From the 6th century the term antes finally disappears from the arena of history. But in the historical descriptions of the Slavs, foreigners actively use the name "ros" or "rus".

In the VI century. in the Middle Dnieper, a powerful union of Slavic tribes developed, part of which was the Ross tribe, whose name is associated with the Ros River, a tributary of the middle Dnieper. The union included the northerners, part of the ancient tribes - glades, and possibly other tribes that geographically greatly expanded the boundaries of the primary tribe of the Ross.

"The Tale of Bygone Years" defines the circle of Slavic tribal unions, in the 7th-8th centuries. became part of Rus': glades, drevlyans, Polochans, Dregovichi, northerners, Volynians, to whom in the 9th century. Novgorodians joined. Each of the annalistic tribes was formed on its own cultural basis. The ethno-cultural basis of the Volynians was the Prague culture and the late culture of Luka-Raikovetska; the basis of the Drevlyans is the culture of burial mounds and partly Luka-Raikovetskaya (the last rule was also based on the streets and Tivertsy); northerners - Roman culture; radimichi - the culture of burial mounds. The most complex was the cultural basis of the glades of the Middle Dnieper. In VI-VIII Art. it included components of three cultures: Prague, Penkovskaya and Kolomyskaya, and later, in the 8th-10th centuries, Luka-Raikovetskaya and Volyntsovskaya.

In fact, in a small area of ​​the Middle Dnieper, all the diverse cultures of the Eastern Slavs converged. And, therefore, it is no coincidence that it was the Kiev region that became not only the center for the formation of intertribal formations, but also the ethnogenetic center of the Ukrainian Slavs and their state - Kievan Rus. predetermined the regionality and multivariance of traditional everyday culture. So, the epicenter of the Russian land was the Middle Dnieper, which, according to natural conditions and fertile lands, was a kind of ecumene for farmers since the Eneolithic, the late tribes of Scythian plowmen ─ the Proto-Slavs, as well as the core of the Slavic forest-steppe zone of the Chernyakhov culture.

Common features of ritual symbolism in different manifestations material culture preserved the tribes that alternated in this territory in different historical conditions. Solar and Lunar symbolism with the ritual magical center of the Great Foremother passed through centuries and millennia, embodied in the images of Trypillia ornaments and anthropomorphic plasticity, in the elements of jewelry of the Bronze Age, in the system of placing jewelry of the Scythian time, in the painting on the ritual vessel of the Chernyakhov culture, in enamel jewelry sets cultures of the Kievan tribes, in brooches and spiral temporal pendants of ants. These traditions were not violated by the new Slavic association of the Ross. All this traditional figurative thinking, compiled over the centuries, was also reflected in clothing, which, at the stage of close relations with Byzantium, gained new features, while maintaining its agricultural traditions and original culture. Considering the main aspects of the attire of the Slavs of the VI-VIII centuries. according to written references, studies of well-known costume experts and archaeological materials, one can find characteristic signs of clothing of this period. Against the backdrop of pan-Slavic integration since the 6th century. the ethnic expressiveness of individual East Slavic tribes becomes more noticeable - Volhynians, Drevlyans, Polyans, Ulichs, Tivertsy, Severyans, Radimichi, Dregovichi, which in a peculiar way affects the formation of clothing. It also consisted of two ethno-cultural coordinates: on the one hand, the all-Slavic basis was born, being realized in the uniformity of clothing and systems of complexes, on the other hand, the ethno-cultural originality of individual tribes was most clearly manifested in the decoration of clothes, in the system of jewelry and in the ways of wearing them. With the main traditional components of the clothing complexes inherent in the East Slavic tribes in general, tribal decorations, the original signs of each individual tribe that was part of the Slavic "Russian" community, added bright aesthetic completeness to the image. By appointment, sets of tribal jewelry performed the same amulet function for all Slavs, and their location was specifically indicated. However, the difference was in the way they were worn and in the forms of the pendants themselves.

In the VI-VII centuries. the majority of the population of the Slavs wore clothes made from home-made fabrics as a product of a closed cycle of subsistence peasant farming.

Every family, regardless of social position women were engaged in spinning and weaving. Over time, wealthy townswomen and women of the feudal elite became passive participants in this process: they only controlled the work of subordinate weavers. In peasant families until the beginning of the 20th century. remained traditional, obligatory for all women, the process of making fabrics. Linen, hemp and wool were used on a horizontal loom "krosna" to produce fabrics of various types of linen, twill and patterned weave.

Linen and linen soft, thin hemp linen were used for the manufacture of underwear, shirts, curtains (armices), pommels, towels, veils and bedspreads. More rigid hemp obscene cloth was used for sewing trousers, some types of outerwear, bags.

Linen and hemp fabrics were used both in folk and feudal life: they were used to sew underwear and used as a lining for an overhead outfit.

In addition to the aforementioned raw materials, the Slavs have long used wool for the manufacture of fabrics, from which they sewed mainly upper shoulder and waist clothing.

From multi-colored yarn, which was dyed with vegetable dyes of local origin, striped spares, checkered plakhts, belts, fabrics for skirts, dresses, raincoats, etc. were woven.

From coarse homespun cloth-sermyaga and felt - the peasants sewed warm outerwear like a retinue. "Both the product of felt and coarse woolen fabric, and cloth production existed in the old Kievan Rus even before the adoption of the cross" (F. Vovk).

Popularity among the feudal elite is acquired by imported silk and thin woolen fabrics, from which rich outfits are made.

If in the VI-VII centuries. silk imported fabrics prevailed, then already at the beginning of the 8th century. the first Byzantine fabrics appear: gold and silver brocade, velvet (loop brocade, M. Fechner).

In the clothes of a commoner, the color of unbleached and bleached linen prevailed, with partial use of red, black and a range of brown-brown-gray shades.

The attire of the townspeople and wealthy nobility was distinguished by polychromy of contrasting colors. To do this, homespun linen and woolen fabrics were dyed with vegetable dyes of local origin in rich reds, blues, greens and yellows. Such fabrics were called "krasina". They were used to sew suites, caftans, dresses, tops, which were decorated with imported fabrics of various textures and ribbons.

The clothing of the Slavs was socially differentiated, it differed only in the number of components and the quality of the material. However, the cut of clothes for peasants, townspeople and feudal lords was the same. The peasants wore linen and hemp shirts, the prosperous ─ made of imported silk or thin soft flats.

For warm, winter clothing, leather and fur were traditionally used. The poor wore sheepskin coats, the feudal elite - expensive outerwear made of beavers, foxes, sables, which were covered with Byzantine carpets on top.

The general name of clothing - "ports" has been known since the time of Prince Oleg (beginning of the 10th century, Oleg's agreement with Byzantium). The Proto-Slavic authenticity of this term should have deeper roots, as well as the types of clothing that independently matured in the depths of the life and culture of farmers. It is possible that all types of predominantly princely clothing (according to references in the annals), sewn from high-quality, bleached homespun fabric, were called "ports" (porta - a piece of fabric). With the intensification of contacts with Byzantium and the appearance of silk and gold-woven carpets, some forms of clothing were modified. The feudal-princely elite is gradually abandoning "unfashionable" homespun fabrics. Perhaps then, in the clothes of the Slavic nobility, the very term "ports", which from the 10th-11th centuries. partially modified by the Byzantine word "chasuble". However, as an archaic name, "ports" survived much longer in peasant clothes. In addition, it denoted some elements of clothing (Russian "ports", "footcloths").

In written sources of the XII century. often simple, poor clothes "rub", "rags" are mentioned, which, according to A. Artsikhovsky, was also the common Slavic name for the complex of clothes of commoners ─ home-made shirts and trousers. The semantics of this word has retained its essence in later definitions. Thus, in Ukraine the word "rag" means "rags" (F. Vovk). In Russia, there is also the expression "dressed in rags", i.e. the last poor man. According to the Old Slavonic concept, the word "rub" meant a piece of cloth (I. Sreznevsky). So, clothes made from "rubs" could also have the identical name "rub". The poor man's clothes torn to tatters in the 19th century. retained the name "rag". Confirmation of the archaism of this word is the name of the Ukrainian iron ─ a rubel, with which peasant women "ironed" finished linens and towels. The Slavic word "shirt" (from "rub") for the definition of underwear of the poor has been preserved in Russia as a common name for this outfit. The word "shirt" (from the Latin "Sagsa", F. Vovk) was borrowed. It was used by the feudal nobility to stand out among the smerds. The shirt has become underwear clothing of the class elite. It was this name that subsequently finally established itself in Ukraine in folk clothes.

shirts

The main type of clothing for all segments of the population of the Slavs were shirts (shirts). According to the studies of ethnographers of the 19th-20th centuries, shirts were different in design. Dopolnye shirts consisted of straight solid panels from the collar to the hem. Such shirts were mainly ceremonial: wedding, festive or posthumous. The shirt "to the point" had two parts: the upper one - "stand, machine, shoulder" and the lower one, the actual "point". There were also shorter shirts, which were worn separately: the "shoulder" and the lower part - the "hem". They were tunic-shaped in cut, sewn from one cloth folded in half. Since it was not wide enough, straight or wedge-shaped sides were sewn on the sides below the armhole.

The sleeves were not wide, straight, often much longer than the arm. They acted as gloves: they protected the hands from the cold. So that the sleeves did not interfere with work, they were picked up, "rolled up", and on holidays they were picked up to the elbow in the assembly and held at the wrist with a bracelet. Such a multifunctional form of sleeves was the result of life experience, an adaptation to the conditions of a harsh climate.

The men's shirt was collarless, with a rounded or rectangular neckline. Sometimes it had a small slit in front and was fastened at the neck with one button, it was called "goloneck". Decorated with embroidery or midges on the neck, cut, sleeves and hem. The men's shirt was shorter than the women's. She only reached her knees. They wore it loose, girdling it with a woven or leather belt with a metal buckle and decorations. The belt was not tightened, which created an overlap of the upper part of the shirt above the waist in the form of a transverse fold. Walking unbelted was considered indecent. Hence the expression "girded" - insolent.

Men's underwear was complemented by narrow trousers with a rectangular groin insert. A spectacle was stretched in the belt and tied in front at the waist. Trousers were tucked into high embroidered socks - leggings, boots or boots, or they were wrapped with footcloths on top and fastened on the leg densely wrapped with straps from pistons, bast shoes or lychaks. The shirt and pants were the main underwear.

Unlike the men's, the women's shirt was longer, to the feet, had the same tunic cut, long sleeves. In addition to practical properties, women's sleeves, loose to the ground (image on silver bracelets of the 12th century), had a magical meaning in the ancient pagan rites of "mermaids". The collar of a women's shirt tightly fitted the neck or tidied up at the neck under the "rurik" filing. The shirt had a small slit in front and was fastened with a button. Around the collar, as well as along the slit on the chest, the shirt was embroidered with predominantly red threads or sheathed with a narrow strip of colored fabric. The shirt was underwear. it was necessarily girded with a thin rope belt-amulet with an indispensable overlap.

Outerwear

Ordinary Slavs over their shirts wore old belt-type clothes like a plakhta, panyova or wrapper, dergi, which was an unsewn rectangular platter that was wrapped around the back of the body. Diverging in front, the board formed a large slit. Panyowa consisted of two or three panels, fastened on a waist strap-ochkura (plakhta with wings; reconstruction by Ya. Prlipko of a woman's outfit based on the materials of the Cherry Grave of the Scythian time). Pannyo-plakht outfits, universal in their simplicity and variability of use, were worn only by women. The symbolic checkered decor of the plakhta corresponded to the ancient Eneolithic signs of fertility (plowed into squares and sown field, Trypillia "rhombus"). Girls who had reached puberty, during initiation, could symbolically put on a plakhta - initiation into virginity. Plakhta, as a symbol of fertility, had to protect the sacred parts of the girl's body, giving them the strength of the future woman's fertility. Back in the 19th century the ritual of putting on pannova young, sometimes just before the wedding, has been preserved (M. Rabinovich).

The presence in one of the burials in the Zhytomyr region of the remains of organic matter of red-violet color near the lower part of the skeleton confirms the fact of a belt outfit such as pannova or skirt. The remnants of the tissue were preserved at the pelvic bones, these were spirally twisted threads, possibly silk (V. Antonovich).

An ancient, mostly girlish clothing was a curtain (armice) - a type of unsewn clothing, fabric boards, thrown over the shoulder, with a rounded hole for the head. On both sides, it was cleaved off or simply girded at the waist with a belt, like a plakhta, the curtain was made shorter than underwear to open the decorative lining of the shirt. The top was also an ancient outerwear - a type of short shirt with wide short sleeves.

The clothes of the townswomen differed from the clothes of the peasant women in the variety and quality of the fabric. The top shirt was made of silk or woolen fabric. The top shirt is mentioned in chronicles as an integral part of a rich costume. In order not to get confused in the names of these two elements of clothing similar in cut (the name of the upper shirt of that time has not been preserved), let us turn to the Old Slavic identifying terminology. "Plat" is a piece of fabric, "platno" is the name of the canvas. So, let's conditionally call the top shirt a "dress" according to the principle: "rub" - "rags", "plats" - "dress", that is, sewn from "plats".

The presence of an upper dress is confirmed by the remnant of organic dust of black, brown or purple flowers in the burials of the Slavs, as well as the location of the buttons on the skeletons (based on the excavations of V. Antonovich in the settlements of the Drevlyans).

Outerwear was sewn from woolen or silk fabric, the collar was sheathed with a silk ribbon woven with gold and silver threads, or a ribbon with Byzantine brocade with a pattern of gold threads on a silk base. On the chest, the clothes had a slit (small bosom), also bordered with a patterned fabric (L. Kud). The collar was fastened at the neck with one or three buttons with belt loops. Buttons-beads could be silver, bronze, carnelian, glass, paste, mostly rounded and pear-shaped.

The upper warm shoulder clothing includes a casing or sheepskin coat, the remains of which V. Antonovich found in two mounds near Minyniv. The collar of this garment was fastened at the neck with a special clasp, which consisted of a silver or bronze ring, a bead and a belt loop (Strizhavka).

In both cases, the remnants of the dress and sheepskin coat show the uniformity of the upper attire: a deaf, non-opening, straight cut, which was worn over the head, fastened at the neck with one or three buttons and necessarily girdled (the remains of woven and belt belts were found by S. Gamchenko in the Zhytomyr burial ground near the villages of Golovko, Yesterday, Grubskoe).

If a sheepskin coat and a dress are types of winter and summer clothing, then the suite, as an intermediate seasonal clothing, logically fits into this series. This allows us to conditionally reduce the upper shoulder clothing into one typological scheme, completing it according to fundamentally constructive solutions.

