E18 - Everyday Clothing in Roman Judea

Jesus in flowing robes. Mary, his mother, in a veil. Mary Magdalene in red with loose flowing hair. Even the disciples in short tunics bare-headed. All these, and more, are part of the standard iconography of Christianity.

Yet both here, and with Roman or Greco-Roman people in this period in general, many of our ideas about daily dress and styling are wrong.

Today, we’re going to dig into what everyday dress was like in ancient Judea and beyond, busting some myths while also showing that, in many ways, people then saw fashion no differently fr...