The Dätgen trousers

in: Drawing the threads together, Textiles and footwear of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt, 2013

K. Grömer and F. Pritchard (eds.) 2015: Aspects of the Design, Production and Use of Textiles and Clothing from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern Era.. Archaeolingua Main Series 33. Budapest 2015., 2015

The NESAT XII symposium was organized by the Natural History Museum Vienna from 21st to 24th May 2014 in Hallstatt, Austria. The North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles (NESAT) was founded in 1981 as a discussion forum between various disciplines: textile archaeologists, historians, art historians, natural scientists, conservators and craftspeople. The conference volume contains 35 scientific papers grouped into seven chapters. The first chapters introduce Austrian textile research and prehistoric textile finds from Europe, such as recent analysis of the earliest wool finds and early Scandinavian textile design. The main corpus of articles deals with textiles and clothing covering a time span from early medieval to the early modern period, their archaeological research, experiments and art historical context. Five papers focus on tools and textile production, object-based research as well as experimental archaeology and investigation of written sources. The chapter “Specific analyses” embraces interdisciplinary research including dyestuff analysis, isotopic tracing and a drawing system for archaeological textile finds from graves. The book, therefore, provides a wealth of information on recent research being undertaken into archaeological textiles from sites in Central and Northern Europe.

Many fragments of archaeological textiles have been found in the Netherlands during the last century. This article focuses on the way these textiles were made and used. How and where were textiles and clothes made and by whom? Was cloth production already a practice of specialists, acting in an extensive trade network, or was it a craft that mainly took place at the household level? To answer these questions  fragments of  different textiles, from  sites have been examined. Without exception these textiles were discovered in settlement context, mostly in the north of the country. The analysis of the remnants has resulted in the distinction of the different steps in the production process and insight in the way the textile products were used. The results show that many textiles are likely to have been produced at a household level. Only in a few cases were they made using special skills and tools or did the production process require much time. Some products, such as the finer fabrics, the fine needlework on several hats, fabrics with a raised nap, piled weaves and a veil-like garment, may be considered as the work of textile specialists. In this article it is argued that these specialists were either working for a patron or in an independent workshop.  Chrystel R. Brandenburgh Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries - (May ) © Brandenburgh and AUP  Chrystel R. Brandenburgh Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries - (May ) © Brandenburgh and AUP Early medieval textile remains from settlements in the Netherlands. An evaluation of textile production  Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries - (May ) © Brandenburgh and AUP  Chrystel R. Brandenburgh Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries - (May ) © Brandenburgh and AUP  Chrystel R. Brandenburgh Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries - (May ) © Brandenburgh and AUP  Chrystel R. Brandenburgh Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries - (May ) © Brandenburgh and AUP

Britannia, 2014

In: K. Grömer and F. Pritchard (eds.) 2015: Aspects of the Design, Production and Use of Textiles and Clothing from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern Era. NESAT XII. The North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles, 21st – 24th May 2014 in Hallstatt, Austria. Budapest

First Textiles. The Beginnings of Textile Manufacture in Europe and the Mediterranean. Edited by Malgorzata Siennicka, Lorenz Rahmstorf and Agata Ulanowska. Ancient Textiles Series 32, 2017, 2017

This book is one of the results of the collaborative research project 'First Textiles. The Beginnings of Textile Manufacture in Europe and the Mediterranean', implemented in 2013-2017 at the University of Copenhagen. 1 The project was designed to elucidate the beginnings of textile manufacture, tools and techniques in the Epipalaeolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in Europe and the Mediterranean. Its aim was to bring together scholars who work on actual remains of prehistoric fabrics, undertake scientifi c analyses, deal with textile technologies and implements, study archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological material, and focus on ethnographic evidence and experimental approach to textile studies. We sought to discuss latest advances in the methodologies, technologies, material and scientifi c studies, as well as recent archaeological fi nds associated with the earliest textiles. The main activities of the project consisted of the organisation of two international scientifi c meetings 2 and the subsequent publication of their proceedings, incorporated in the present volume.

2010

The NESAT symposium has grown from the first meeting in 1981 which was attended by 23 scholars, to over 100 at the tenth meeting that took place in Copenhagen in 2008, with virtually all areas of Europe represented. The 50 papers from the conference presented here show the vibrance of the study of archaeological textiles today. Examples studied come from the Bronze Age, Neolithic, the Iron Age, Roman, Viking, the Middle Ages and post-Medieval, and from a wide range of countries including Norway, Czech Republic, Poland, Greece, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia and the Netherlands. Modern techniques of analysis and examination are also discussed.

Archaeological Textiles – Links Between Past and Present. NESAT XIII, 2017

Among the textile fragments discovered at Lengberg Castle in East-Tyrol, Austria, were a few almost completely preserved pieces of garments such as several nearly complete linen bras and fragments of possibly skirted bodices. Before the finds at Lengberg Castle, no physical evidence of supportive undergarments, so-called ‘breast bags’, had been discovered, although garments of this type were mentioned in several written sources of the time. There were also fragments of linen linings for three gowns: two for a small girl (one of blue wool and one of red silk) and one blue woollen example for an adult woman. These linen linings are most noteworthy for the techniques applied to their tailoring. The Lengberg lining fragments demonstrate that 15th century tailors had a highly-advanced understanding of the bias properties of fabrics, far beyond anything expected, and not to be duplicated in fashion until the 1930s. In the creation of the fashionable 15th century gowns with under-bust pleating, the tailors used the bias collapse and drape of the fabrics to provide the shaping around the individual breasts, instead of using straight grain panels and gores, as is seen in the Greenland finds – a dramatic revolution in tailoring techniques. While this design augmented the shape of the breasts, it provided no support, and thus separate supportive garments were worn under the gown to support, shape and lift the breast. With the transition to Italian style garments at the beginning of the 16th century, these bias techniques of women’s tailoring were no longer needed, and thus were lost, with bias-cut hose and stockings being the only remnant of this tailoring revolution. The aim of this research is to draw a correlation between supportive undergarments and the tailoring of the gowns worn over them. The bra allows for looser tailoring of the gown, which accentuates two separate breasts, as opposed to supportive kirtles which result in a monobosom (one curving mound). One garment requires the other. The three gowns, the supportive underwear and smocks are under reconstruction to better understand the tailoring methods used, how the single garments worked individually and as layers (supportive undergarment – smock – gown), and contribute to the study of female apparel of the second half of the 15th century.

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia. Anthology of COST Action “CA 19131 – EuroWeb”, 2024