Egyptian sculpture

OLD KINGDOM 49

is visible. Necklaces were worn, sometimes bracelets and, more rarely, anklets, but never ear-rings.

But though the costume of the Old Kingdom is not satisfactory for dating purposes, the methods of dressing the hair are extremely valuable. The wigs worn by men over their shaven heads are of two kinds, one of which is represented very rarely in relief sculpture. The more usual form of short curls arranged in stiff rows (p. 48. figs. 1, 2) is found throughout the period; it was common to all classes of society: even the men who pull down the bull (PI. XIII. 2) are shown as wearing this type of wig, and it was also used by the greatest nobles. The other style of wig is found as early as the IlIrd dynasty, and appears to belong to the upper classes only; it is a form which is excessively rare in reliefs. The hair is cut to the shoulders and is parted down the middle; it is brought plainly over the forehead, from which it stands away, then it curves out above the ears while the under strands are brought forward (p. 48. fig. 4). Itis a form of hair-dressing which does not appear to occur after the Old Kingdom. In many cases also the men of all ranks are represented as wearing white skull-caps, fitting round the ears with a flap and covering the head completely; the whole of the shaven head was thus protected (p. 48. fig. 3). Very rarely a man is shown wearing a ribbon tied filletwise round the head over the wig. In the early Old Kingdom, i.e. at the end of the IIIrd dynasty or beginning of the IVth, men of high rank wore small moustaches, though all others of every class were clean-shaven; at the end of the IVth dynasty and onwards throughout the Old Kingdom the moustache was no longer worn. High officials and great nobles wore, on ceremonial occasions, a short beard strapped to the point of the chin; the false beard of a king was always long, and was

thus differentiated from the short beard of his subjects. 6