This book is the first to deal comprehensively with the construction, significance, and function of the full range of garments of Aegean womenand related attire of men from the Neolithic to the end of the BronzeAge. As valuable as precious metals, a significant commodity of trade, luxurious in design and decoration, Minoan dress rivaled that of itsNear Eastern and Egyptian neighbors. Yet, Aegean costumes and textileshave been among the least understood of the major artistic achievementsof the Minoan civilization. Since ancient Aegean textiles and garments have not survived, the studycollects, analyzes and compiles a typology of the corpus of garmentsrepresented in sculpture, frescoes and glyptic to glean evidence forconstruction. It further considers the manufacturing techniques ofextant Egyptian clothes, comparable images of ancient Near Easterngarments, textile manufacture on the warp-weighted loom, and dressdocumented in Mycenaean Linear B, Greek and Near Eastern texts. Thecombined evidence is buttressed by experiments in replicating Aegean andrelated Near Eastern garments as well as the weave structures ofpatterned cloths and bands. The replicated clothes are arranged on livemodels who assume the various positions of the clothed figures in thefrescoes and sculptures they imitate, thereby bringing the ancientfigures to life. This all inclusive study not only illuminates every aspect of Aegeancostume, but the resultant understanding of dress and the way it drapeson the body has led to new restorations of the missing parts offragmentary garments on figural sculptures and wall paintings.