Outer raincoat clothing

up

Its most common form was the votola, a sleeveless cloak made of thick linen or cloth, which was thrown over the shoulders and chipped off near the neck. "It was the most popular type of raincoat clothing of the Slavs, which was worn by everyone - from the smerd to the prince" (M. Rabinovich). The difference was only in the quality of the fabric and in the materials from which the brooches were made. Wealthy Slavs cut off the cloak with silver brooches, and ordinary people tied it in a knot. Other well-known types of raincoats are bluegrass, kitty (kots), luda. The retinues are mentioned in chronicles of the 11th century, but their ancient origin is not in doubt. There is almost no information about the cut of this type of outerwear. Judging by archaeological excavations, later images and ethnographic studies, suites in the 6th-8th centuries. were not a swinging, but a deaf type of upper outfit, calf-length, tightly fitting the body, sometimes had a turn-down collar and cuffs-zavrashi. They sewed suites from woolen fabrics.

If the dress was worn only by women, then kozhoks, sheepskin coats and retinues were worn by both women and men of all segments of the population, korzno (skut) ─ were popular mainly among the princely environment.

The presence of cloaks in burials is evidenced by the remains of painted earth and the location of fasteners almost always in one place: just below the shoulder or in the middle of the chest. Raincoats were knee-length (S. Gamchenko).

Headwear and hairstyles

The headdresses of men were hoods and hats made of wool or fur. To maintain their shape, they were let down or leaned on birch bark (birch bark).

The headdresses of Slavic women were very diverse, as evidenced by materials from archaeological excavations and ethnographic studies of Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian folk costumes. It was the set of ornaments, the shape and decoration of headdresses and the color scheme of clothes that distinguished individual tribal groups of the 6th-8th centuries.

D. Zelenin, A. Artsikhovsky, Yu. Saburova, M. Rabinovich, G. Maslova, B. Rybakov and others dealt with the problem of reconstructing the headdresses of the Slavs. Scientists have identified three types of headgear: towel (ubrus, basting), kikopodibni (horned) and hard "kokoshniks" (korun). According to the complexity of the designs of the species, there were combined headdresses, where korunas or kicks were combined with ubrus or ubrus with soft hats-caps (L. Chizhikova).

Girls' headdresses provided for an open nape surrounded by a crown, Crowns were metal, made only of twisted wire (Gochivsky mounds), or covered with woolen cloth in the form of a roller, or it was a leather strap with rings strung on the head (Zhytomyr burial ground).

Out of the need to maintain loose hair, typical Slavic girlish headdresses arose: various bandages made of fabrics, silk ribbons, and ribbons. The remains of birch bark (burials in Volhynia) in combination with woolen fabric confirm the presence of a hard headdress - a crown (crown). Silver rings, gilded glass beads are sewn on its outer side, in the middle - one large carnelian bead.

Often, the front part of the koruna was made high and especially magnificently decorated with Byzantine silk or gold-woven fabrics. Girlish headdresses were complemented with temporal pendants. Hair was decorated with numerous beads, bells, silver and bronze rings of different diameters and ribbons. A variety of temporal rings and pendants were purely Slavic decorations, which were not only attached to the crown, but also woven into the hair at the temples. To do this, the hair was combed in a straight parting, small braids were woven from the temples, into which the rings were advanced. These pigtails were woven into braids or picked up from behind, hiding under the crown. In addition to temporal braids, interesting details of the hairstyle were recorded: the hair was taught in the form of a loop in front of the ear down from the temple, protecting the skin of the face when wearing large metal temporal rings (M. Saburova). A similar hairstyle "in connection" at the beginning of the XIX century. on the Right Bank of the Dnieper, F. Vovk described: perpendicular to the straight parting, another one was made, on the crown of the head. The front strands were combed on the sides of the head and laid out in the form of loops - fleece, the ends of which were laid behind the ears under the braids.

In this hairstyle, the traditions of wearing temporal rings are preserved. There were also more complex combinations of weaving temporal decorations on both sides of the head. Two, three or more rings of different diameters were strung on the hair or clung to the hair loops so that the rings hung down with shiny openwork tassels.

In addition to temporal rings, Slavic women wore earrings that were worn in their ears or strung several pieces on a leather strap and attached to the headman (L. Kud).

For the same purpose, they used earphones in the form of small circles made of thin colored leather, by appointment and symbolic content are associated with Antsky silver "ears" from the treasures of Maly Rzhavets and Martynovka. Along the edges of the soft ears there were holes for hanging earrings, called earmuffs or earmuffs. Attached "ears" with hooks to the crown or crown.

Women's headdress was formed on the basis of ancient pagan beliefs and rituals, which obligated women to carefully hide their hair - the hidden, magical power of a woman. Hiding their hair, women did not have the right to braid it. The hair was twisted and laid under the "crown" - "crown" (this was observed in the 19th century in the Ryazan province.).

According to the traditional scheme, the headdress of a married woman consisted of an occipital part (an ochelya) that covered the neck, and a parietal part, on which they necessarily threw a veil or put on a soft figured "horned" hat or warrior.

The remains of such headdresses, called "occipital" caps, were found by V. Antonovich and S. Gamchenko during excavations in the territory of the settlement of the Drevlyans. The shapes and proportions of this type of dress can be traced in the clay images of female heads found in the territories of Kyiv (Castle Hill) and Pereyaslav. Carefully styled hair did not need the decorations used by the girls. All the symbolic family amulets signs of a woman were externally attached only to a headdress. Temporal rings were attached to the ears or temples, as seen in clay paintings. This corresponds to the second type of classification by M. Saburova - the wearing of jewelry by married women.

The headdresses of the Slavs can be divided into hard ones - corunas, crowns and soft ones - ubrus, basting, povoinik, various "horned" hats, ochipka caps.

A soft cap-ochipok was put on the hair and tightly tied at the back of the head with ties. A povoinik, made of light fabric and decorated with silk or gold "brow" and "back cover", could be worn at home without additional covers. Noble women wore a hair warrior in the form of a braided frame made of gold or silver threads. Over the hair they wore an ubrus - a towel scarf made of white or purple linen or silk, which was draped around the head, covering the chin. Sometimes "horned" hats were put on the ubrus.

Decorations

The main feature of the Slavs of the 7th-8th centuries. there were tribal decorations that preserve the traditions of individual tribes, which at that time were part of the tribal association of the Ross-great-power group.

Glade- an ancient definition of the Dnieper Slavs, the most numerous of all the tribes that occupied the Middle Dnieper. In the annals, the glades are called a wise and "intelligent people", which, obviously, could play a leading role among the East Slavic tribes.

Temporal decorations are mainly represented by cricoid and S-shaped pendants. There are single tributary rings (Kyiv, Pereyaslavl, Chernigov), an earring with a pendant in the form of a bunch of grapes (Kiev necropolis). They wore one or two temporal rings. In the burials, up to five to seven rings were found, strung on a headband of woven tape or on leather straps. Neck jewelry was made from a necklace. The most common were multi-colored (yellow, green, blue) glass beads, as well as gilded, carnelian, small metal beads covered with grain. During the excavations of the Polyansky burial mounds, small pear-shaped and biconical molded buttons occur. Both in women's and men's clothing, they could be sewn on a lace ribbon, which was attached to the collars. The chest ornaments include pendants in the form of a moon, bells and crosses, which were strung on neck ornaments. Glade decorations, like their outfits, were distinguished by simplicity and elegance.

Volynians, tribal groups of the forest zone of the Dnieper Right Bank, previously had a second name - Buzhan. The characteristic temporal adornments of women were ring-shaped rings with a diameter of 1.5 to 3.5 cm, made of thin bronze or silver wire, the ends of which closed or partially intersected. In quantity - from 1 to 8, and sometimes up to 16 - they are far superior to similar decorations of glades. Volhynians sewed ring-shaped temporal rings on a headdress (V, Antonovich) or woven into braids, sometimes there are S-like temporal pendants, which were mainly common among Western Slavs. In the burial mounds of the Volynians, there are also temporal rings with loose beads, characteristic of all Slavic tribes. They consist of a wire ring with one glass bead of different color or pasty brown with white wavy lines.

A temporal ring with a small silver bead was found in one of the kurgans of the Sourozh burial ground. There are also multi-beaded temporal rings (from 3 to 5) - silver fine-grained or openwork, as well as earrings with cluster-shaped pendants.

Beads in the burial mounds of the Volynians are not numerous. The threads consist, as a rule, of a small number of beads, from which metal round pendants or crescents were rarely hung. Single metal, carnelian, amber or crystal beads were added to multi-colored glass, paste or beaded necklaces. There are gilded or silver-plated beads of a cylindrical shape, an oval-shaped silver necklace with convex sides, decorated with fine grains. Volynyan women, obviously, almost never wore bracelets. only two were found.

However, simple wire rings were quite common ─ smooth, twisted or lamellar.

Bronze and iron buckles, belt rings for hanging personal belongings, horseshoe-shaped clasps, bronze, iron, bone and wooden buttons were found in female and male burials.

Drevlyans. The eastern neighbors of the Volynians were the Drevlyans, who also belonged to the right-bank Slavs. They occupied the forest zone in the northwest direction from Kyiv. It was a fairly powerful tribal union with its prince. Although the chronicler reports that the Drevlyans live like animals in the forests, this was not true. Having a developed tribal system of government, where the elders ruled the land, the Drevlyansk princes took care of the well-being of their land. The Drevlyans were worthy rivals of the glades.

The composition of the Drevlyansk tribal jewelry included ring-shaped temporal rings with closed ends or pivtor werewolves, as well as rings with S-like ends. There are pendants with beads of the Volynian type. Neck ornaments consist of glass gilded cylindrical and barrel-shaped beads, which also have pendants. White, yellow, red paste beads are more common, less often - blue and yellow glass beads, carnelian beads of various geometric shapes. In barrows near Zhytomyr, silver bladed beads decorated with granulation and filigree, as well as beads in the form of rosettes, were found. Moonlights, bells, sea shells, and possibly amulets were hung from the necklace. Women wore simple wired or twisted lamellar rings, similar to Volynian ones.

So, common for Polyans, Drevlyans and Volynians - the tribes of the Right-Bank Ukraine - were ring- and S-terminal temporal pendants, polychrome neck jewelry. their simplicity and conciseness harmoniously complemented the entire silhouette of the dress.

northerners- tribes that are still in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. occupied the northeastern territory of the Left Bank of the middle Dnieper. The most characteristic ethnic feature of these tribes were spiral temporal rings. This archaic symbolism existed for several centuries: from VI to IX. The composition of the female headdress included from two to four pendants on each side. According to materials from the barrows of Brovarka (Poltava region), a woman's head was decorated with a silver lamellar crown with small pendants above her forehead.

On both sides above the temples, several spiral rings were hung from the crown. In addition, the left temple had a long wire pendant with bells (National Museum of the History of Ukraine).

In addition, women decorated their headdresses and hair with ring-shaped closed temporal rings - a common Slavic type of jewelry. Three beaded temporal rings were found in the Gochivsky barrows. In addition to lamellar ones, Northern women wore thin twisted crowns, which were also decorated with plentiful temporal compositions of spiral and ring-shaped pendants with a significant amount of noise ornaments - bells.

Neck ornaments were made from yellow, blue and greenish glass beads or from a gilded necklace.

Lunnits, bells, rounded openwork pendants, crosses, and coins were hung from the beads. Torques with shields belong to the typically northern ornaments. In the Gochivsky and Golubovsky mounds, torcs with rosettes at the ends were found, which are very rare. Bracelets, rings and belt buckles are also rare finds in Severyansk barrows. A characteristic feature of the decor of Severyansk women's clothes was bells, which were often sewn onto clothes instead of buttons or attached to necklaces and headdresses. They were made of bronze with an admixture of tin, so they had a different color - from silver to yellow. Cast bells were lumpy and pear-shaped with a slot at the bottom and ears at the top, with an iron or bronze ball inside. About 70 bells were found in one of the graves of the Saltovsky burial ground. Along with beads and bells, small mirrors (5 - 9 cm) were found. they were worn on straps or chains threaded through a hole in the belt or simply on the chest. Mirrors without ears were stored in a leather case.

In the Saltovskoye burial, many ornamented plates were found, which were used to decorate clothes, as well as buckles from belts and shoes.

Shoes

The most common types of footwear of the Slavs were traditional postols, lychaks (bast shoes), pistons, shoes (chereviks), boots (chebots).

Lychaks or lychinnitsy, weaved from tree bark - bast, bast. They have been common among the Eastern Slavs and their neighbors since the early Iron Age. On the territory of Ukraine, lychaks were worn mainly by peasants. The townspeople wore shoes woven from bast mixed with leather straps, and sometimes completely woven from leather straps. Such leather bast shoes could be decorated with small metal plates (Saltovsky burial ground). The plates were found mainly on the legs of skeletons and, possibly, were hung from the straps of sandals or shoes. The plates were fixed with pins or sewn, and very thickly. Finds of shoe fragments suggest that it looked like light sandals, sewn from a piece of soft leather, which were intertwined with straps stuffed with metal plates.

The simple leather shoes of the Slavs were pistons (wrinkles, wrinkles), made from a rectangular or oval piece of leather and assembled on a leather rope.

The pistons were decorated with embroideries (a sample of a piston with embroidery in the bow is kept in the National Museum of the History of Ukraine), as was done by the Western Slavic Slavs.

In addition, the northern Slavs had "openwork" pistons, decorated in the bow with fir-tree-like slots. Shoes of this type were also characteristic of the entire East Slavic population (images on a bone diptych of the 4th century).

Pistons and bast shoes were put on footcloths or sewn trousers, wrapped with leather straps around the leg in several turns or crosswise.

Shoes (Chereviks) were worn by townspeople and wealthy peasants. The remains of such shoes were found during excavations in Volhynia. The laces were made of thin leather, made up in two layers. They looked like low, ankle-length, semi-boots with wide lapels. In front, the boots ended with sharp or rounded toes (V. Antonovich) and were tightened at the ankle with twine, for which vertical cuts were made.

The feudal elite wore boots (chabots). This name is found in chronicles from the 10th century. Old Russian chobots were knee-high, had a soft sole, sewn from several layers of leather, a pointed or blunt nose.

Chereviks and chobots were decorated with embroidery with red or yellow threads (Zhytomyr burial ground, S. Gamchenko).

conclusions

Summing up the characteristics of the clothes of the Slavs of the 6th-8th centuries, we have reason to talk about the final approval of the main forms and components of the clothes of the population of the territory of Ukraine on the eve of the adoption of Christianity. The consolidation of the ancient Slavic tribes contributed to the cultural development of the multi-ethnic population, the formation of a common basis for spiritual and material culture. This was most clearly manifested in the field of culture attire, in the creation of common Slavic signs of clothing, which remained ethnographically diverse, with characteristic regional features. Such syncretism of the clothes of the ancient Russian population is a natural phenomenon. After all, it is primarily a component of traditional everyday culture and is based on a system of traditions. And they go back to the times of the Trypillia, Porubynets, Chernyakhov and Kyiv cultures, the times of the existence of the East Slavic tribes. Naturally, the outfit embodies the best achievements of the material and spiritual culture of many generations, their aesthetic ideals, artistic tastes, ethical norms and national character.

