Forensic Archaeology at Work: Hairstyles of Antiquity

Photo Feature: Ruthie Portes (left) is a senior studying writing seminars and

archaeology. She hails from Westchester, New York and in 2014

conducted archaeological summer fieldwork in Spain. Ruthie was

a volunteer model for the Roman-styled haircut demonstration, styled

by Janet Stephens, using traditional hair techniques from the times of

Roman antiquity. Hair buff (right)

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Just when you thought cracking a “natty boh,” as you wait for the snapback wearing, tightly trimmed bearded and elaborately tattooed barber to style your new dew at Old Bank Barbers would be the most unique haircut experience you’ve ever heard of in Baltimore, think again.

Janet Stephens raised the bar for us on March 28th at the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum with thread and needle in hand, as she masterfully wove Senior Ruthie Portes’ hair into a look from Roman Antiquity, in the basement of Gilman.

Janet Stephens set out to challenge the widely accepted archeological “fact” that the hairstyles of Greek and Roman antiquity could only have been achieved by wearing a wig. Her expertise in the subject and path to debunking this myth were the theme to this months “Archeology chat,” at the University owned archaeology museum.

Janet’s story began in 2001 at the Walter’s Art Museum, located just south of Mount Vernon. Janet happened to be waiting for her child’s music lesson to end when, while exploring the antiquities collection, came upon a bust of the empress Julia Domma. What significance did Julia Domma have to Janet? Well frankly, absolutely nothing. Upon commenting on the antiquity buffs Janet said, “I didn’t freaking care, they all had broken noses anyway.” What Stephens was after and with a bit of awkward angling between the back of the bust and the museum wall was a glance at the hairstyle.

The image of the purple haired, middle-aged mom snooping her nose behind an ancient bust on a weekday at the Walters Museum begins to become less of a “look at that creepy lady,” story when we learn that Janet is actually a hairstylist. In fact, she is more than that; Janet is a hairdresser and an amateur forensic archaeologist, with over 25 years of experience.

Though a hairstylist by trade, Janet has perhaps one of the best noses for investigate work and the scientific method. She has been married to Hopkins professor Walter Stephens for the past 25 years and for a number of them has been an outlet for the criticism of countless doctoral students: “Why won’t they just look at the footnotes,” is something Janet says he exclaims all to often. Janet used both her own intuition and the didactic ramblings of her husband to critically comb through primary sources and gather information on the ancient hairstyles. Janet’s experience in “the field” gives her the expertise to reverse engineer hairstyles in her mind. She knew the styles of antiquity could indeed be replicated, but only after she had conducted a literature review and presented the styles on a silver platter to the academic community, would she be able to debunk the common belief that the hairstyles of antiquity could only be achieved with fake hair.

Using a German print catalog of portraits and an online catalog for wigs and hairstyles, she put herself to the challenge and began working on these hairstyles in her basement. After a period of trial and error, Janet succeeded in replicating the desired looks of Greek and Roman times. Janet’s success was founded in replicating hairstyles by using techniques and methods uncovered in her research and by abandoning the modern techniques you might expect to find in a salon today.

Reflecting upon her trials Janet said, “You can never say it’s impossible unless you can prove it’s impossible and even then, somebody might come at it sideways and find that it is possible.” Sideways may only have given Janet a portion of empress Domma’s hairstyle, but all archaeologists alike can be happy it wasn’t the face of Julia Domma that caught Janet’s eye.

If you’re interested in learning more about Greek and Roman buffs, stop by the Johns Hopkins Archeology Museum in Gilman 150. The buffs here on campus are conveniently located in glass cases where both the front and back can be viewed, coincidence? Stop by and tell us what you think!

#Archaeology #Antiquity #Roman #Badhairday