Fustanella (for spelling in various languages, see chart below) is a traditional pleated skirt-like garment that is also referred to as a kilt worn by men of many nations in the Balkans (Southeast Europe). In modern times, the fustanella is part of Balkan folk dresses. In Greece, a short version of the fustanella is worn by ceremonial military units such as the Evzones since 1868. In Albania it was worn by the Royal Guard in the interbellum era. Both Greece and Albania claim the fustanella as a national costume. Additionally Aromanians claim the fustanella as their ethnic costume. Origins Some scholars state that the fustanella was derived from a series of ancient Greek garments such as the chiton (or tunic) and the (or short military tunic). Although the pleated skirt has been linked to an ancient statue (3rd century BC) located in the area around the Acropolis in Athens, no ancient Greek clothing has survived to confirm that the origins of the fustanella are in the pleated garments or chitons worn by men in ancient Athens. However, a 5th-century BC relief statue was discovered in Vari Cave, Attica, by Charles Heald Weller of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, depicting a stonecutter, Archedemus the Nympholept, wearing a fustanella-like garment; the short tunic he wears is tied in folds in the waist like a fustanella, which was a common practice during agricultural or other manual labor. According to other scholars the roots of the fustanella date back to Roman times, when the Albanian/Illyrian kilt became the original pattern of Roman military dress. A terracotta figurine with a fustanella-like garment was found at Durrës in Albania, dating back to the 4th century. Sir Arthur Evans said that the Albanian fustanella of the female peasants (worn over and above the Slavonic apron) living near the modern Bosnian-Montenegrin borders was a preserved Illyrian element among the local Slavic-speaking populations. Baron Franz Nopcsa theorized that the Celtic kilt emerged after the Albanian kilt was introduced to the Celts in Britain by the Roman legions, while folklorist Ioanna Papantoniou considers the Celtic kilt, as viewed by the Roman legions, to have served as the original prototype. Kilts were actually not worn by Celtic warriors of Roman times and were introduced in the Scottish Highlands c. 16th Century AD Other scholars consider that the fustanella originated from the Romans, through a shorter version of the