Therefore, clothing has always been a real work of art, an indicator of artistic taste and high skill.

How do we know how our distant ancestors dressed up a thousand years ago, what they wore in winter and summer, on weekdays, on holidays and sad days? Of course, many questions are answered primarily by archeology. Especially useful for the study of ancient clothes were male, female, and children's burials, many hundreds of which were discovered and studied by scientists throughout the territory of the settlement of the ancient Slavs.

The funeral custom of our ancestors demanded that a person be sent on his last journey in rich, comfortable and beautiful attire, and for women and girls it was, as a rule, a wedding dress. Why this is so is explained in the chapters "Wedding" and "Star Bridge". Metal, semi-precious, glass elements of such outfits - buckles, beads, buttons - fell into the ground more or less intact even if the body was set on fire. But, fortunately for modern science, a funeral pyre was not always arranged, and in many graves real sets of amulets, jewelry and all kinds of “haberdashery” were preserved. By the way they are located on the bones of ancient skeletons, scientists draw conclusions about ancient costumes. For example, about typesetting men's belts or women's headdresses studded with beads. If we summarize the data of excavations in different parts of the Slavic lands, we can start talking about various types ornaments characteristic of the inhabitants of certain places. In particular, this made it possible to clarify the boundaries of the settlement of individual tribes known from the annals.

In some places, archaeologists' luck is aided by unusual natural conditions, such as the high humidity of clay soil. Such soil preserves not only wood and metal, but even short-lived organic materials such as leather and fabric. So, at excavations in Staraya Ladoga, Pskov, Novgorod and in a number of other regions, scraps of clothing and almost complete shoes are often found. And not necessarily in the burials - these things were once demolished and thrown away, or simply lost. The dense, moist soil did not allow the oxygen of the air to reach them, and they did not rot to the ground, as they should have been for more than a thousand years. Of course, from lying in the ground for a long time, shoes turn into shapeless lumps, and the fabric, at best, becomes dark brown. Special processing is needed so that the precious shreds do not die when they are taken out. However, over time, almost the same shoe or boot turns out to be in the hands of scientists, and modern technology helps to find out what threads the matter was woven from and what dye particles remained on it.

Women's headdress and beads. From the mound near Brovarka (near Poltava)

There are also methods to establish the "age" of the find - sometimes with an accuracy of several years.

And yet it would be very difficult, almost impossible, to assemble a whole costume from scraps of half-decayed fabric, if it were not for images that have happily survived to this day or have been resurrected under the hands of restorers on the frescoes of ancient cathedrals, on miniatures of manuscripts, in stone and wood pagan and Christian sacred statues. Of course, their creators captured, first of all, noble people of their era or even mythological characters, moreover, drawings and sculptures are often very schematic. Nevertheless, this opportunity to see the past is difficult to overestimate.

A similar chance is given to us by literary monuments, for example, the writings of Byzantine chroniclers and Arab travelers who visited the ancient Slavs. Descriptions of clothes have also been preserved in our chronicles. In any case, the language of ancient books and birch bark letters found during excavations allows us to judge what exactly was called a “korzn”, what was called “gash”, and what was called a “sarafan”.

And finally, one should not neglect the information that a folk costume can give, which in some places migrated from a grandmother’s chest to museum windows, and in some places (in the Russian North) worn on holidays to this day. It is clear that reasonable prudence is needed here, because over the centuries the folk costume, although slowly, has changed.

Kokoshnik from Kargopol. 19th - early 20th century

Nevertheless, when they began to restore the female headdress of the 6th century from the land of the ancient glades, it turned out to be surprisingly similar to the kokoshnik that was worn in Kargopol just a hundred years ago!

"They are greeted by clothes ..."

This well-known proverb came to us from the depths of centuries. A thousand years ago, it was enough for our ancestors to look at the clothes of a stranger once in order to understand what locality he is from, what kind of tribe he belongs to, what his social status and “civil status” are - whether he is an adult or not, whether he was married, and so on. . Such a "visiting card" made it possible to immediately decide how to behave with a stranger and what to expect from him. We note, by the way, that a person who, without extreme necessity, dressed in clothes that did not correspond to his dignity and gender, was expected at best to be condemned, if not punished. Older people remember what disputes were already in our “enlightened” time because of women's trousers, but not everyone understands how deep antiquity the roots of this dispute go. A thousand years ago, this was permissible except to save a life - one's own or someone else's. For example, in Scandinavia during the Viking times, a wife could easily divorce her husband if he put on at least something that belonged to women's attire ...

And today, “talking” details of clothing and even entire types of costumes that can only be worn by a member of a certain sex and age or social group have been preserved in our everyday life. This is discussed in the chapter "Boundaries in Time". Like everything in the world, "talking" clothes are born and die. For example, not so long ago, school uniforms ceased to be mandatory. If you want - sit in jeans in class, if you want - in a leather skirt, the teacher does not care about this, as long as they listen. When the author of these lines was at school, it was unthinkable to come to class in anything other than a strict gray suit, moreover, from a certain material (for boys), or a brown dress with an apron (for girls). But after the lessons, who dressed as they wanted. But my grandmother perfectly remembered how they, schoolgirls, were forced everywhere - both to the theater and for a walk - to go ONLY in a uniform. Moreover, the color of the dress changed depending on which class the student went to!

Is it necessary to prove how much richer such signs were in the ancient attire?

Clothes, chasuble, ports...

What did the ancient Slavs call "clothes in general"?

When we say “clothes” now, it sounds like vernacular, almost like jargon. In the Dictionary of the Russian Language by S. I. Ozhegov, this word is marked “colloquial.” - "conversational". Nevertheless, scientists write that in Ancient Rus' it was “clothes” that was used much more often and more widely than the term “clothes” that was familiar to us at the same time. Who knows, maybe it was him, and not the “clothing”, that our ancestors would have provided with the note “colloquial”?

Shoes - skin from the hind legs of a bear

The word “robe”, which has a certain solemn meaning for us, was also often used by the ancient Slavs in the meaning of “clothes in general”. Indeed, let's listen: "attire" - "that which dresses." A close variant was also used - “dressing”.

And here is another modern vernacular - "trousers". In ancient times, it was pronounced differently - "ports". It is related to the verb "smack", that is, in Old Russian "cut" (recall the related word "ripped"). "Ports" were used both in the meaning of "clothing in general" and in the meaning of "cut, piece of fabric, canvas." Linguists also noted another meaning - "skin from the hind legs of an animal." Is there an echo of those ancient times, when, imitating the mythical animal ancestor, people tried to cut shoes from the skin of animal feet, and hats from the skin from the head? Until they turned into "trousers" - however, without that colloquial connotation that this word has in Russian now. And the ancient meaning - "clothing in general" - has been preserved for us in the word "tailor", or "tailor swedish", as they used to say in the old days.

"Riza" - the clothes of the prince and the vestments of the clergyman. Prince from the icon "Boris and Gleb" (XIV century) and Archbishop Efimy of Novgorod from a carved wooden figure taken from the lid of the shrine. (XVI century)

And what do we imagine when we hear the word "robe"? Of course, the vestments of the priest, worn for worship. Some scientists believe that this word came to us along with Christianity from Byzantium and always meant only ritual attire, as well as the rich clothes of princes and boyars. Others, on the contrary, consider it to be primordially Slavic, note its relationship with the verb “to cut” and argue that it was “robes” in Ancient Rus' that was the most common term for “clothing in general” ... Who is right?

Baby clothes

Clothing was never for ancient people just "a set of objects that cover, envelop the body," as can be read on the pages of a modern dictionary. She meant so much more to them! Our distant ancestors would rather agree with the current psychics, who say that the human biofield is “absorbed” into clothes and lingers on it. Therefore, they sometimes manage to find a missing person by holding some of his clothes (or some personal item) in their hands. They remain in some way connected with their master, wherever he may be. But isn’t the popular belief akin to these views that an evil sorcerer can cause damage to a single thread pulled out of clothing?

The little prince is dressed in the same way as his father. Drawing from a portrait of the family of Prince Svyatoslav. "Svyatoslav Izbornik". 11th century

Now it is easy to understand why the very first diaper for a newborn was most often the shirt of the father (boy) or mother (girl). In the chapter "Growing up" it was already mentioned that in the future they tried to cut children's clothes not from newly woven linen, but from the old clothes of their parents. They did this not out of stinginess, not out of poverty, and not even because the soft, washed material does not irritate the baby's delicate skin. The whole secret is in the sacred power, or, in the present, in the biofield of the parents, capable of overshadowing the fragile little man, protect from damage and the evil eye.

Baby clothes. 19th - early 20th century

Children's clothing of the ancient Slavs was the same for girls and boys and consisted of one long, to the heel, linen shirt. Children received the right to "adult" clothes only after the rites of initiation (for more details, see the chapter "Growing up").

Such a tradition was kept for an exceptionally long time in the Slavic environment, especially in the countryside, which was little subject to fashion trends. Over the centuries, the ancient ritual of transition from the category of "children" to the category of "youth" was lost, many of its elements became part of the wedding ceremony. So, back in the 19th (!) century in some regions of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, quite adult boys and girls sometimes wore children's clothes before their wedding - a shirt grabbed by a belt. In a number of other places, the child's clothing was an ordinary peasant costume, only in miniature.

Bell pendants

Loving mothers have always tried to decorate children's clothes. Scientists do not yet have exact data, but one should think that the collar, sleeves and hem of the shirt were covered with rich embroidery. This is all the more likely that embroidery (as, indeed, everything that is now called “decorations”) had a protective meaning in ancient times. We will talk about embroidery later, but metal jewelry, which, as we will see, was so rich in the “adult” girl’s and women’s outfit, was not found in the girls’ graves. Archaeologists have found only strings of beads, thin wire rings that were woven into hair, and bell pendants made of copper or bronze, rarely silver. Most often they were worn at the waist, sometimes several pieces on the left and right, hanging on a long thread, cord or strap in such a way that a ringing was heard with every movement. To a modern person it will seem that it was fun, a kind of rattle, or maybe an additional way to look after a child. Everything is so, but for ancient people, the bell was primarily one of the emblems of the God of Thunder, the ringing of the pendant was supposed to scare away all evil spirits ...

This is how the children of the Slavic common people dressed. In the higher social strata, customs were somewhat different. And it's not even that the boyar children were dressed up richer than the peasant ones. In a miniature from a book of the 11th century, the little prince is dressed exactly like an adult, except perhaps without some signs of princely dignity. It should be assumed that initiation rites were performed over the “princes” much earlier than over the children of the common people. After all, in the event of the death of his father, the son, despite his infancy, had to take the princely table. But what if the artist, working on a formal portrait of the Grand Duke's family, decided to depict the future ruler, and not just a child, and did not consider it possible to draw him in the clothes of an uninitiated? Hard to say.

The most ancient, most beloved and widespread underwear of the ancient Slavs was a shirt. Linguists write that its name comes from the root "rub" - "a piece, cut, piece of fabric" - and is related to the word "hack", which once also had the meaning of "cut". One must think that the history of the Slavic shirt really began in the mists of time with a simple piece of fabric, folded in half, provided with a hole for the head and fastened with a belt. Then the back and front began to be sewn together, sleeves were added. Scientists call this cut "tunic" and claim that it was approximately the same for all segments of the population, only the material and the nature of the decoration changed. Ordinary people wore mainly shirts made of linen, for the winter they were sometimes sewn from "tsatra" - goat down fabric. Rich, noble people could afford shirts made of imported silk, and not later than the 13th century, cotton fabric also began to arrive from Asia. As already mentioned (see the section "Weaving"), in Rus' it was called "zenden".

Women's shirt. Voronezh province. Late XIX century

Another name for the shirt in Russian was “shirt”, “shirt”, “srachica”. It is a very old word, related to the Old Norse "serk" and the Anglo-Saxon "sjork" through common Indo-European roots. Some researchers see the difference between a shirt and a shirt. A long shirt, they write, was made of a coarser and thicker material, while a short and light shirt was made of a thinner and softer one. So gradually it turned into underwear itself (“shirt”, “case”), and the upper shirt began to be called “koshuly”, “top”. But this also happened later, in the thirteenth century.

Men's shirt. Tver province. Late 19th century

The men's shirt of the ancient Slavs was about knee-length. She was always girdled, while pulling, so that it turned out to be something like a bag for the necessary items. Scientists write that the shirts of the townspeople were somewhat shorter than the peasant ones. Women's shirts were usually cut to the floor (according to some authors, this is where the "hem" comes from). They were also necessarily girded, while the lower edge most often turned out to be in the middle of the calf. Sometimes, during work, shirts were pulled up to the knee.

Separately about the gate ...

The shirt, directly adjacent to the body, was sewn with endless magical precautions, because it had to not only warm, but also drive away the forces of evil, and keep the soul in the body. So, when the collar was cut, the cut-out flap was certainly dragged inside the future attire: the movement “inside” meant the preservation, accumulation of vitality, “outside” - the cost, loss. This latter was tried in every possible way to avoid, so as not to bring trouble on a person.

A girl in a shirt - a top with a "necklace". Moscow. 17th century

According to the ancients, one way or another, it was necessary to “secure” all the necessary holes that were in ready-made clothes: the collar, hem, sleeves. The embroidery, containing all kinds of sacred images, served as a talisman here. magic symbols. The pagan meaning of folk embroideries can be traced very well from the most ancient samples to quite modern works; it is not for nothing that scientists consider embroidery an important source in the study of ancient religion. This topic is truly immense, a huge number of scientific works are devoted to it.

Bronze and copper buttons, as well as metal necklaces with rich decorations and coin pendants. IX–XIII centuries

Slavic shirts did not have turn-down collars. Sometimes it is possible to restore something similar to a modern "rack". Most often, the incision at the collar was made straight - in the middle of the chest, but it was also oblique, on the right or left.

Types of embroidery with pagan symbols. 10th–19th centuries

They fastened the collar with a button. Buttons in archaeological finds are dominated by bronze and copper, but the researchers believe that the metal is simply better preserved in the ground. In life, probably more common were made from simple improvised materials - bones and wood.

