A Theory About Spiral Tubes

About a week ago, I passed along a link to an article on EXARC.net about the historical use of tiny bronze spiral tubes as a clothing decoration.

My husband, who reads my blog posts via Google Plus even when they are extremely esoteric, found the idea of decorating one's clothing with woven-in metal bits prone to tarnish intriguing.  "How could you possibly clean them?" he asked me.

I observed that such ornamentation was almost certainly confined to one's best clothing, which would be seldom worn and carefully stored.  But he pointed out that likely over time the rings would tarnish badly, anyway, unless they were carefully cleaned from time to time, and they certainly could not be removed to do so.

For some reason, I remarked that spiral-ornamented garments were made from wool, and that perhaps the natural lanolin in the wool helped prevent tarnishing.

That's when my husband came out with the following theory.

Perhaps the owners of such spiral-laden garments buffed the spirals, from time-to-time, with lanolined wool fabric or fleece.  Such a coating would be much more likely to protect the tubes from tarnish, and would not damage the fabric to which they were affixed.

The beauty of this theory, to me, is that its plausibility could easily be tested.  Make a garment (or even ornament a sample piece of wool) with spiral tubes.  Brush the tubes with a lanolined cloth, and store.  Make a control garment, or sample, and store it separately, without touching the tubes with lanolin.  Check both at intervals (every 6 months, say, for a year or two), and see whether the lanolin makes a difference to the amount of tarnish on the tubes.

That sounds like a great idea for a short paper.  I should perform the experiment and write it up some time.

Spiral Tubes

From Katrin Kania's blog I recently learned that there is a good, publicly available (but short) article on EXARC.net about the use of tiny, spiral bronze tubes to decorate clothing.

In general, though the time frame when such ornaments were used varies widely by region, the countries that have used this technique are those around the Baltic Sea. The article itself may be found here.  

Although the text is brief and general, there are some wonderful photographs accompanying the article of surviving finds with spiral tube decoration, some of which I have not seen elsewhere. This article and its photos are particularly recommended to those interested in Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, or Finnish clothing of the early to late Middle Ages.

Anna Zariņa's Legacy

From Balticsmith's post on the Facebook group Viking Era Textiles and Fiber Arts, I learned tonight that archaeologist and costume historian Anna Zariņa passed away earlier this year.

I knew that Professor Zariņa was the authority on early Latvian costume, but Balticsmith's post includes a short obituary/biography that underscores the impressiveness of her achievements.  She was born into a farming family.  Her original degrees were in agriculture and home economics, but while she was at university she was exposed to Latvian folk costume and began to study it. Eventually, she learned archaeological field methods and began expanding her research into Latvian prehistory, as far back as the Bronze Age.

In short, if you know anything at all about Latvian costume, chances are you are recalling something Professor Zariņa wrote, or a summary of something Professor Zariņa wrote that was written by someone else.

Balticsmith's post includes a link to a PDF copy of a book by Professor Zariņa whose title means, in English, "Garments in Latvia from the 7th to 17th Centuries." That book can be downloaded from here.  It is written in Latvian, with a German language summary, but it is well-enough illustrated that it should be of use, and of interest, to costume scholars who don't read Latvian (or German).  I am passing the link on in the hope that it will be of use to researchers interested in clothing of the Baltic countries.  Professor Zariņa's legacy is the knowledge she researched and published, and I can think of no better way to honor her than to use and spread that knowledge.

A Latvian Cloak

For fans of early medieval Baltic culture:  Peter Beatson recently published a brief, but well-illustrated article about a 9th century Latvian cloak found in a bog.  Unlike many cloaks finds from the Baltic, this one is undecorated, but like most other finds it is made from dark blue wool--and the excellent black-and-white photographs Beatson has included with the article show that it's a 2/2 diagonal twill.

His article can be read here.

New Baltic Calendar

There is a new historical costume calendar on sale at BalticShop.com. You can see a picture of the cover here. It is a 24-month calendar for 2013-2014 and is titled, "Curonian Costumes of the 1st to 14th Centuries." Like the other two calendars published to date by the Lithuanian Folk Culture Centre, it sells for $25.00 USD; BalticShop.com charges $3.95 USD for shipping to locations in the continental US.

