Final answer:
Women in the Dark Ages wore clothing that reflected their social status. Respectable Roman women wore the stola and palla. High-status women from the Oseberg burial had luxurious wool and linen garments.
Step-by-step explanation:
During the Dark Ages, the attire for women varied based on their status and the specific time period. Women in ancient Rome initially could wear togas like men, but eventually, the toga became male-only attire. Roman women of respectable status then wore a stola, a long dress reaching to the feet, often sleeveless and made of wool, over a tunic.
When out in public, they would cover the stola with a cloak called the palla. Social norms and laws controlled women's clothing, with punishments for wearing garments considered inappropriate, such as wearing a toga, which was associated with prostitutes and adulteresses.
The burial site in the Oseberg mound gives us insight into high-status attire, with one woman found in a red wool dress with a luxury commodity twill pattern and a linen veil, while another wore a blue wool dress with a wool veil, indicating social stratification in clothing.
Laws from other historical periods also offer evidence of clothing restrictions based on purity and modesty, often limiting women to simple chitons and himations of linen and prohibiting extravagant attire or ornaments like gold and make-up.