ABSTRACT

Babylonia bore the signature of Sumerian culture during the reign of Ibbi-Sîn.This was just before the Amorites came into the consciousness of Mesopotamians at the very beginning of the second millennium BC. Temple architecture, agrarian life and even commerce had not radically changed from earlier times. This tenacity to the Mesopotamian gestalt was vividly reflected in dress. The kaunakes garment, for example, was worn since early Uruk times, and also the diagonal spiral-wrapped panel dress was prevalent as a royal or elite garment, since the early third millennium BC (Figure 9.1).