Two 4th and 3rd century BC terracotta statues from Athens depicting ancient Macedonians wearing the kausia. |
The kausia (Ancient Greek: καυσία) was an ancient Macedonian flat hat.
It was worn during the Hellenistic period but perhaps even before the time of Alexander the Great and was later used as a protection against the sun by the poorer classes in Rome.
Depictions of the kausia can be found on a variety of coins and statues found from the Mediterranean to the Greco-Bactrian kingdom and the Indo-Greeks in northwestern India. The Persians referred to the Macedonians as Yaunã Takabara or "Greeks with hats that look like shields", possibly referring to the Macedonian kausia hat.
A modern descendant of the hat may be the Pakol: the familiar and remarkably similar men's hat from Afghanistan.