A shirt with a straight collar slit, a kosovorotka and a detail - the side of the shirt with a gusset. Cut reconstruction

It is easy to guess that the collar was a particularly "magically important" piece of clothing - after all, it was through it that the soul flew out in case of death. Wanting to prevent this if possible, the collar was so abundantly equipped with protective embroidery (sometimes containing - of course, for those who were able to afford it - gold embroidery, pearls and precious stones) that over time it turned into a separate "shoulder" part clothes - "necklace" ("what is worn around the throat") or "mantle". It was sewn, fastened or even put on separately. The chapters “Not just “for beauty”” and “Woman, Cosmos and jewelry” tell in more detail about the protective meaning of jewelry and why, with a little bit of prosperity, people tried to acquire gold and precious stones and did not hide them in a chest, but placed on clothes and on your own body.

…and about the sleeve

The sleeves of the shirts were long and wide, and were seized at the wrist with braid. Note that among the Scandinavians, who wore shirts of a similar style in those days, tying these ribbons was considered a sign of tender attention, almost a declaration of love between a woman and a man ...

1. Types of sleeves for women's shirts. 19th - early 20th century. 2. Silver folding (fastened) bracelet - "hoop", "hoop". XIII century. 3. Images of girls performing a magical dance from bracelets of the 12th and 13th centuries

In festive women's shirts, the ribbons on the sleeves were replaced by folding (buttoned) bracelets - “hoops”, “hoops”. The sleeves of such shirts were much longer than the arm; when loose, they reached the ground. And since among the ancient Slavs all holidays were of a religious nature, elegant clothes were worn not only for beauty - they were also ritual vestments. A bracelet of the 12th century (made, by the way, just for such a holy holiday) has preserved for us the image of a girl performing a magical dance. Long hair her arms are fluttering in the lowered sleeves like swan wings. Scientists think that this is a dance of bird-maidens, bringing fertility to the earth. The southern Slavs call them "forks", among some Western European peoples they turned into "wilis", in ancient Russian mythology mermaids are close to them. Everyone remembers fairy tales about bird girls: the hero happens to steal wonderful outfits from them. And also the tale of the Frog Princess: waving with a folded sleeve plays an important role in it. Indeed, a fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it. In this case, it is an allusion to the ritual women's clothing of pagan times, to clothing for priesthood and witchcraft.

Slavic women wore woven and knitted belts. They almost did not survive in the ground, so archaeologists believed for a very long time that women's clothes were not girdled at all.

But belt belts from the most ancient times were one of the most important symbols of male prestige - women never wore them. Let's not forget that almost every free adult man was potentially a warrior, and it was the belt that was considered almost the main sign of military dignity. In Western Europe, a full-fledged knight was called "belted", the belt was part of the knight's attributes along with spurs. And in Rus' there was an expression "to deprive (deprive) of the belt", which meant "to deprive military rank". It is curious that later it was applied not only to the guilty soldiers, but also to the priests, who were deprived of their dignity.

Belt buckles, fittings (plaques, linings) and tips. 8th–13th centuries

The belt was also called the "girdle" or "loin". A men's leather belt was usually 1.5–2 cm wide, had a metal buckle and a tip, and sometimes it was completely covered with patterned plaques - it was from them that it was possible to restore the structure of the belt. The Slav man had not yet managed to turn into a downtrodden peasant of later times, girded with a wash rope. He was a proud, dignified man, a protector of his family, and his whole appearance, first of all, his belt, had to speak of that.

Belts. 19th - early 20th century

Interestingly, the belt sets of “peaceful” men changed from tribe to tribe: for example, the Vyatichi preferred lyre-shaped buckles. But the belts of professional soldiers - members of the squads - were then almost the same throughout Eastern Europe. Scientists see this as evidence of broad ties between peoples and a certain similarity in the military customs of different tribes, there is even a term - "druzhina culture".

Ceremonial women's dress. From the Nefedyevo burial ground on Volok Slavyansky. The attire combines Slavic and Finnish elements, a knife and amulets are hung on the belt. 12th century

Belts made of wild tur leather were especially famous. They tried to get a strip of leather for such a belt right on the hunt, when the beast had already received a mortal wound, but had not yet expired. One must think that these belts were a decent rarity, the mighty and fearless forest bulls were very dangerous. It is unlikely that we will be mistaken in assuming that military belts were made from tur leather, because hunting for a tour was equated with a duel with an armed enemy, and perhaps the tour dedicated to the God of Thunder was a kind of military “totem”. However, there was a belief that such belts helped women in labor well. By the way, the Goddess giving birth is depicted on the plaques of a belt found together with the antiquities of one of the Finno-Ugric peoples - the neighbors of the Slavs. Scientists believe that this belt had a ritual purpose. However, it should be taken into account that literally all items of military equipment had a ritual meaning; this is discussed in the chapter "Kolchuga". And how the symbols of femininity and courage correlated and echoed are described in many chapters, for example, “Neck hryvnias” and “Women's headdress”.

Both men and women hung a lot of improvised items to their belts: knives in sheaths, armchairs, keys. In Scandinavia, a bunch of keys at the waist was a kind of symbol of the power of a housewife, and a needle case, a small case for needles, seemed an indispensable attribute to Slavic and Finnish women. Was not uncommon and waist bag (pouch) for various little things, it was called "pocket". Historians write that sewing (or fastening) pockets directly to clothes began much later. And now, waist bags-pockets, comfortable and invisible under outerwear, have returned to our everyday life.

... When the deceased was buried, the belt was usually unfastened so as not to prevent the soul from finally leaving the body and going on an afterlife journey. If you do not do this, the dead, it was believed, did not find peace and could, what good, get into the habit of getting up at night!

At first glance, pants seem to be an integral, simply necessary part of a man's suit. However, it was (and still is) not so among all peoples and not always. For example, in ancient Rome, trousers were considered “barbarian” clothing, which was indecent for a “noble” Roman to wear. The Romans called Gaul (modern France) not only “Gallia comata” - “shaggy Gaul”, because of the custom of the Celtic warriors there to go into battle with rearing hair, but also “Gallia bracteata” - “Gaul-in-pants”, because Unlike the Romans, the Celts wore pants. Researchers believe that this type of clothing was brought to Europe, including the Slavs, by nomads of ancient times and originally appeared in connection with the need to ride.

1. Pants (cut). X-XIII centuries. 2. Ports (cut). 19th - early 20th century

Slavic trousers were made not too wide: on the surviving images they outline the leg. They were cut from straight panels, and a gusset was inserted between the legs (“in step”) - for the convenience of walking: if we neglect this detail, we would have to mince, not walk. Scientists write that the pants were made approximately ankle-length and were tucked into onuchi on the shins.

Were the pants embellished? If you believe the image of the 4th century (some historians believe that the Slavs or the ancestors of the Slavs are depicted there) - they could be covered with embroidery in front and below. But there is no other information about this.

The pants did not have a cut, but were held on the hips with the help of a lace - a "gashnik", inserted under the turned and sewn upper edge. The ancient Slavs first called the legs themselves “gachas” or “gashes”, then the skin from the hind legs of the beast, and then the pants. "Gacha" in the sense of "trouser leg" in some places has survived to this day. Now the meaning of the modern expression "keep in the stash" is becoming clear, that is, in the most secluded hiding place. Indeed, what was hidden behind the lace for pants was covered not only by outerwear, but also by a shirt that was not tucked into pants. The latest Ukrainian costume is an exception in this sense.

Another name for legwear is "trousers", as well as "legs".

Connoisseurs of the Russian language write that the word "trousers" came to us from the Turkic languages ​​around the 17th century and was originally pronounced "shtons", which is closer to the original.

And “trousers” came into use only under Peter I. This word was borrowed from the Germanic languages, and they, in turn, once adopted the Celtic-Ancient Roman “marriage”, denoting the same “barbarian” clothes for legs ...

According to historians of the Slavic languages, the word "poneva" (or "understand") originally meant "a piece of cloth", "towel", "shroud", "veil". Some authors believe that the ancient Slavs called this not the garment itself, but the material from which it was made - a kind of semi-woolen fabric, usually with a checkered pattern. However, most historians and ethnographers use this very word to designate the loincloth, which was received by girls who had reached the age of brides and passed initiation (see the chapter "Growing up"). Not without reason, until recently, in the Russian language there was a special expression about the onset of the physical maturation of a girl - “she took off her shirt.” Apparently, the original idea was to replace a children's shirt with adult clothes, ponyova. When the ancient rite began to be forgotten, in some places the poneva turned into an accessory of the betrothed, and even married. Linguists elevate this word to Old Russian verbs with the meaning "pull", "put on".

Peasant woman in ponyova. Moscow region. XVII century. Meyerberg drawing

In all likelihood, the oldest ponevs originally consisted of three unsewn panels, fastened at the waist with a belt. Then they began to be sewn together, leaving one cut - in front or on the side. In this form, comfortable, elegant, warm ponevs survived in other villages until our century. They were the same length as the shirt - to the ankles or to the calves, depending on how it was customary in a particular locality. During operation, the corners of the poneva could be tucked up and tucked into the belt. It was called - to wear a ponyova "bag". Ponyovs were also tucked up on holidays - in order to show the richly embroidered hem of the shirt.

1. A peasant woman in a “deaf” poneva, sewn like a skirt and decorated with embroidery. XIX century. 2. A peasant woman in a "raznopolka" ("rastopolka") with a slit on her side. XIX century. 3. A peasant woman in a poneva, picked up by a "bag". 19th century

Among the people, swinging (having a cut) ponevs were called "raznoshelves" or "rastopolkas". There were also "deaf", completely sewn like a skirt. In this case, a fourth was added to the three traditional panels - the “seam”. It was made from a different material, it was made shorter, and from below it was extended with a “sub-skirt” from a piece of the fabric from which the rest were cut. Outwardly, it turned out something like an apron. The seam (and in general the entire ponyova) was decorated with embroidery, the nature of which depended on the age of the woman - the most elegant ones were worn, of course, unmarried girls and young women, the elderly were limited to a strip of colored braid along the edge of the hem. A white seam with white embroidery was considered a sure sign of a “miserable”, mourning outfit. (Mourning flowers are discussed in the chapter "Wedding".)

Types of embroidery on ponevs. Oryol province. Late 19th - early 20th century

Everyone who has read historical novels knows about the "kilt" - the men's skirt of the highlanders of Scotland - and that, by the nature and color of its cells, experts were able to determine exactly which tribal community (clan) the person dressed in the kilt belonged to. But not everyone knows that even in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, it was possible to guess the province, district and even the village where the woman came from from the cells of the peasant poneva. So, in the north of the Ryazan province they wore black or dark blue ponyov with cells of white and colored threads. On the border of the Tula and Ryazan provinces, the background of the poneva was red with black and white threads passed through it. And near the city of Kasimov, red ponevs in a blue cage prevailed. Archaeological finds have confirmed that this tradition really stretches back to the depths of centuries - to the ancient Slavs. Women of the Vyatichi tribe, which once occupied the Ryazan, Tambov, Oryol, Kaluga regions, preferred blue checkered ponevs. To the west, on the territory of the Radimichi tribe, the cells of the poneva were red.

But the close neighbors of the Slavs - the Scandinavians, the Finno-Ugric peoples and the Balts - preferred a completely different type of women's clothing. For them, it consisted of two panels - behind and in front - connected over the shirt with shoulder straps, often with buckles. Scientists write that this clothing had a certain influence on the Russian costume: under its influence, by the middle or end of the 14th century, what we now call a “sarafan” appeared. Only now they called him differently then - “Sayan”, “feryaz”, “shushun” and so on. And until the 17th century, a “sarafan” was called ... MEN'S long outer oar clothing. This word was transferred to women's dress later.

According to archaeologists, children's, men's and women's shoes of the ancient Slavs had approximately the same style, differing depending on gender and age, mainly in size and finishing features. As a rule, shoes were not worn on bare feet. There were knitted socks - "hooves". They did not have heels, and they knitted them (in Old Russian they “weaved”) with the help of one bone knitting needle. Socks with a heel, knitted on several needles, have long been called "German".

But most often, shoes were still worn on onuchi - long, wide strips of fabric (canvas or woolen), which wrapped the leg below the knee. Onuchi were worn by both men - over trousers, and women - right on their bare legs. It is curious that under the influence of the Finno-Ugric neighbors, some Slavic tribes (especially in the Upper Volga region) formed peculiar concepts of beauty. A beautiful woman, they believed in these places, must certainly have full legs. Trying to please, the women of that time wound thicker onuchi - sometimes two pairs ...

Peasants in onuchi. 19th century

Onuchi were worn even in the summer, when they were going to go barefoot. Often, something like leggings or stockings were pulled over them - maybe it was they who were called "legs". In general, scientists believe that the people's memory has preserved memories of ancient, primitive shoes, which were wound around the foot and called "on" or "onuch" - in any case, in the language of ancient monuments, this word sometimes acquires the meaning of "shoes", and linguists probe it has a relationship with the ancient words indicating "on, in, through." Only later, scientists write, was the “upper” shoe invented, which was already “shoeed” on onuchi. So the word "shoes" remained in the language as general concept, and other terms - "shoes", "shoes", "shoes" - were forgotten.

What were these shoes? Basically - leather or woven from tree bark. Wooden, so common in Western Europe, the ancient Slavs did not know. As for felted shoes, there is no consensus. Some authors categorically state that our ancestors did not wear felt boots. However, felted shoes are poorly preserved in the ground, so the absence of archaeological finds is not a 100% “against” argument. But ties with the steppe peoples, great artisans in terms of felt, have existed since the birth of the Slavs ...

At all times, our ancestors willingly put on shoes in bast shoes - "bast shoes", "bast shoes", "bast shoes", "bast boots" - and, despite the name, often woven not only from bast, but also from birch bark and even from leather straps . It was also practiced to “tuck” (sew) bast shoes with leather. The methods of weaving bast shoes - for example, in a straight cage or in an oblique, from the heel or from the toe - were different for each tribe and up to the beginning of our century varied by region. So, the ancient Vyatichi preferred bast shoes of oblique weaving, Novgorod Slovenes - too, but mostly from birch bark and with lower sides. But the glades, Drevlyans, Dregovichi, Radimichi, apparently, wore bast shoes in a straight cage. Weaving bast shoes was considered an easy job, which men literally did “in between times”. It is not in vain that they say about a heavily drunk person that he, they say, “does not knit a bast”, that is, he is not capable of elementary actions! But, “tying the bast”, the man provided the whole family with shoes - there were no special workshops for a very long time. During archaeological excavations, the remains of worn-out bast shoes, blanks and tools for weaving - kochedyks were found in many.

They made kochedyks from bones (from animal ribs) or from metal. Scientists have found kochedyks made back in the Stone Age. That's how long ago the first bast shoes appeared! Incidentally, such an episode testifies to the deep antiquity of bast shoes. The Old Believers - "Kerzhaks", who lived in the Urals in the 19th century, did not wear bast shoes. But the dead were buried exclusively in bast shoes!

