India cotton (1600s AD) In the early 1600s AD, traders began to bring cotton cloth to Europe on sailing ships from India. People thought this cotton cloth was very convenient - it was pretty, [...]
Maerten van Heemskerck, Portrait of Anna Codde, 1529 In the 1500s AD, women in Europe were still getting used to using the spinning wheel instead of the drop spindle to make thread. The spinning wheel [...]
French women wearing pants (Paris, 1922) Even though European men had started wearing pants in the early 1800s, women in Europe didn't really start to wear pants until about 100 years later, [...]
Medieval peasant clothing, from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1400s AD, now in Chantilly) What did medieval people wear? In Medieval Europe, as in the Roman period, most people [...]
Medieval Islamic clothing: women covered their heads with veils, and men wore hats or turbans. Why did people cover up their bodies? It was hot in the Islamic Empire. So people [...]
Dancing woman from Mohenjo Daro, in what is now Pakistan Slavery in ancient India There were probably always slaves in India, but until about 1000 AD there were only a few people who were enslaved, [...]
Cotton bolls hanging from the plants I began as a bloom of cotton, outdoors. Then they brought me to a room where they washed me. Then the hard strokes of the [...]
Ancient Indian clothing: A woman wearing a long tunic - Mathura, 100s AD Ancient Indian clothing: the cotton dhoti People in India wore mostly cotton clothing. India was the first place where people grew [...]
Herakles as a baby, on a red-figure vase from Athens (400s BC) Herakles/Hercules You might think you already know all about Hercules (the Greeks called him Herakles) from watching the Disney [...]
Greek slaves: An enslaved woman playing a kithara. You can tell she is a slave because she has short hair. What did Greek slaves work at? In ancient Greece, most [...]