Because of my limited budget (and because I already have the folk-costume calendar published by the Folk Culture Centre for 2012-2013), I probably won't be buying this calendar this year, but the cover picture alone convinces me that it contains useful information (and gorgeous, full-color pictures of reproduced costumes). Hopefully I will be able to afford a copy in time for 2014. EDIT: (4/10/2014) I'm a right idiot. I *have* this calendar. I don't know what made me think it was a different one. Sadly, I discovered this by ordering it and opening the box when it arrived today. Nothing like stress to make one stupid. :-(

Early Latvian Costume Article

Against my better judgment, I purchased a copy of the sixth annual volume of Medieval Clothing and Textiles for full price back in May, instead of shopping around for a reduced price as I usually do. What led me into this rash behavior was the fact that I knew that this particular volume contains the following survey article on Latvian costume during the seventh through twelfth centuries:

Davidson, Hilary & Ieva Pigozne. Archaeological Dress and Textiles in Latvia from the Seventh to Thirteenth Centuries: Research, Results and Reconstructions, in Medieval Clothing and Textiles 6, pages 1-32 (Boydell & Brewer 2010).

This survey article is noteworthy in that, according to the authors at least, it is the first article available in English to provide an introduction to "excavated Latvian clothing and textiles and their interpretations."  (p. 1).

I eagerly devoured the article. Then, when I had some spare time last week, I read it more slowly and carefully, and found that it states a number of conclusions, based upon the archaeological research, which are, at least to me, somewhat surprising.  Among the more interesting of those conclusions are the following:

• The only detailed analysis of textile weaves is from the Liv area and from between the tenth through thirteenth centuries CE.  There, the most common weave for wool is 2/2 diagonal twill, with thread counts usually 15 by 12 (about 160 of 250 total samples).  Few were plain weave (25 samples).  These were primarily 8 cm by 10 cm and appear to have been used for lining graves or as burial wrappings, not for clothing. 42 samples were 2/2 herringbone twill, mostly 20 by 15 count.  Only five samples were diamond twill, and these were late examples (eleventh and twelfth centuries).  Twenty-one of the woollen samples were 1/2 or 2/1 twill, again 15 by 12 count.  (p. 10)
• Virtually all of the dyed fabrics found in the graves are either dark blue or *dyed* brown.  In general, overdresses, shawls (called villaines), leg  and arm wrappings, and overtunics/coats, are dyed dark blue with woad, while women's wrapskirts (called brunci) are brown with various tree barks.  Red, yellow and green are found in small amounts as decoration, mostly in tablet-woven trim or sashes.  Natural gray wool appears to have been used for common garments, and other colors are not found. (pp. 27-28) 
•  Linen, which was used for women's shifts and men's shirts., would either have been bleached or used in its natural gray color.   Natural gray wool or  linen was seen as less desirable, ostensibly because it looked like dirty white clothing, and likely was relegated to everyday attire as a result. (p. 28 )
• Women and men are believed to have worn a v-necked overgarment, called a svarki, which was typically dark blue.  Apparently the female  version was closed in the front, and pulled over the head like a tunic; the male version might also be closed or might be open all down the front  like a coat and closed with fibulae or special clasps resembling hooks and eyes.  The authors believe that this overgarment was an everyday item of clothing and not an item of fancy dress.  (p. 20)  Unfortunately, the article is unclear as to where the hemline of this overgarment might have rested.   
• Females of all ages appear to have worn a bronze circlet or crown (called vainagi) over a veil.  The earliest forms of these were made from coils of bronze wire, strung onto leather or fiber cords, and separated at intervals with bronze plaques.   These vainagi do not appear in graves in the Liv area of the country.  (p. 24)
• Liv women wore a longer overdress with tortoise brooches, like the "Viking" apron dress; this garment, which is also referred to as brunci, was typically dyed dark blue.  It's drawn as though the garment was formed like a peplos, and there is no mention of loops on these overdresses such as the loops found inside tortoise brooches in the Scandinavian countries.  (p. 15)

The wonderful pearl previously found a page where color photographs of reproductions of Latvian costume from the seventh through thirteenth centuries can be found; a number of those photos appear in the article in black-and-white.  Small copies of some of the color images can be seen here, and at the bottom of the page is a PDF about "Latvian Folk Dress" with much larger, clearer color copies of the same images that appear in the article, and more.

Because this is a survey article, it lacks detail with regard to the support for certain statements that are both intriguing and novel.  However, the footnotes list sources in Latvian that the determined Western researcher can track down, and attempt to translate for further information.  The authors express optimism that more information in English about early Latvian costume will start to become available in the future.

I found the article fascinating.  On the other hand, it's making me wonder whether the Lithuanian Viking era costume I've been working on for years isn't closer to how Davidson and Pigozne have described early Latvian costume.  More on that in another post.