Bast shoes were common not only among the Eastern and Western Slavs, but also among some non-Slavic peoples of the forest belt - the Finno-Ugric peoples and the Balts, among the Germans.

Bast shoes were fastened to the leg with the help of long ties - leather "turns" or rope "ruffles". The ties crossed several times on the shins, grabbing the onuchi.

The cheapness, availability, lightness and hygiene of such shoes does not require proof. Another thing, as practice shows, bast shoes had a very short service life. In winter, they were worn in ten days, after a thaw - in four, in summer, in a bad time, - and even in three. Going on a long journey, they took with them more than one pair of spare bast shoes. “To go on the road - to weave five bast shoes” - the proverb said. And our neighbors, the Swedes, even had the term "bast mile" - the distance that can be covered in one pair of bast shoes. How much birch bark and bast was required to shoe a whole nation for centuries? Simple calculations show that if our ancestors diligently cut trees for the sake of bark (as, alas, it was done in later times), birch forests and linden forests would have disappeared even in the prehistoric era. It is difficult, however, to imagine that the pagans, who treated trees with reverence, acted so murderously. Most likely, they owned various ways to take part of the bark without destroying the tree. Ethnographers write - such techniques were known, for example, to the American Indians, who managed to remove the bark from the same birch every few years ...

1. Methods of weaving bast shoes. 2. South Russian unwoven bast shoes on a block. Kharkov province Zmievsky district. XIX century. 3. Kochedyks. X-XII centuries. 4. Bast shoes of various weaving. 19th century

“How to weave a bast shoe,” our ancestors said about something very simple and uncomplicated. However, this small article tells only a small fraction of what you can read about the "simple" bast shoes in serious scientific literature. For "simple" something is only at first glance.

Leather shoes

Bast shoes have always been predominantly rural footwear, while in the cities they preferred leather shoes (bast shoes wore out especially quickly on the wooden pavements of ancient Russian cities). Moreover, bast shoes sometimes turned out to be a sign of a weak tribe, unable to defend itself. According to the belief of the ancient Slavs, leather shoes befitted self-respecting people. Here is an example from an annals dated 985. The boyar Dobrynya inspects the captured Bulgarian captives and notices that they are all wearing boots.

“We will not receive any tribute from this,” he says to his nephew, Prince Vladimir. “Let’s go and look for some bastards for ourselves…”

Leather craftsmen, the “usmari” of Ancient Rus', sewed leather shoes on wooden blocks, which were sometimes made sliding. At the same time, shoes for the right and left feet were often cut in the same way. Perhaps then it was worn in, or maybe they were put on alternately. In any case, it is precisely such soft shoes, as well as bast shoes, that the old advice implies: to get rid of Leshy in the forest, put on shoes from the right foot to the left, and from the left to the right. It would be difficult to do this with modern shoes.

Leather shoes different types and a scheme for turning single-part blanks into multi-part ones: 1 - division into two identical parts, 2 - into two unequal (main and part) parts, 3 - into the sole and upper (one-, two-, three-part)

But the ancient signs of the genus, which once served as the very first shoe decoration, eventually developed into a rich pattern. Leather shoes were embroidered with colored threads, cuts were made and straps were woven into them, creating a pattern. It cannot be ruled out that the leather for shoes was dyed in different colors, since all kinds of dyes were well known, and our ancestors had enough imagination. However, this has not yet been confirmed archaeologically. True, images have survived, but experts do not recommend using them. In their opinion, the color of shoes of this or that character in a fresco or miniature is too “socially conditioned” and serves rather as an indicator of his social position, not necessarily reflecting reality.

Without going into details, the leather shoes of our ancestors can be divided into three large groups: pistons, shoes, boots.

As the excavation materials show, the simplest pistons (“enslavements”, “great slaves”, “powders”, “postols”) were made from a single piece of leather, tied around the edges with a strap (isn’t this another name “morshni”?). Probably, in ancient times, not even leather was used for pistons, but parts of skins processed in the simplest way (fumigated with smoke) or whole skins of small animals. It was easy to adapt such shoes to any foot size by changing the tension of the strap. It must be assumed that these properties of the piston gave it its name: some linguists raise it to the already familiar word “port” in the meaning of “rag”, “flap”. And others explain its origin from the adjective "fluffy" - "soft", "loose". It is no coincidence that soft pistons must have served as the first shoe for a child; children's pistons found during archaeological excavations.

Scheme of skinning and making shoes from "natural" blanks. The skin of a bull was used for men's shoes, a cow for women's, and a calf for children's. Most often these were the skins of the autumn battle

The pistons were attached to the leg in much the same way as bast shoes. On some ancient images, oblique crosshairs on the lower leg are clearly visible, which means that the person was shod in pistons or bast shoes.

Pistons of different types and the scheme for manufacturing the contours of "natural" one-piece blanks

The more elaborate and ornate pistons had a stitched toe and a leather insert (often embroidered or fringed) that covered the instep. Some types of pistons were laced in the toe. At the same time, curly cuts for laces also served as decoration.

The next group of shoes - shoes, or shoes - differs from pistons in a sewn-in sole. “Sewn-in sole” does not sound very nice, because “sole” in itself is “what is sewn on”. It was often cut even from a different type of leather than the top, and connected with a wide variety of types of seams.

For the soles, thick, durable skin from the spinal part of the skin (sometimes horse) was most often used, and for the top - more elastic and soft, taken from the belly, the "womb" of the animal (usually a cow or goat). Delicate, thin shoes were therefore called "shoes". This word immediately brings to mind "The Night Before Christmas" by N.V. Gogol and seems to us specifically Ukrainian. Nevertheless, it is very ancient - it was found in the manuscripts of pre-Mongol Rus. The more familiar “shoe” came to us, as scientists write, from the Turkish language, and the “shoe” came from Germanic dialects, which, in turn, borrowed it from Greek.

Shoes from excavations in Staraya Ladoga

According to manufacturing technology, according to the method of cutting, historians divide ancient Slavic shoes into a good dozen types. All of them are pointed, with a low rise, tightly fitting the leg. Many have a turn-down “collar” at the ankle, under which a strap or lace was passed through special slots for tying. The tie covered the leg several times. If we draw on ethnographic data related to some neighboring peoples, we can assume that tight strings, if necessary, made shoes waterproof. On the other hand, in shoes cut from tanned or rawhide, the foot did not "suffocate", as in a modern rubber boot.

One type of shoes found in Staraya Ladoga has a special cut - their sole has an elongated “tail”, which was sewn into a triangular cutout on the back. These shoes have "close relatives" in another corner of the Baltic, in the Slavic Pomerania (now these lands belong to Germany and Poland). Very similar ones were found in the burials of Southern Norway. Scientists consider this to be an important evidence of extensive ties and interaction between the cultures of the Baltic region at that time.

According to researchers, the word "boot" came to the Slavs from their Turkic-speaking neighbors - the Kipchaks, Pechenegs, nomadic Bulgarians - and already from Old Russian language passed into Finnish, Karelian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian. Judging by archaeological data, boots were hardly used in the village, but in the city almost everyone wore them: men and women, rich and poor, children and the elderly. The boots had a not very high - below the knee - shaft, which was usually higher in front than in the back, and a soft sole without a heel and iron horseshoes. Sometimes such a sole was cut from several layers of leather. When it was worn out, whole parts of the boot were often reused: they were sewn to a new sole or, for example, pistons were cut from the tops.

Boots of the ancient Slavs and later princely ("scarlet") boots, richly decorated and embroidered

As scientists write, there were mainly two types of boots. Some had a soft, slightly widening top, approximately equal in height to the length of the footprint. At the ankle, it was seized by a strap pulled through a slot. Excavations have shown that on the streets of ancient Pskov one could often meet children and teenagers in such boots: archaeologists found samples with a footprint length of 12 and 17 cm. Adults also wore exactly the same, only larger.

In another variety of boots, the shaft was somewhat stiffer, and birch bark was sometimes placed in the back to give shape. After the 13th century, the first type gradually fell into disuse, but the second one continued to develop and eventually gave rise to the famous Russian boots with a standing top and a hard sole.

If leather shoes in themselves were a sign of some prosperity, then for the owners of their boots, presumably, they were a kind of sign of prestige. The edges of the tops of rich boots were trimmed with braid, stripes of bright fabric, not to mention embroidery: the most prosperous and noble ones could also see pearls on their boots. Red, "scarlet" boots were considered the privilege of the princes and the military elite - the boyars. However, archaeologists attribute such luxurious shoes to a somewhat later era.

ritual shoes

Studying the monuments of ancient literature, scientists discovered the word "mold". It comes from the word "splash" (now we pronounce it "plus") - the part of the foot between the lower leg and toes. The content of the texts suggests that we are talking about burial shoes. And although these manuscripts were already created in Christian times, historians believe that here again we are dealing with a relic of ancient totemism. As you know, the mythical animal-ancestor - a totem - only "allowed" members of a kind to wear clothes and shoes made from its own skin. Such clothes and shoes were worn, as a rule, for ritual purposes, and not for everyday wear. Is it possible that the “molds” of the ancient Slavs were sewn from the skin from the “splash” of the ancestor-beast - so that the ancestors, with whom the deceased was supposed to meet in the next world, immediately recognized him as a relative? .. Historians do not exclude that the expression “shoes in mold”, as well as “to sit in a sleigh”, was one of the synonyms for the concept of “die” ...

Trying now to recreate the visible appearance of people of a distant era, artists usually depict them in clothes and shoes discovered by archaeologists in excavated burials. At the same time, as a rule, they forget that everyday and funeral clothes often differed, and quite strongly. Will the artists of the future ever depict us walking the streets, so to speak, “in white slippers”? ..

And here is the rite, which, introducing into the genus adopted son, made by the Scandinavians. We remember that when passing from generation to generation, a person had to “die” first. So, the central item in the Scandinavian rite was a shoe, specially sewn, in compliance with various magical rules. It was he who symbolized the introduction to the genus of a new person, his acceptance not only by family members, but also by a mythical ancestor. During the sacred service, the adopted son put on this shoe after his father, "stepped into his footsteps", becoming in the full sense of the word "heir". It is hardly by chance that Russian words fit so well into the description of the details of a completely, it would seem, someone else's rite! The thing is that both pagan religions, both Slavic and Scandinavian, did not pass the stage of totemism.

By the way, in the Old Russian language the word "plesna" also meant "trace" ...

The best known to researchers are hats of a special cut - hemispherical, made of bright fabric, with a band of precious fur. Stone and wooden idols that have survived from pagan times are dressed in similar hats, we also see such hats on the images of Slavic princes that have come down to us. It was a princely regalia, moreover, specifically Slavic. Not without reason in Russian there is an expression "Monomakh's hat", meaning literally "the burden of power." Not a "crown", not a "tiara" - just a "hat". For a long time, this word itself came across to scientists exclusively in princely letters of will, where this sign of dignity was discussed. Only after 1951, when birch bark letters were found by archaeologists and science got an unprecedented opportunity to look into everyday life common people, it became clear that not only the princely regalia, but also a male headdress in general, was called a “hat”. But the princely hat was sometimes called the "hood". Then this name was transferred in Russian to a monastic coverlet, as well as to a cap that was put on the head of hunting birds (“hood”). In the languages ​​of foreign Slavs, “klobuk” still means simply “hat”, as well as “helmet”.

1. Slavic hemispherical hats with a fur band. 2. "Cap of Monomakh". The end of the XIII - the beginning of the XIV century. 3, 4. Pagan idols (wooden and stone) in hats various shapes. 5. Images of musicians in pointed caps from a bracelet 12th century

Princely hats in a certain way even “prevent” researchers from studying people’s headdresses in a simpler way: if there is a prince on an ancient miniature (and chronicles were compiled to a fair extent “about princes”), then all others, as a rule, are with uncovered heads. But, fortunately, the frescoes on the stairs of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and the bracelet of the 12th century have been preserved: they depict musicians in pointed caps. Archaeologists have found blanks for such a cap: two triangular pieces of leather, which the master did not intend to sew together. Felt hats discovered during excavations, as well as light summer hats woven from thin pine roots, belong to a somewhat later era. It can be assumed that the ancient Slavs wore a wide variety of fur, leather, felted, wicker hats. And they did not forget to take them off not only at the sight of the prince, but simply when meeting with the elder, respected person– for example, with their own parents.

Musician in a pointed cap. Drawing from a fresco in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. 11th century

The historical “cap of Monomakh” is nothing but a golden Bukhara skullcap, presented in the 14th century to a Moscow prince and trimmed with sable by his order. Having thus acquired a resemblance to the caps of ancient princes, she served the Russian monarchs for another three hundred years during the ceremony of crowning the kingdom. This is what the power of tradition, or rather, religious conviction, turned out to be: the well-being of the people depends on the leader - is it conceivable to change something in the princely or royal attire, will this not bring trouble? ..

Women's headdress

We have already seen how easy it was in ancient times to determine the age of a girl by her outfit - whether she is an adult or not, whether it is possible to marry. But married or not - the headdress spoke about this first of all.

Corollas (XI-XIII centuries), crowns and headband (XIX century)

Before marriage, the headdress (at least in summer) did not cover the crown, leaving the hair open. Little girls wore simple cloth ribbons on their foreheads. Growing up, along with the ponyova, they received "beauty" - a girl's crown. It was also called “withered” - “bandage”, from “vyast” - “knit”. This bandage was embroidered as elegantly as possible, sometimes, with prosperity, even with gold. Girls from wealthy families wore faded Byzantine brocade. Another typical Slavic variety of “beauty” was a rim made of a thin (about 1 mm) metal ribbon. The width of the ribbon was usually 0.5–2.5 cm. Such rims were made of silver, less often of bronze, at the ends they arranged hooks or eyes for a lace that was tied at the back of the head.

1. Wife and daughter (Anna) of Yaroslav the Wise in the "new". Drawing from a fresco in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. XI century. 2. Different ways of basting (towels, bedspreads) for Belarusian and Ukrainian women. 19th - early 20th century

Blacksmiths decorated the rims with ornaments and gave them different shapes, including those with an extension on the forehead, like the Byzantine diadems. Because of this, some scientists of the 19th century believed that wreaths entered the culture of the Slavs only together with Christianity (especially since wreaths are given a special meaning in Christian symbolism). However, archaeological finds have confirmed the deep antiquity of the Slavic girlish rims. Moreover, not all Slavic tribes wore rims made of metal ribbons. For example, the girls of the tribe of the northerners, who inhabited the modern Kursk region, preferred those made of silver wire with ends riveted with a tube - for lace. And in those places where the Slavs were in close contact with the Finno-Ugric tribes, typically Finnish girlish bandages are often found in Slavic burial mounds, made up of plaques and metal spirals strung on threads in rows - according to the number of years lived. Scientists explain these findings by borrowing "fashion" from friendly neighbors, as well as a large number of mixed marriages.

