‘Roman society was strongly focused on clothing,’ says Hamelink. ‘People used it to show their status and ideas about male-female roles, for example.’ The Roman conquests brought the northwestern provinces into contact with the Roman lifestyle. ‘However, this did not lead to a large-scale adoption of Roman clothing styles, but mainly to the emergence of new, local fashions.’

The Roman invention of funerary portraits, depicting the deceased, provides unique insight into local fashions. ‘There are not many written sources about the northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire,’ Hamelink explains. ‘And the few that do exist were drawn up by Roman politicians who had often only been there once. Funerary portraits were made by the families themselves and provide a much more realistic picture of what people actually wore.’

258 funerary portraits

Hamelink examined 258 funerary portraits from the Roman provinces of Britannia (modern-day England and Wales), Germania Inferior, and Gallia Belgica, which included a large part of the Netherlands, Belgium and northern France. The portraits date from the conquest of these regions, when funerary art first appeared there, up to the early 4th century AD, when they stopped being made.

The portraits ranged from very detailed life-size ones, which only people with a lot of money would have been able to afford, to much simpler ones. Some are still in their original locations, but most can be found in the exhibition halls and depots of museums.

Togas less popular than previously imagined

In the funerary portraits, people wore Roman clothing, their own local styles, or a mixture of the two: for example, Roman clothing with a local headdress. One striking element was the rarity of the toga. ‘Contrary to what many books say, this most typical Roman garment did not become popular at all in the northwest.’ However, Hamelink did find much evidence showing typical Roman evening costumes, which were worn at dinner and other festive occasions. ‘This Roman cultural custom appears to have been widely accepted, and is very likely related to the adoption of Roman eating habits.’

Gallic clothing the most popular

The clothing trend Hamelink found most often was a local innovation known as Gallic clothing. ‘The evidence that this was worn was overwhelming, by men and women alike, and across all levels of society. This local dress was also combined with Roman accessories, hairstyles and style elements. You can clearly see that people creatively combined Roman trends with local clothing traditions.’

Reconstructions of clothing

Hamelink also made reconstructions of the Gallic clothing employing the type of materials (wool and linen), patterns and colours that would have originally been used. ‘This was important to help us understand how the garments looked and felt and what shape they gave to the body,’ Hamelink explains. ‘This gives us even more insight into how the clothing culture in our regions differed from Roman clothing from the Mediterranean area, and how these two cultures influenced each other within that large empire.’

Mirrors and fans

Hamelink also found the influence of Rome in utensils. 'For example, mirrors have been found in men's and women's graves from the Iron Age in Britain. But on funerary portraits from the Roman period from the same area, we find only women are depicted with them - just as was the custom in the centre of the empire.'

With fans, this was the other way around: 'In the centre of the Roman empire, where the fan came from, it was only used by women. The northwest adopted the fan, but not exclusively for women. I also found it on funerary portraits of men.' Roman ideas about gender, and how to express it with clothing and accessories, were therefore not automatically adopted, suggests Hamelink.

Local innovation

According to Hamelink, these finds show that the Roman world was a very diverse one, where more local innovations took place than is often thought. ‘People did not just follow trends from the centre of the empire. They innovated, combining elements and garments from different traditions in creative and meaningful ways.’

Defence details

Anique Hamelink, ‘Monumentalising identities. Presenting dress, gender and identity in funerary portraits in the Roman north-west’. Supervisors: Prof. E.A. Hemelrijk en Prof. O.J. Hekster (Radboud Universiteit), co-supervisor: Prof. U. Rothe (The Open University)

Time and location

Wednesday, 4 December 2024, 11:00, Aula, Amsterdam