General Purpose Project Update

I haven't been blogging that much this month, largely because I've been laid off (indefinitely, probably permanently) from my job, and as a result my schedule has been turned upside down and shaken. 

However, that doesn't mean I've forgotten my costume-related projects, or this blog.  The Anti-Dress Diaries are on hold for a while, because they take a lot of concentration, and I don't expect to be able to concentrate that much while my life and future remain so uncertain. 

On the other hand, I have pushed forward with my wrap-around, "fitted" apron dress.  The straps and loops are all sewn, leaving me with the decision as to how large to make the skirt gores before I sew the loops and straps permanently in place.  I've decided to make the gores as large as possible, on the theory that a bit of extra fullness in the skirt would be a good thing, but too little would be a tragedy.  So nearly every remaining scrap of my dark blue linen is being cut into triangles to be sewn into two gores.  A few of the pieces actually have markings on them from my last attempt to design gores.  I can't remember what I used to make those marks, and I hope they'll wash out.  :-)  Once the gores are sewn together, and sewn into the body of the dress, all that will remain will be to sew down the straps and hem the dress.  With luck, I might be able to finish by the beginning of March--we'll have to see.

I have a few other blog posts in progress that I'd like to finish this month.  Both are about articles from Archaeological Textiles Newsletter; one about a find in Gnezdovo, and one about a find from central Asia.  Stay tuned.

New Viking Textile Photos

I learned just this week that The Vikings of Bjornstad, an American-based Viking age reenactment group, have added a section of photographs from the Viking Museum Haithabu in Schleswig, Germany to their website. 

The photographs include photographs of textile and shoe finds as well as at least one reconstruction of textile decoration. Take a look at their photographs from the National Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, which include photographs of reproductions of a pleated front apron dress and of the blue-and-red Lonne Hede costume. 

Although I might have wished for more written information about the subject matter of each photograph, they are still interesting and useful photographs for students of Viking age and early period costume.

A Handbook of Viking Women's Dress

A while ago, I obtained a Swedish-language translation of a pamphlet about women's dress in the Viking age from Handelsgillet. I purchased it because I understood that the original had been published in Great Britain and hoped that it would contain references to sources that I had not heard of, living as I do in the United States. Unfortunately, I did not succeed in wringing much information from the Swedish edition, and eventually misplaced my copy.

Recently, I saw an English-language edition of the same pamphlet for sale on Etsy by the Dark Ages Charitable Trust. Out of curiosity, I purchased a copy, even though I am aware that the information in it should be supplemented by more recent research.

Having read the bibliography of the pamphlet, I know the origin of at least some of the more thought-provoking statements in the pamphlet (including some statements that I disagree with). However, I have decided to write this post in the hope of finding information about statements whose origins I don't understand and would like to know more about. In particular:

• In discussing Viking Age shifts, the pamphlet states that "[t]he faced keyhole is a style going back even to Ancient Egypt." (I can't give page numbers, because the version of the pamphlet I have doesn't have any.) Now I know that Peter Beatson has suggested, plausibly, that the neckline of the Manazan shirt was finished with a technique that involved a second layer of fabric under the neckline, but I don't know of any Viking Age (or, for that matter, Ancient Egyptian) finds that involve a facing in the modern sense (i.e., a piece of fabric that follows the shape of the neckline, as is depicted here).

• I have written about the "two tea towels" type of reconstructed Viking apron dress here. The pamphlet suggests that this design originated "late in the Viking period and in the Rus-lands to the east." However, the pamphlet pre-dates the Pskov find, and the pamphlet does not list any sources discussing that find in the bibliography. So where does the idea that the tea-towel style was Russian come from? I had thought it was based on a mistranslation of Agnes Geijer's work on the Birka finds.

• The pamphlet also makes this interesting claim: "In at least one grave there were the remains of vertical pleats in the cloth at the back of the dress, overlaid with tablet woven braid. This would shape the frock and put the fullness over and below the hips and back." The accompanying drawing showed four pleats, each covered with tablet-woven trim, extending from the top edge of an apron dress down to hip level. Does anyone know what find might be referred to here? It's not Birka grave 735, because although that find includes a number of rows of tablet-woven trim it does not show evidence of "pleats" so far as I am aware.

I would appreciate any insights or information any of my readers have on these issues! 

EDIT: (2/16/2012) Carolyn--I didn't delete your comment--I don't know why it's not there, but I got e-mail notification of it. Please feel free to repost it (in fact, I'd love to respond!)

More ATN Fun

About two weeks ago, while I was suffering from a bad cold, I received the second issue of Archaeological Textiles Newsletter for 2011.  2011 will be the last year that ATN publishes two issues per year; after this, it will publish only one issue, which will be as big as the two former issues combined, so subscribers will get just as much information, but will receive mailings less often.  The name of the publication will also change to "Archaeological Textiles Review".

The issue I received was interesting enough that it convinced me to renew my membership, and I urge my readers to do so to continue to support them.  This issue contains the following articles:

• Meo, Francesco. Rediscovering ancient activities:  textile tools in a 3rd-2nd century BC context from Herekleia, Southern Basilicata, Italy.
• Lipkin, Sanna and Salmi, Anna-Kaisa.  A 16th century silk fabric fragment from northern Finland.  
• Alipour, Rahil, Gleba, Margarita, and Rehren, Thilo.  Textile templates for ceramic crucibles in early Islamic Akhsiket, Uzbekistan.
• Mazare, Paula. Textiles and pottery:  Insights into Neolithic and Copper Age pottery manufacturing techniques from Romania.
• Orfinskaya, Olga and Pushkina, Tatyana.  10th century AD textiles from female burial II-301 at Gnezdovo, Russia.

To me, the most interesting article was the one about the Gnezdovo find.  To my surprise, although this burial is a chamber grave lined with boards like the Pskov grave containing the tortoise brooches, the textile find isn't even remotely like the Pskov find or any Scandinavian find of the period. Instead, it looks Central Asian.  The article describes the textiles from the grave in detail, and I'll write about it later this month.