"Vestire gli ignudi". The Appearance of Dress in Iron Age Phoenician Figurines: the case of Kharayeb (Lebanon)

The theme of nudity in the votive clay figurines is closely correlated with that of the meaning of the use of dress in the society that created them. In this paper, on the basis of the analysis of the votive coroplastic from the cult place of Kharayeb, dating from the 7th to the Hellenistic period, the phenomenon of the appearance in the Late Iron Age Levant repertoire of female figurines wearing a long, simple mantle or more sophisticated dress will be analyzed. In fact, even if naked female figurines presenting their breasts are still part of the local repertoire, it is evident that, from the Late Iron Age onwards, the Levantine communities feel the need to represent women with clothes probably to emphasize the gender, age and social position. The introduction of the Greek repertoire will be also considered. In particular, it is interesting that the population of the Phoenician agrarian hinterland in the Hellenistic period "delegates" to images of a distant and very different world the representation of their own physical appearance (body, dress, movement, etc.) The aim of this paper is to assess this act of delegation, which was performed not by an individual but by an entire community, considering that ritualization strategies are closely linked to the body (according to embodiment theories) and that wearing a special dress, hairstyle or jewellery, or emphasizing a certain part of the body, is a way of indicating status and identity.