"Egyptian clothing in the First Century BC" Topic

I fancy doing some rioting mobs for the time of Caesar in Alexandria, and I'm wondering what the average Egytian man-in-the-street was wearing around 50BC; would they still have worn the linen skirty-things that they had in the biblical era? And were the biblical "bob" haircuts still de rigeur?

In terms of military types, might Egyptian marines still have been wearing quilted cotton armour?

I can't even think where to start researching this.

Simon

I should there would be a lot of foreign influence by that time. The Ptolemies had been in power for over a hundred years, and before them there had been occupation by the Persians. However I have no idea – the British Museum might be a good place to start. Surely they have a research library.

Many funeral portraits have been recovered from Roman era Egypt. These show that the upper classes at this time were completely Hellenized in their dress and hair styles:

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I don't know of any comparable evidence for the peasantry or urban poor. Since the climate was very hot, it is likely that linen clothing was preferred over wool, and that men stripped for labor. I don't know whether kilts or bally-rags would have been more likely, maybe close examination of surviving art could provide a clue:

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Yes it's those urban poor I need, and as you say they won't be in any funerary portraits… Simon

The population of Alexandria was largely non-Egyptian in Caesar's time – some documents refer to it as Alexandria by Egypt rather than in Egypt.
A large portion of the population was Jewish – roughly round this time 1/8 of the population of Egypt was Jewish and they were more prevalent in Alexandria.Jews are estimated to have made up around 1/3 of the city. Jewish dress at this time seems to have been pretty similar to Hellenistic garb and many were Hellenised.
Of the remainder, the majority were 'Macedonian' (probably a mix of Greeks and Hellenised). They would have worn the same style clothing as the rest of the Hellenistic world, though linen was probably more common than wool.
Even the Egyptian population showed a good deal of hellenisation with Greek names often being adopted.

That's ineresting; I knew there was a large jewish minority and had assumed a lot of Greeks would be present, but thought there would be a majority native Egyptian population.

So essentially we are talking tunics and more tunics? This could tie in nicely with a Jewish Revolt pipedream I've had for a long time…

Simon

For the gneral poor; I'd say figures in a diaper, carrying a stick should do it…how about Numidian infantry?