Was it common to shave head with leaving only beard in some periods of Byzantine medieval history?

[Bonaccorso di Novara]

Sometimes I saw illustrations of Byzantine officials with fine beards but completely shaved heads, and I started to wonder was it ever really common there to shave heads in the medieval times? Usually nobility used to have long hair even there, as I can imagine.

 

[chornedsnorkack]

Sometimes I saw illustrations of Byzantine officials with fine beards but completely shaved heads, and I started to wonder was it ever really common there to shave heads in the medieval times? Usually nobility used to have long hair even there, as I can imagine.

Are they "officials"?

Tonsure - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I see references to "Oriental tonsure", shaving whole head, e. g. Theodore of Tarsus - but also a tonsure of cutting a cross pattern in hair and then letting it grow back.

 

[Bonaccorso di Novara]

Are they "officials"?

Tonsure - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I see references to "Oriental tonsure", shaving whole head, e. g. Theodore of Tarsus - but also a tonsure of cutting a cross pattern in hair and then letting it grow back.

No, not official that's why I'm not sure in this.

 

[johnincornwall]

Interesting point. The tonsure was a sign of very serious disgrace in contemporary Visigothic and Frankish society, usually accompanied by being located in a monastery and sometimes blinded and with a hand or two removed - but the Bizantines did a fair bit of that too!

 

[chornedsnorkack]

Interesting point. The tonsure was a sign of very serious disgrace in contemporary Visigothic and Frankish society, usually accompanied by being located in a monastery and sometimes blinded and with a hand or two removed - but the Bizantines did a fair bit of that too!

Byzantines seem to have had both apparently forcible moves to clergy, of people who were disgraced in secular career - as well as apparently voluntary joining clergy. Indeed, there are biographies of Byzantine officials who pursued secular official career for some time without yet joining the clergy... except that for some reason they remained bachelors, and a suspicion is voiced that they were bachelors while laymen so that if/when they did join clergy, they might qualify for bishops.

 

[TupSum]

I have seen a discussion where one of the scholars was claiming that the "shaven head" references are not of cosmetic nature, but to denote a client or tributary status of a tribe.