1. Two-horned kika - a headdress. XII-XIII centuries. Reconstruction. 2. Horned kichki (kiki). XVII–XIX centuries

The headdress of a “manly” woman certainly covered her hair completely. This custom was associated with the belief in the magical power of hair (for more on this, see the chapter "Braid and beard"). More recently, it was strictly adhered to not only by Russians, but also by Ukrainians, Belarusians, Hutsuls, Bulgarians, Chuvashs, all groups of Tatars, Bashkirs, Komi, Izhora, Mordovians and others. Women of Scandinavia also covered their hair.

Foreign writers - contemporaries of the ancient Slavs, who left us a description of their customs - mention that the groom threw a veil over his chosen one's head and thus became her husband and master. Indeed, one of the oldest Slavic names for a married headdress - “povoy” and “ubrus” - means, in particular, “veil”, “towel”, “shawl”. “Povoy” also means “that which wraps around”. Probably, just such a dress is depicted in the image of the old Russian princess, which has come down to us from the 11th century. Apparently, it is made of a long - several meters - and a fairly wide strip of white matter, the ends of which go down to the back. A similar dress survived until the beginning of the twentieth century in some places in Ukraine and in the west of Belarus. Ethnographers quite rightly call it "towel". And in the Russian language, the expression "before the war" was preserved, which had a meaning - "before marriage."

Another type of headdress for a married woman is a kick. In the Old Russian language, one of the meanings of this word was “hair on the head”, a similar meaning is still preserved for it in some Slavic languages, while in our country it began to mean rather “what covers the hair”. And the hallmark of kiki was ... horns sticking up above the forehead.

The fact is that, according to the beliefs of the Slavs, the horns had a huge protective power. Mainly bullish (turya). The bull tour, dedicated to the God of warriors - Perun, was primarily a male symbol, and the horns denoted the masculine principle - the ability to protect, protect from dangers, both real and magical. For a woman, especially a young mother, this was vital. Suffice it to mention that even at the beginning of the twentieth century, a woman who had recently given birth, leaving the house, took with her ... a horned grip. Cloth, on a birch bark or quilted canvas basis, the horns of her kiki also served the same purpose. Another idea “embedded” in these horns (and also associated with bulls and cows) was the idea of ​​fertility, procreation. Even at the end of the 19th century, in some villages, women who reached old age changed their horned kiku for a hornless one or stopped wearing it altogether, limiting themselves to a scarf. In Christian times, priests sought to prevent women in horned kicks from taking communion and generally into the church, quite rightly seeing in this traces of pagan faith.

Weeping hoof-shaped, open at the top. Front and back view. From the outside it was decorated with multi-colored beads. Preserved in the Russian North since ancient times

Nevertheless, kika, like povoi, has been one of the "synonyms" of marriage for a very long time. Before the wedding, the bride, as usual, depicting her unwillingness to leave her parental home (for more details, see the chapter "Wedding"), in her lamenting song, she describes the kiku as an evil, terrible creature standing on the road:

... it seemed painfully scary
looked terrible:
on the bridge on the viburnum
an old sewn kika is sitting ...
... drive away the white kick
off the path!

From ancient times, apparently, there was an intermediate headdress between a girl's and a woman's: it was put on by betrothed girls before the wedding. Preserved in the Russian North, it was called "weeping".

Slavic women in antiquity did not wear hats, which, as we have already seen, were considered a male accessory.

In the cold season, women of all ages covered their heads with a warm scarf. Only it was not tied under the chin, as we are used to. Such a method, as scientists write, relatively recently penetrated into Russia from Germany through Poland. In ancient times, the scarf covered the chin and neck, and the knot was tied high on the top of the head. This manner of wearing a headscarf was preserved in some places in Russia as early as the beginning of the 20th century. “One should not think that these women have a toothache,” the ethnographer comments on his documentary drawing.

Various ways to tie a scarf

The difference between girls' and women's headdresses remained even when the traditional costume began to disappear. For example, in the 30s of the twentieth century, when the metro was already being laid in Moscow, married women of the Kaluga region still tied the corners of their scarves with “two ends”, and the girls, on the contrary, passed the corner of the scarf through the tied ends ...

Outerwear

Leaving the house in cold weather, the Slavs - both women and men - put on long, warm cloth robes over their shirts. They were called "retinues", from the word "twisting" - "dressing", "wrapping". In written sources, retinues are mentioned starting from the 11th century, and, presumably, they existed even earlier. The cut of the ancient retinues, unfortunately, is not exactly known to us. Apparently, they were about calf-length, rather tightly fitted the figure (“the belt is drawn to the body ...”), the sleeves were equipped with cuffs, and the collar was equipped with a turn-down collar. Both, of course, were embroidered, and embroidery for men and women was most likely different.

1. A woman in a fur coat. XVII century. 2. A girl in a short fur coat. XVII century. 3. A woman in a sheepskin coat. 19th century

The edges of clothes were often sheathed with strips of thin leather bent along to protect them from premature wear - such strips were found during excavations of ancient Pskov in the layers of the 11th century. But the suites were fastened, according to scientists, with the help of buttonholes, and not slotted loops, as is more common today. Buttonholes are considered a characteristic detail of ancient Russian clothing.

They also wore short, slightly below the waist, robes like suites. They were called "zhupans". By ear, this word seems to us somehow Czech or Polish, and yet it is very old, Old Russian. Scientists attribute it to the most ancient, "Proto-Slavic" period of the development of the language.

In addition to cloth, dressed furs were a favorite and popular material for making warm clothes among the Slavs. There were many furs: fur-bearing animals were found in abundance in the forests, so, for example, bear fur, “bear”, was considered cheap and not suitable for clothes of a noble person. Russian furs enjoyed well-deserved fame both in Western Europe and in the East. In addition, the Slavs from time immemorial bred sheep, so that a warm sheepskin "casing" was available (unlike the modern "sheepskin coat") to everyone. Not without reason "casing" is also an ancient, Proto-Slavic word. Initially, it, apparently, denoted clothing made of leather and furs in general - it is possible that fur or leather raincoats were also called casings. However, more often the casing was still clothes with sleeves and fasteners.

They were sewn, as a rule, with fur inside. Ordinary people wore "naked" casings, that is, sewn with the skin outward. The rich covered them with elegant cloth on top, sometimes even Byzantine brocade - gold-woven silk. It is clear that such beautiful, expensive clothes were worn not only for the sake of warmth. It should be remembered that in pagan antiquity, fur was considered a magical symbol of fertility and wealth (then, due to its general availability, it could not be a real sign of wealth). For example, the Serpent of Hair of our legends, a creature capable of giving people “gold-silver”, turns out to be scaly like a snake and at the same time ... furry. Such views are not exclusively Slavic. The mythology of the Scandinavians, describing the "ancestor" of all free farmers, does not accidentally draw his bride "in a dress of fur" ...

1. Praying Novgorodians. Fragment from an icon of the 15th century. 2. Boyar coats. XVI-XVII centuries. 3. A peasant in a sheepskin coat. 19th century

So in some solemn occasions that required maintaining prestige or attracting magical powers, the Slavic “deliberate people” could put on furs in the summer: this should have contributed to their personal well-being and the prosperity of the entire tribe. This habit turned out to be very tenacious, continuing to exist even when the mythological reason was already forgotten. Take, for example, the famous boyar "seats" in fur coats and fur hats. And even at the end of the 19th century, girls went to a round dance - a kind of "bride show" - even in the summer heat, often in fur coats, trying to more accurately attract the attention of grooms. And the newlyweds were certainly put on a spread fur, so that the new family would have many children, and the house would soon become a “full bowl” ...

Subsequently, long-sleeved casings began to be called "sheepskin coats" or "fur coats", and those that were knee-length or shorter - "short coats".

Scientists argue about the word "sheepskin coat". Someone considers it to be primordially Slavic and related to the "torso". Someone derives it from the Tatar, Kazakh and even Altaic languages, in which a similar word meant "a leather bag made from one whole skin." Be that as it may, from the Old Russian language "tulup" came to Poland and even ... to Sweden, on the other side of the Baltic Sea.

But linguists know for certain about the word “fur coat” that it originally belonged to the Arabs and simply meant “ outerwear with long sleeves". It is not quite clear only in what ways it spread in Europe. Some philologists believe that the Slavs borrowed it from the Germans, some believe that the Germans, on the contrary, adopted it from the Slavs...

Another common type of fur clothing, as ethnographers write, was a sleeveless jacket. Unfortunately, we do not have any images or descriptions of it in ancient sources. But we know for certain that sleeveless jackets were worn by our close neighbors, such as the Scandinavians. And the mountain shepherds of Ukraine have preserved an exclusively old type of sleeveless jacket - not sewn, but made from one whole sheep skin. All this gives the right to assume that sleeveless jackets were probably familiar to the Slavs.

IN modern life the raincoat has long since become an ordinary light coat for cool weather, often waterproof. A cloak in the form of a wide cloth behind the shoulders immediately suggests a "romantic" Middle Ages. Meanwhile, for our distant ancestors, it was the most familiar, everyday clothing. Indeed, a solid, thick raincoat was very good in bad weather, and if necessary served as a blanket or even a tent. The warrior, winding it around his hand, could use it as a kind of shield. The cloak was also part of the "official" princely costume. Finally, well-tailored, it is simply very elegant. That is why cloaks of all kinds of cuts, from different materials, were worn on weekdays and holidays by absolutely everyone: women and men, noble and humble, old and young. True, some time ago, archaeologists believed that the cloak was a characteristic sign of the nobility and warriors. This is because jewelry-made clasps, clearly intended for cloaks, were found in the corresponding burials, and in the graves ordinary people they were not. However, later new data appeared that showed that raincoats were worn by all segments of the population. It's just that those who did not have precious fasteners used a cord. And the word “cloak” is originally Slavic, linguists bring it closer to “shawl”, “linen” and the adjective “flat”.

Scientists write that the ancient Slavs wore cloaks of various styles.

The word "votola", like many other names for types of clothing, originally meant "type of fabric." In this case, it meant a thick, dense, coarse fabric of plant origin - linen or hemp (from hemp fibers). There was also an adjective "votolyany" - "made of similar matter."

Horseshoe-shaped spiral-conical brooches and brooches with thickened ends. 10th–12th centuries

How exactly the clothes looked like, in the end called “votola” by our ancestors, historians do not have a single opinion. Some believe that it was a "wrap-around" garment with sleeves. Others insist that it was a cloak fastened at the neck with a buckle, button or cord, knee-length or calf-length, sleeveless, but possibly with a hood. An old manuscript tells of a thief who climbed into someone else's garden for apples and fell off a broken branch, but got caught on a branch with a votola - and died, "choking himself with a necklace." It seems that the cloak is more suitable for this story.

Sometimes they write that votols were the clothes of only the common people, the farmers. However, authoritative scholars believe that the princes and boyars did not always go around as smart as it is depicted in the surviving miniatures and frescoes - a kind of ceremonial portraits of those years. On a hunt, on a trip, on patrol, the votola was also good for the prince as everyday wear.

Another type of cloak was "myatel" ("myatl"). Linguists raise this word (perhaps through the Germanic languages) to the Latin "mantellum" - "veil", "veil". What the blizzard looked like is not yet known exactly. In any case, it was much more elegant and expensive clothes than votola: for the “tearing” of the wattle during a quarrel, ancient Russian legislation asked strictly, imposing a hefty fine on the guilty person. Possibly, the puffballs were made of dense woolen fabric - cloth, often imported. An episode of the chronicle depicts the princely warriors and the prince himself dressed in black duvets. A story has been preserved about a valiant warrior who managed to defend himself from the pressing enemies with the help of a short throwing spear-sulica, being without a shield and armor, “behind a single bluegrass”. However, this does not give grounds to consider the flamingo as something like an element of a military uniform. In the future, monks often dressed in myatli, and the prince's servant, who was in charge of the dress, began to be called a “myatli”. From the name of the ancient cloak comes the Russian surname Myatlev. The word "meatl" also penetrated into the Latvian language, giving the modern "metelis" - "coat" ...

There was also a third type of cloak - “korzno” (“korozno”, “korzno”). If the mint and votola, in general, say little about the social status of their owner, then korzno, apparently, was a sign of high princely dignity. In any case, chroniclers “dress” only members of the princely family in a basket (the image of a girl-princess in a basket has also been preserved), as well as foreign monarchs. And a chronicle episode from the 12th century tells how the prince, trying to save a man from reprisal, jumped off his horse and “covered” the doomed man with his basket: he apparently had serious reasons to hope that this would stop the killers, that they would not dare to raise their hand against sign of princely power. In another chronicle legend, giving the last honor to the deceased prince, his dead body is wrapped in a basket.

Korzno in all respects corresponded to its purpose - to be the ceremonial princely clothes, visibly testify to power, wealth, strength and glory. It was often made from expensive Byzantine materials: dense silk, bright patterned velvet, golden brocade, sometimes fur trimmed (the mythological meaning of fur is described in the previous chapter). However, one should not think that the outfits of the ancient Russian princes were distinguished by tasteless “barbarian” luxury. When looking at ancient miniatures, one is struck by the skillful selection of color combinations and the precise use of patterns. For example, Byzantine oxamites (a genus of velvet) were distinguished by a large pattern, often depicting animals. A Russian prince of the 12th century chose fabric with a royal bird - an eagle for his basket, and his cloak was sewn so that the eagle was just on his shoulder.

Cloak-korzno was distributed throughout the Slavic world. There is no consensus among linguists about the origin of this word. Some consider it "Germanism", that is, borrowing from the Germanic languages. Their opponents (and this point of view is perhaps more solid) lead him out of the East, where similar name fur clothes had - such a meaning, by the way, was preserved by words close to the “basket” in the languages ​​​​of foreign Slavs. Both the word and the cut, these scientists say, already passed from the Western Slavs to the Germans, who called such a cloak "kurzen", and also - according to the origin - "Slavonics". There are also those who believe that the Germans called “Slavonics” not at all Korzno, but a different type of cloak - “Kisa”, or “Kots” (nothing more is known about this cloak, except for the name). To which supporters of the eastern origin of Korzna point out that it was “kots” that was borrowed from the Germanic languages, which means that it could not be “Slavonic” in any way ...

