Pointy hat

The tigrakhauda (Orthocorybantians) relief of eastern stairs of the Apadana of Persepolis.

Pointy hats have been a distinctive item of headgear of a wide range of cultures throughout history, in particular suggesting an ancient Indo-European tradition, but they were also traditionally worn by women of Lapland, the Japanese, the Mi'kmaq people of Atlantic Canada, and the Huastecs of Veracruz and Aztec (illustrated e.g. in Codex Mendoza). The Kabiri of New Guinea have the diba, a pointed headgear glued together.^[1]

Bronze Age

The conical golden hats of Bronze Age Central Europe were probably a ceremonial priestly accessory. See also horned helmet.

Iron Age

Textile analysis of the Tarim Mummies has shown some similarities to the Iron Age civilizations of Europe dating from 800 BC, including woven twill and tartan patterns strikingly similar to Celtic tartans from Northwest Europe. One of the unusual finds with one of the mummies was a distinctively pointy hat:

Yet another female - her skeleton found beside the remains of a man - still wore a terrifically tall, conical hat just like those we depict on witches riding broomsticks at Halloween or on medieval wizards intent at their magical spells. (Barber 1999:200)

Pointy hats were also worn in ancient times by Saka (Scythians), and shown on Hindu temples and Hittite reliefs. The name of the Scythian tribe of the tigrakhauda (Orthocorybantians) is a bahuvrihi compound literally translating to "people with pointy hats".

The Hallstatt culture Warrior of Hirschlanden is wearing a pointy hat or helmet.

Hephaestus, the Cabeiri as well as Odysseus are traditionally pictured as wearing a Pilos, a woolen conical hat.

Relief in Hattusa, probably depicting Suppiluliuma II.

The "golden man" of the Issyk kurgan.

Odysseus wearing a Pilos

Middle Ages

The Jewish poet Süßkind von Trimberg wearing a Jewish hat (Codex Manesse, 14th century)

The 9th century Cumans are reported to have fought wearing pointy hats.

The Papal tiara in the Middle Ages is sometimes shown as more pointed than in more recent centuries, though also shown with no point. Mitra papalis is a type of conch named after the papal mitre for its form.

Following the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 Jews were forced to wear distinctive clothing which often took the form of the pointy Jewish hat (or "Judenhut"), which were already worn by Jews, probably imported from the Islamic world, and perhaps before that from Persia.^[2]

Popular among Burgundian noblewomen in the 15th century was a type of conical headgear now called a hennin.^[3]

The whirling dervishes from the 13th century wore hats similar to the hennins, and the Ottoman Janissaries wore similar headgear to show their veneration for Hadji Bektash, founder of a Sufi order.

Conical hats were also popular in late medieval Vijayanagar, India.

The term dunce cap is only attested from 1840, but allegedly (according to Cecil Adams), John Duns Scotus in the 14th century recommended the wearing of conical hats to stimulate learning.

Modern times

The Spitzhut is a traditional headgear in Bavaria.

Pointy hoods were used by various secret orders and Catholic lay confraternities for processions, e.g. the Semana Santa of Sevilla who wore the Capirote, and eventually also adopted by the Ku Klux Klan.

The term Pointy Hat was also used as a derogatory term towards the leader of the Roman Catholic Church (the Pope) and the Papal Tiara. The term has generally lost most its notoriety after the Vatican II discontined the tradition of wearing the papal tiara.

Unhooded pointy hats are still worn in rural Louisiana Mardi Gras celebrations by the Cajuns, where they are known as capuchons.

The developers of the FreeBSD Project award symbolic pointy hats (Dunce hat) to other developers or themselves, usually in humorous intent, to highlight mistakes.

Folklore and fiction

Classical pointy hats are worn by the dwarfs, witches and wizards of European myth. See also Garden gnome, Smurfs, Gandalf, Merlin, Odin.

See also

• Capirote
• Mitre
• Sugarloaf hat
• conical straw hat
• Gugel
• Capuchon
• Party hat

References

1. ^ Angeleimter Spitzhut oder "diba" Kabiri (Neuguinea) (German)
2. ^ Jewish hat article
3. ^ hat — FactMonster.com

• Barber, A.W. (1999). The Mummies of Ürümchi. Macmillan, London.

External links

• Other groups from the Middle ages who wore tall pointy hats!
• Pagan Myths Debunked: Where Did You Think That Pointy Hat Came From, Anyway?