A museum in the Netherlands is showing off a colorful reconstructed dress from 800 BC based on research using cloth scraps found in an ancient gravesite, and it’s challenging how we see the past.
For many, the world before our time exists in black-and-white, or as one Dutch museum expert put it: “Many people think they were dressed in brown shifts stirring brown stuff in brown pots. Now we can show them that there were people who cared about how they looked even then.”
The excavation revealed not only the scraps but also bronze jewelry, tweezers and a nail-cleaning tool. Experts say it was likely the grave of a woman of high status. The archaeologist who handled the reconstruction told Dutch news that “We know they used wool and linens and could spin and weave. But this is no ordinary frock. You should think of it as a Chanel dress, that’s how much work was involved in making it.”
The dress and other artifacts from the dig are on display through January at the Jan Cunen Museum in Oss.