Korzno - ceremonial princely clothes. Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich from the miniature of the manuscript "The Words of Hippolytus about the Antichrist" (XII century) and Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich from the fresco of the Church of the Savior-Nereditsa (XII century). Looking closely at the basket of Prince Yaroslav, you can see that the eagle's head in the pattern of the fabric turned out to be just on the prince's shoulder

Another type of cloak, about which almost nothing definite can be said, is “luda”. The chronicle tells about the Varangian leader Yakun, who lost a cloak woven with gold on the field of a lost battle. In general, it should be noted that the bright expensive clothes, which noble warriors often put on before the battle, do not just speak of vanity, as it sometimes seems to modern man. Scientists write that a rich outfit was a valuable and desirable booty, which means that it was a kind of additional challenge that a valiant warrior was not afraid to throw to the enemy: “Come on, try it, take it away! ..”

Literature

Artsikhovsky A. V. Clothes // History of culture of ancient Rus'. M.; L., 1948. T. 1.

Vahros I.S. Names of shoes in Russian. Helsinki, 1959.

Grinkova N. P. Ancestral survivals associated with division by sex and age // Soviet ethnography. 1936. Issue. 2.

Zelenin D.K. East Slavic ethnography. M., 1991.

Lebedeva N. I. Spinning and weaving of the Eastern Slavs in the 19th - early 20th centuries. // East Slavic ethnographic collection. M., 1956. V. 31. (Proceedings of the Institute of Ethnography named after N. N. Miklukho-Maclay. New series).

Levasheva V.P. On the clothes of the rural population of Ancient Rus' // Proceedings of the State Historical Museum. M., 1966. Issue. 40.

Levinson-Nechaeva M. N. Materials for the history of Russian folk clothing // Peasant clothing of the population of European Russia (XIX - early XX century): Determinant. M., 1971.

Lukina G. N. Subject-household vocabulary of the Old Russian language. M., 1990.

Maslova G. S. Folk clothes of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians in the XIX - early. 20th century // East Slavic ethnographic collection. M., 1956. V. 31. (Proceedings of the Institute of Ethnography named after N. N. Miklukho-Maclay. New series).

Maslova G. S. Ornament of Russian folk embroidery as a historical and ethnographic source. M., 1978.

Maslova G. S. Folk clothes in East Slavic traditional customs and ceremonies of the 19th - early 20th centuries. M., 1984.

Oyateva E. I. Shoes and other leather goods of ancient Pskov // Archaeological collection of the State Hermitage. L., 1962. Issue. 4.

Oyateva E. I. Shoes and other leather goods from the Earthen settlement of Staraya Ladoga // Archaeological collection of the State Hermitage Museum. L.; M., 1965. Issue. 7.

Oyateva E. I. Leather shoes from the medieval cities of Poland // Archaeological collection of the State Hermitage. L., 1970. Issue. 12.

Oyateva E. I. Belozerskaya leather shoes // Golubeva L. A. All and Slavs on the White Lake in the X-XIII centuries. M., 1973.

Oyateva E. I. On the Semantics of the Ritual Shoe // Archaeological Collection of the State Hermitage Museum. L., 1978. Issue. 19.

Rabinovich M. G. Old Russian clothes of the 9th-13th centuries. // Ancient clothes of peoples of Eastern Europe. M., 1986.

Rabinovich M. G. Russian clothes of the 13th-18th centuries. // There.

Saburova M. A. Standing collars and "necklaces" in ancient Russian clothes // Medieval Rus'. M., 1976.

Sedov V.V. Clothing of the Eastern Slavs of the 6th-9th centuries. n. e. // Ancient clothing of the peoples of Eastern Europe. M., 1986.

Strekalov S. Russian historical clothes from the 10th to the 13th centuries. SPb., 1877.

Fekhner M.V. Golden embroidery of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus' // Medieval Rus'. M., 1976.

01.11.2014

The Slavic folk costume is not only our national treasure, but also a source of inspiration for modern clothing design and for creating stage images in various genres and types of art, and is a vivid embodiment of folk art.

Whole garments of the IX-XIII centuries. has not been preserved to our time, and the found remains of clothing and jewelry serve as the main source. In addition to archaeological data on the clothing of the Eastern Slavs of this period, several pictorial sources provide the most complete picture.

We will consider the main details of the clothes of the ancient Slavs, and a number of protective ornaments decorating these clothes. Of course, much of the following is debatable, and requires much more detailed study, but ...

So, "They meet by clothes ...".

Looking at a person, one could say for sure: what kind of tribe he belongs to, in what area he lives, what position he has in society, what he does, what age he is, and even in what country he lives. And looking at a woman, one could understand whether she was married or not.

Such a "visiting card" made it possible to immediately decide how to behave with a stranger and what to expect from him.

Today, in our everyday life, “talking” details of clothing and even entire types of costumes have been preserved that can only be worn by a member of a certain age or social group.

Now, when we say "clothes," it sounds like vernacular, almost like jargon. Nevertheless, scientists write that in Ancient Rus' it was “clothes” that was used much more often and more widely than the term “clothes” that was familiar to us at the same time.

What did the wardrobe of the ancient Russians consist of?

First of all, clothing was strictly divided into everyday and festive. It differed in both the quality of the material and the color scheme.

In addition to the simplest and coarsest fabrics, there were many fine fabrics, both local and imported. Of course, the quality of clothing depended on the well-being of its owner - not everyone could afford expensive imported silk fabrics. But wool and linen were available to all segments of the population.

The fabric was dyed with natural dyes - leaves, roots, flowers of plants. So oak bark gave a brown color, madder roots - red, nettle when hot dyeing - gray, and when cold - green, onion peel- yellow.

Since the time of Ancient Rus', “red” has been beautiful, cheerful, and therefore festive, elegant. In Russian folklore, we find expressions: "spring is red, the girl is red, the beauty is red (about the beauty of the girl)." The red color was associated with the color of dawn, fire, all this was associated with life, growth, the sun-world.

White. Associated with the idea of ​​Light, purity and sacredness (White Light, White King - king over kings, etc.); at the same time - the color of Death, mourning.

Green - Vegetation, Life.

Black - Earth.

Golden - Sun.

Blue - Sky, Water.

Gold embroidery has long been known. The ancient people of Kiev wore clothes with a lot of gold embroidery. The oldest known - Russian gold embroidery was found by archaeologists in the burial mound of Prince Cherny (near Chernigov), and dates back to the tenth century.

Interesting fact:

The Slavs have a well-known belief that the first clothes of a person affect his subsequent life. Therefore, the newborn was often taken in a shirt sewn by the oldest woman in the family, so that he would inherit her fate and live long; in the father’s old unwashed shirt, “so that he loves him”, and for diapers they used parts of adults’ clothes so that the child would certainly inherit their positive qualities

The ancient name for clothing among the Slavs was “portish” - a cut (a piece of cloth); hence the word "tailor" - a person who sews clothes. This name lasted in Rus' until the fifteenth century

Shirt - the oldest, most beloved and widespread type of underwear among the ancient Slavs. Linguists write that its name comes from the root "rub" - "a piece, cut, piece of fabric" - and is related to the word "hack", which once also had the meaning of "cut".

Another name for the shirt in Russian was “shirt”, “shirt”, “srachica”. It is a very old word, related to the Old Norse "serk" and the Anglo-Saxon "sjork" through common Indo-European roots.

Long shirts were worn by noble and elderly people, shorter shirts were worn by other classes, since, unlike the measured and unhurried life of princes and boyars, the everyday life of the working people was filled with hard work and clothing should not hinder movement. Women's shirts reached to the heels.

Men wore a shirt for release and always with a belt. Hence the expression "unbelted" - if a person did not put on a belt, then they said that he unbelted. Festive shirts of the nobility were sewn from expensive thin linens or silks of bright colors and decorated with embroideries. Despite the conventionality of the ornament pattern, many of its elements had a symbolic character, they seemed to protect a person from another evil eye and misfortunes.

Jewelry was “hinged” - removable: richly embroidered with gold, precious stones and pearls. Ornaments of protective motifs were usually embroidered on shirts: horses, birds, the Tree of Life, plants and floral ornaments in general, lanks (emphasis on “and”) - anthropomorphic characters, images of the Gods ... It should be noted that sometimes the embroidered parts were changed from an old shirt to a new one.

gate Slavic shirts did not have turn-down collars. Most often, the incision at the collar was made straight - in the middle of the chest, but it was also oblique, on the right or left.

The embroidery, which contained all kinds of sacred images and magical symbols, served as a talisman here. The pagan meaning of folk embroideries can be traced very well from the most ancient samples to quite modern works; it is not for nothing that scientists consider embroidery an important source in the study of ancient religion.

Sundress among the Slavs it was sewn on narrow straps and resembled a semicircle, due to the large number of wedges, greatly expanding the hem.

We don't wear sundresses

We lose from them:

You need eight meters of calico,

Three spools of thread...

Slavs-northerners traditionally preferred red. The central part of Rus' mostly wore one-color blue, paper, purchased fabric for their sundresses or motley (fabric similar to matting). The lower part of the front seam and the hem were decorated with stripes of silk ribbons and stripes of patterned fabric.

The first mention of a sarafan, or sarfan, refers to 1376 in the Nikon Chronicle. This word originally denoted an item of men's costume. The mention of men's sundresses is found in old songs:

He is not in a fur coat, not in a caftan,

In a long white dress...

Before Peter's decrees on the mandatory wearing of European clothes in cities, sarafans were worn by noblewomen, noblewomen, townswomen, and peasant women.

In the cool season, a shower warmer was worn over a sundress. It, like a sundress, expanded downwards and was embroidered with amulets along the bottom and armhole. A shower warmer was worn over a shirt with a skirt or over a sundress. The material for the shower warmer was taken more dense, and velvet, brocade were sewn for the festive one, and all this was embroidered with beads, glass beads, braid, sequins, ribbon.

Sleeves shirts could reach such a length that they gathered in beautiful folds along the arm and were grabbed at the wrist with braid. Note that among the Scandinavians, who wore shirts of a similar style in those days, tying these ribbons was considered a sign of tender attention, almost a declaration of love between a woman and a man ...

In festive women's shirts, the ribbons on the sleeves were replaced by folding (buttoned) bracelets - "hoops", "hoops". The sleeves of such shirts were much longer than the arm; when loose, they reached the ground. Everyone remembers fairy tales about bird girls: the hero happens to steal wonderful outfits from them. And also the tale of the Frog Princess: waving with a folded sleeve plays an important role in it. Indeed, a fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it. In this case, it is an allusion to the ritual women's clothing of pagan times, to clothing for priesthood and witchcraft.

Belt in Slavic outfits was present in both women and men.

Slavic women wore woven and knitted belts. The belt is long, with embroidery and fringe at the ends, tied under the bust over the sundress.

But belt belts from the most ancient times were one of the most important symbols of male prestige - women never wore them. Let's not forget that almost every free adult man was potentially a warrior, and it was the belt that was considered almost the main sign of military dignity.

The belt was also called the "girdle" or "loin".

Belts made of wild tur leather were especially famous. They tried to get a strip of leather for such a belt right on the hunt, when the beast had already received a mortal wound, but had not yet expired. One must think that these belts were a decent rarity, the mighty and fearless forest bulls were very dangerous.

Trousers the Slavs wore not too wide: on the surviving images they outline the leg. They cut them from straight panels. Scientists write that the pants were made approximately ankle-length and were tucked into onuchi on the shins - long, wide strips of fabric (canvas or woolen), which wrapped the leg below the knee.

Another name for legwear is "trousers", as well as "leggings".

The ports, narrowed at the ankle, were sewn from canvas, noble men put on another one from above - silk or cloth. They were pulled together at the waist with a lace - a bowl (hence the expression "keep something in the gas pocket"). The ports were tucked into boots made of colored leather, often embroidered with patterns or wrapped with onuchs (pieces of linen), and bast shoes were put on them, in the ears of which strings were pulled - obora, they were wrapped around onuchs.

Bast shoes at all times, our ancestors wore woven not only from bast, but also from birch bark and even from leather straps. They were thick and thin, dark and light, simple and woven with patterns, there were also elegant ones - from tinted multi-colored bast.

Bast shoes were fastened to the leg with the help of long ties - leather "turns" or rope "ruffles". The ties crossed several times on the shins, grabbing the onuchi.

“How to weave a bast shoe,” our ancestors said about something very simple and uncomplicated.

Bast shoes had a very short service life. Going on a long journey, they took with them more than one pair of spare bast shoes. “Go on the road - weave five bast shoes” - the proverb said.

Leather shoes was predominantly an urban luxury. One of the main types of footwear of the Slavs VI-IX centuries. were, of course, shoes. In the all-Slavic period they were called chereviks.

Most often, shoes were still worn on onuchi, which men over trousers, and women - right on their bare feet.

Men's headdress the Slavs, most likely, called the cap. For a long time, this word itself came across to scientists exclusively in princely letters of will, where this sign of dignity was discussed. Only after 1951, when birch bark letters were found by archaeologists, and science got an unprecedented opportunity to look into the everyday life of the common people, it became clear that not only the princely regalia, but also the male headdress in general was called a “hat”. But the princely hat was sometimes called the "hood".

The best known to researchers are hats of a special cut - hemispherical, made of bright fabric, with a band of precious fur. Stone and wooden idols that have survived from pagan times are dressed in similar hats, we also see such hats on the images of Slavic princes that have come down to us. Not without reason in the Russian language there is an expression "Monomakh's hat".

Frescoes on the stairs of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and a bracelet from the 12th century have also been preserved: they depict musicians in pointed caps. Archaeologists have found blanks for such a cap: two triangular pieces of leather, which the master did not intend to sew together.

Felt hats discovered during excavations, as well as light summer hats woven from thin pine roots, belong to a somewhat later era.

It can be assumed that the ancient Slavs wore a wide variety of fur, leather, felted, wicker hats. And they did not forget to take them off not only at the sight of the prince, but simply when meeting with an older, respected person - for example, with their own parents.

Women's headdress protects a woman from evil forces - the Slavs believed.

It was believed that magical life force was contained in the hair; loose girlish braids can bewitch a future husband, while a woman with an uncovered head can bring misfortune, damage to people, livestock, crops. During a thunderstorm, she can be killed by thunder, as she is believed to become easy prey and a receptacle for evil spirits, which are aimed by thunder arrows. The expression "goofed up" meant dishonored her family.

Before marriage, the headdress (at least in summer) did not cover the crown, leaving the hair open. At the same time, girlish hair was worn outside, for show - this was not only not forbidden, but even welcomed by others. A good braid was perhaps the main decoration of a girl in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia

Little girls wore simple cloth ribbons on their foreheads, or from a thin metal ribbon. They made such whisks from silver, less often from bronze, at the ends they arranged hooks or eyes for a lace that was tied at the back of the head.

Growing up, along with the ponyova, they received a “beauty” - a girl’s crown. It was also called "withered" - "bandage", from "vyast" - "knit". This bandage was embroidered as elegantly as possible, sometimes, with prosperity, even with gold.

