Al-faw, an ancient oasis city ca. 3rd century BCE and 3rd-4th century CE in the northwest of the Empty Quarter (desert), the Greco-Roman sphere of influence is quite stark. Their dressing manner and coiffures retain Hellenistic elements and evoke the styles of classical antiquity, as many of these regions fell under the sociopolitical influence of the Seleucid and Roman Empires.

Female depictions of Pre-Islamic Arab women (particularly those personifying their goddesses and deities) found in Roman-controlled cities like Palmyra in Syria and Petra in Jordan have coifed their hair after the naturalistic Greco-Roman styles of loose and wavy combed hair and rolled tresses. They are crowned with wreaths, diadems, or mural crowns and robed in tunics, stoles, and large folded Pallas that are drawn over the head as a veil. Some women also don tunics with elaborately ornamented bands around the sleeves and necklines, evoking the styles of the Parthian East. This adoption of Pathian styles is more apparent for men.

Their Jewelry, however, deviates from the typical characteristics of Roman European ornaments and reflects more Western Asian modes. They also incorporate fashions local to the Near East, like knotted cloth bands or faux-turbans combined with ornamented headbands adorning the head. Sometimes, two bejewelled chains adorn each side and are anchored on the apex of the turban.

The artistic expressions and material leavings of the Nabateans show that Nabatean women bedecked themselves with all manners of jewelry from head to toe, very much in line with their modern Arab contemporaries. Different kinds of Nabataean jewelry have been recognized from their cultural remains, such as crowns, earrings, nose rings, necklaces, torques, fibulae, girdles, rings, hand bracelets, armlets, and anklets. ⁹

Well known to the Ancient Romans was the richness of the land in silver and gold that was inhabited by the Nabataeans, as mentioned by the geographer Strabo in the first century AD, and the abundance of these materials allowed for large-scale production of jewelry in a variety of different forms. As a part of their religious beliefs, the Nabataeans would pierce their ears and noses so as to wear certain jewelry that would protect them from sickness, evil and bad luck. ¹⁰

Surviving texts share the names of goldsmiths producing these and contemporary Roman authors mention that the Nabateans were renowned silver- and goldsmiths. Some of these pieces of jewelry share characteristics with jewelry as it is worn in traditional silver jewelry, such as the crescent moon and the ending of bracelets in animal heads. ¹¹

Hairstyle in Parthian-influenced regions:

Arab settlements in Northeastern Arabia and Southeastern Levant areas were drawn closer to the Irano-Parthian sphere of influence. Sculptures and relief carvings from Hatra (2 CE to 241 CE) and Osroene (132 BC to 214 CE), centers of Arab rule by the Nabateans and Abgarids, respectively, show figures clad in Parthian garments and jewelry.

Female figures in Hatra reflect Parthian fashions of long-sleeved under-tunics with a unique ruching on the sleeves, and a belted chiton connected at the shoulders with brooches, bedecked in elaborate earrings, bracelets, collars, chokers, necklaces, and torques. Their characterizing feature is their headdresses. They wear these towering or multi-tiered conical caps with decorative pendants and chains made from connected concave hemispheres (probably inlaid with gemstones) hanging on each side. The cap is topped with a large veil or a mantle, left to drape on the back or drawn at the front sometimes.

The iconographic tradition, such as funerary mosaics and sculptures, which originated from the Kingdom of Osroene, reflects an adoption of Parthian fashions, manifested mainly in men’s attire. Osroene, while ruled by an Arab dynasty, comprised mainly a Syriac-speaking population and others. Women wore long, loose robes with various degrees of ornamentation to the sleeves, along with a long himation or mantle over the large towering headdresses. Their headdresses are conical or cylindrical and are covered with the himation drawn from under one armpit and pinned on the other. They wear various kinds of jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, and brooches. They style their hair in different elaborate coiffures.

At the site of Ayn Jawan (Fig. 9), a T-shaped tomb of cut lime-stone ashlars was opened in the late 1940s by several American oilmen (Bowen 1950). It was obviously a wealthy tomb, as shown by the jewelry found in it (Fig. 10). Furthermore, it lies next to a small settlement of the Seleucid and Parthian periods investigated by the Pea-body Museum team in 1977 (Potts et al. 1978:21; Potts 1984a: Fig. 7). This grave could well represent the tomb of some petty Parthian royalty, for the jewelry found within it can be compared with a number of Parthian pieces from Iran. Nor is this the only excavated tomb in the area containing Parthian material. ¹²

The close-knit and intricate trade routes of the Arabian Peninsula transformed it into an intermediary between various civilizations, bringing myriad sorts of commodities from and to Arabia and facilitating cultural exchanges.

Most likely, the cosmetic traditions and grooming habits of Arab dwellers in various Arab settlements were not uniform in their manner or techniques but were imparted by their contact with whichever grand civilization/s was in the vicinity across the eras. Arab settlements within geographical proximity to Mesopotamia followed Mesopotamian styles of fashion and cosmetics. The same can be applied to Arab settlements in the Northwest peninsula, which were more likely influenced by Romano-Hellenic fashions and adornment manners, or those in the east close to the Parthians and Sassanids of Iran, or Southeast close to the Indus Valley and India.

The geographical location of South Arabia (Oman and Yemen) on the Indian Ocean trade routes made it susceptible to influences from the East in the Indus Valley, Iran, and the North from Ancient Egypt, Greco-Roman, and Mesopotamia.

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