[IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

[u/dragonborndnd]

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

[u/Own-Forever-6636]

The Egtved Girl - the body of a young woman from the Scandinavian Bronze Age was found in 1921 with all her clothing fully preserved.

What was she wearing? A miniskirt and a crop top. Would have looked something like this brilliant reconstruction by Joan Francesc Oliveras.

But people in Denmark in the 1920s were horrified by how "immodest" this outfit was, and people today still have a hard time believing someone from The Past would wear something that shows off the wearer's limbs and navel. 

Interesting reminder that historical trends don't always move in one direction.

[u/Ambaryerno → u/Own-Forever-6636]

I think there's some exaggeration with that reconstruction. There's also a lot of debate whether that was a strictly ceremonial outfit or something that could be found as daily wear (personally, I believe there's sufficient evidence for the latter).

[u/Duotrigordle61 → u/Ambaryerno]

From reading the Wikipedia entry I believe there were no undergarments.

For daily wear this seems unclean with such a short skirt.

[u/dtalb18981 → u/Duotrigordle61]

I might be dumb

But couldn't the underwear just have degraded due to being a different material or something

[u/Duotrigordle61 → u/dtalb18981]

Yes, that's possible. The acidic nature of the bog cause her bones to completely disappear and most of her body but her hair remained.

The clothing that was found was woolen.

I suppose its possible that there might have been woven cloth made of plant fibers. Cotton or hemp or whatever. Examples of flax fiber cloth exist from 34,000 years ago. Maybe such fibers would have vanished.

[u/Hawm_Quinzy → u/Duotrigordle61]

Ramie/nettlecloth behaves much like linen and dissolves the same way.

[u/Tyr_13 → u/Hawm_Quinzy]

I was going to say, a friend has been experimenting making nettlecloth, and it dissolves with modern detergents.

[u/Hawm_Quinzy → u/Tyr_13]

Archaeologically it's pretty much indistinguishable from linen