Blacksmiths decorated the rims with ornaments and gave them different shapes, including those with an extension on the forehead, like the Byzantine diadems. Archaeological finds also confirmed the deep antiquity of the Slavic girlish rims. A wreath on a girl's head is, first of all, a talisman against the evil eye, evil spirits. At the same time, the circle is also a symbol of marriage; it is not without reason that when the young are married, they circle the table, and at the wedding - around the lectern. If a girl had a dream about losing a wreath, she expected trouble for herself. If a girl lost her innocence before the wedding, then she lost her wreath at the wedding, as a sign of shame, she could wear half.

A wreath of artificial flowers and threads was often worn on a hat and on the groom, protecting him from wedding lessons (to cut, shorten - jinx, spoil). Strictly defined flowers were used for the wedding wreath: rosemary, periwinkle, boxwood, viburnum, rue, laurel, vine. In addition to flowers, amulets were sometimes sewn into it or invested in: red woolen threads, onions, garlic, peppers, bread, oats, coins, sugar, raisins, a ring. By the way, sprinkling young people with grain and money at a meeting from the crown also has, first of all, a protective, and only then a lyrical meaning of a wish for fertility and wealth.

The headdress of a “manly” woman certainly covered her hair completely. This custom was associated with belief in magical power. The groom threw a veil over his chosen one's head and thus became her husband and master. Indeed, one of the oldest Slavic names for a married headdress - “povoy” and “ubrus” - means, in particular, “veil”, “towel”, “shawl”. “Povoy” also means “that which wraps around”.

Another type of headdress for a married woman is a kick. A distinctive sign of kiki was ... horns sticking up above the forehead. The horns are the protection of the mother and her unborn child from evil forces. They liken a woman to a cow, a sacred being for the Slavs.

In the cold season, women of all ages covered their heads with a warm scarf.

Outerwear Slavs - this is a retinue, from the word “to twist -“ to dress ”,“ to wrap up ”, as well as a caftan and a fur coat. The suite was put on over the head. It was made of cloth, with narrow long sleeves, the knees were necessarily closed, and girded with a wide belt. Caftans were of the most various types and purposes: everyday, for riding, festive - sewn from expensive fabrics, intricately decorated.

In addition to cloth, dressed furs were a favorite and popular material for making warm clothes among the Slavs. There were many furs: fur-bearing animals were found in abundance in the forests. Russian furs enjoyed well-deserved fame both in Western Europe and in the East.

Subsequently, long-sleeved casings began to be called "sheepskin coats" or "fur coats", and those that were knee-length or shorter - "short coats".

Everything that we now have was received from our ancestors, they gave birth to it, and we improved it. We must never forget our history. All arguments about the national idea are meaningless if they are not based on an understanding of the foundation of this community.

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Which was made mainly from linen. The men's shirt was about knee-length and must be belted. The length of a women's shirt, as a rule, reached the ankle. Often she performed the functions of a modern women's light dress. The collar, sleeves and hem of the shirt were necessarily decorated with embroidery. Moreover, embroidery carried not so much a decorative as a protective function, protecting a person from harmful forces.

Since ancient times, men have worn belt belts, which were considered one of the main symbols of male prestige. Belts made of wild tur leather were especially valued, which could be obtained during hunting, exposing one's life to mortal danger.

The tradition of wearing trousers was borrowed by the Slavs from representatives of the most ancient nomadic tribes. Slavic pants were about ankle length and were tucked into onuchi.

In the cold season, ancient Russian women wore fur clothes: ladies from wealthy families - expensive furs (sable, ermine), less noble - more modest fur coats (from squirrel skins). Fur coats in Ancient Rus' were worn with fur inside, the front part was sewn from expensive and bright fabrics.

The frescoes that have survived since those times indicate that the ancient Russian women of fashion loved clothes of bright saturated colors (especially red), which were complemented by silver and gold embroidery. Embroidery motifs were very diverse: beautifully curved stems of plants and tree branches, flowers and geometric shapes.

Headdresses and shoes of ancient Russian beauties

A very significant element of the female image was a headdress. It not only had an aesthetic meaning, but also carried a social connotation - it showed the prosperity of the family. The headdress of a married woman completely covered her hair, free girls could walk with “plain hair”.

The girls wore wreaths (korunas) made of a narrow strip of metal or fabric that covered the forehead and were fastened at the back of the head. They were decorated with embroidery, pearls and precious stones.

Hats married women they were sheathed along the edge with glass beads, they put on a crown-kokoshnik or kiku, and in winter a hat with a fur band.

The finishing touch of the women's costume was shoes. One of the very first mentions of the shoes of Ancient Rus' is bast shoes. They were woven from bast and birch bark and worn mostly by poor village women.

In the 7th-9th centuries, leather shoes came into fashion, which were decorated with embossing, embroidery or carving. In the 10th century, half boots already appeared, reaching the middle of the lower leg, which were laced up or fastened.

Related videos

Sources:

• Women of Ancient Rus'
• Old Russian style

Throughout the 12th century, clothing was quite simple. As in previous centuries, the outfits were layered, covering most of the body. Fashion throughout the XII century practically did not change.

Instruction

Men's fashion of that time seemed to be opposed to the militant nature of men. Over the bottom linen shirts they wore long tunics that reached the ankles, on which they put on top dresses without a belt or sleeves. It was almost impossible to see the legs from under these clothes. The common people wore tunics about knee-length over undershirts.

Quite wide linen pantaloons in the XII century gave way to stockings or chausses, they were worn by representatives of the aristocracy. Pantaloons became the property of the common people, the peasants wore them with boots or gaiters. At court, high society preferred to wear not very comfortable shoes with long pointed toes.

The originality of the national clothes of the Slavs

Slavic clothing embodies both the culture and the special energy of the Slavic people. And in this the Slavs showed their harmonious connection with the universe.

Slavic motifs in clothes

Modernity glorifies the Russian beauty and her inherent tenderness, innocence, romance and charm. Dresses to the floor and all sorts of variations of hairstyles with braids are already inseparable from the modern female image.

The Slavs have always been distinguished by the life-giving fire of spirituality, intelligence, kindness and nobility.
Slavic beauty has always attracted the attention of both men and women.

Slavic clothing, or as it is also called Scythian, excites many eminent designers: from Yves Saint Laurent to the collections of Zarina, Galliano, Valentino.

The luxury of ethnic embroidery and accessories captivated many fashionistas with their splendor.

In Slavic clothing, embroidery played not only a decorative role, but it was considered a talisman for home, family, soul and health.

That is why the Slavic boho style appeared, combining the simplicity of Slavic motifs and modern trends. So what is the Slavic style? Ritual clothes or peasant attire? Both concepts are correct. Initially, embroidered clothes made of natural fabrics were intended for rituals and reunion with natural forces, the ancient Scythian gods. And only after that it is a talisman with skillfully embroidered symbols.

Slavic clothing with symbols - the style of the soul and the protection of the spirit

Slavic symbols

The symbols of the Scythian style are a combination of lines into rhombuses and triangles, smooth stitches turn into spirals and unite into a circle. is significant for a person, because it is not only embroidery, as part of the decor, but it is an embroidery-amulet that gives a person the ability to resist evil fate and develop his spiritual potential.

Slavic embroidery protects, brings good luck and happiness

National symbols of the Eastern Slavs:

• The cross as a symbol of the sun. It means opposition to evil fate and saturation with the light energy of life.
• Svarga as a symbol of the sky. Svarga of the right direction speaks of the path to happiness. An inverted svarga (swastika) has the opposite meaning and plunges the owner into a whirlpool of trouble.
• Circle as a symbol of solar energy.
• Ruja - symbolizes life.
• Rhombus - harmony with nature, fertility.
• Thunderbolt is a symbol of thunder and worship of Perun.
• The tree is longevity.
• Spirals are wisdom.
• The cornucopia as a symbol of material wealth.
• The triangle is associated with a person.

In addition to ritual embroideries, the clothes of the Eastern Slavic peoples were complemented by embroidery of floral ornaments.

Slavic patterns - a symbol of the spring revival of female beauty

So, on the shirts of newborns and young guys from time immemorial it was customary to embroider oak as a symbol of male energy, and viburnum, which meant the immortality of the family. An embroidered poppy meant grief for a murdered relative. Ornaments with grapes symbolized among the Slavs the growth of the family, the appearance of heirs.

The "heavenly" beliefs of the Slavs, among which the agrarian cult of the sun stands out, were embodied in symbolic signs, peculiar embroideries

On girls' dresses, our ancestors embroidered lilies, which symbolized the innocence and purity of their owners.

Slavic ornament is distinguished by its originality, proximity to nature

The clothes of young people were decorated with periwinkle patterns, which symbolized unrestrained fun.

Periwinkle symbolizes the all-conquering life force

The rose was considered a symbol of love among the Slavs. And it is not surprising that wedding towels were embroidered with roses, thereby wishing the young people endless love.

Color solutions

Slavic style is characterized by a certain monotony. Mixing multiple colors is not allowed here. Like the chosen symbolism, the color tells a lot. The Eastern Slavs do not have colorful color combinations and thoughtless associations. Each color carries its own symbolism and, according to ancient beliefs, leaves an imprint on a person's life.

The Slavs were very responsible in choosing one color or another in their lives.

Traditional colors:

• Black is a symbol of the earth.

• Red - symbolizes love, joy, feminine beauty and masculine stateliness.

• White is the color of innocence and purity.

• Blue is the color of water, as a symbol of spiritual solitude and wealth.

• Green - symbolizes youth and renewal.

• Yellow is the color of prosperity.

Accessories

Scythian ethnic accessories are characterized by animal prints and floral patterns. Fabric headbands have long complemented the image of Scythian girls. Their functionality was to collect hair, which did not allow the strands to break out of the hairstyle and fall on the face.

Accessories in the Slavic style are between the norm and excess

A scythe is a symbol of not only beauty, but also purity and health. Loose hair was rarely allowed in hairstyles, but it was allowed to weave ribbons into braids, the colors of which spoke about the character of their wearer.

Slavic beauty - what is natural is beautiful

Belts and belts were an undoubted attribute of clothing.

Belt with Slavic ornament with double border

Spacious shirts and floor-length dresses were girded with wide or thin belts made of natural fabrics or leather. Girls often tied braid on their hips, which added airiness to the overall silhouette. The minimalism of braided straps looked great with colorful shirts on young girls.

Slavic belts: hand-woven with careful interlacing of threads that, like letters from the alphabet, form a beautiful and powerful plot

The Slavic style can be complemented by decorations in the form of pendants of pagan gods and protective amulets. Wide bracelets and beads are appropriate. For special occasions, during celebrations, fabric headbands were replaced with jewelry headbands.

Basic wardrobe in Slavic boho style

Ethno style is characterized by naturalness and practicality. Modernity has left its mark on the Slavic style, and complemented it with glamorous things.

Slavic style as a fashion trend

In general, the basic wardrobe of Slavic stylization should contain the following things:

• Long spacious sundress. It can be a classic floor-length dress or shirt-type dresses, gathered with a strap, with.

Classic outfit in Slavic style

• Maxi skirt. Flying fabrics and multi-tiered tailoring will complement the romantic look.

Skirt with Slavic embroidery is a real work of art

• Kosovorotka or peasant tunic. The prototype of a modern spacious tunic with short sleeves and a soft collar.

Women's kosovorotka with Slavic embroidered patterns

• Slavic T-shirts are a modern stylization that will complement the youth wardrobe.

T-shirts with Slavic print are the trend of this season

And if skirts and sundresses are an exclusively female option, then T-shirts are also created for the men's wardrobe.

Representatives of the stronger sex can order designer T-shirts with patterns and prints symbolizing the masculine principle.This thing will become the basis for creating an ethnic style for men.

How to wear

Ethno style dictates its own conditions for a combination of textures and colors. Girls in sundresses embroidered with amulets need to forget about high heels. Lightness will add sandals and ballet flats.

Russian-style ballet flats are a complete accessory for creating a Slavic image

In combination with layered skirts, eminent designers advise using T-shirts. It can be a one-color top or a top with beads strung on the straps. Such a combination will be emphasized by a bulky bag.

Maxi skirts in the Slavic style female image mystery and romanticism

It is preferable to opt for . A heel is appropriate only when embroidered T-shirts are the base and are worn with jeans.

Patchwork bag with Slavic motifs

Dresses are advised to combine with leather jackets or denim sleeveless jackets.

Dresses with elements of Slavic embroidery always attract attention

Tight leggings will create a good duet with a peasant tunic

Slavic modern style is not afraid of experiments
Denim shorts and modern embroidered shirt - a bold and stylish combination

Slavic T-shirts are the basis for the urban look. They are suitable for both parties and everyday wear. In addition to a bright clutch, such a t-shirt can look glamorous.

A clutch with an ethnic ornament will complement the image in the Slavic style

Men can wear T-shirts with both jeans and Bermuda shorts, which is more appropriate for summer.

Slavic style gives masculinity to the stronger sex

Light leather sandals will emphasize the Slavic beginning in the wardrobe. Furs will help to recreate the Old Boyar style.
Boots with bright ethnic embroidery

wedding fashion

Wedding dresses in the Slavic style deserve special attention. The revival of images of feminine lightness and male power raised Slavic motifs to the peak of wedding fashion.

Wedding in the Slavic style is very colorful

A Slavic-themed wedding dress looks both stylish and creative.

Slavic bride

Since ancient times, the traditional wedding attire consisted of a sundress and an apron, complemented by a wide belt. The prototype of underwear was petticoats and a shirt. Wreaths of wild flowers completed the wedding dress of the Slavs. Slavic dress for the wedding ceremony can be red, blue, white, silver or gold. Floral embroidery, decorated with beads or rhinestones, will make the image of the bride unearthly. The image of the bride in the Slavic style evokes the image of a beauty from fairy tales

Future brides can choose a stylized A-line dress, a floor-length embroidered linen dress, an asymmetrical dress with ethnic motifs, a dress with a puffy skirt and a contrasting embroidered bodice. As for the headdress, in addition to wreaths, you can use a veil embroidered with lilies or roses, a headband.

For a winter wedding, an image with a white fur hat will be a chic solution, because it was the Slavs who gave rise to the fashion for furs, which subsequently flooded all of Europe. Scythian or Russian motifs have become part of our everyday life.

Each guest will remember the image of the bride in the Slavic style forever

Slavic fashion knows no age limits. Young people successfully wear Slavic T-shirts that carry a secret meaning. Girls dress in embroidered tunics and sundresses, while women look dignified in linen dresses. The advantage of boho style is that it perfectly integrates ethnicity into modernity, unites, sometimes impossible, and creates a harmonious look.