A Cheaper NESAT X

The published volumes from each North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles ("NESAT") contain wonderful information about costume-related archaeological finds, especially for early period costume, but the volumes themselves can be hard to obtain and are usually pricey when found.

So I was pleased to see that Casemate Academic is selling a PDF copy of NESAT X (the one before the most recent volume, NESAT XI) for $48.00 USD. The page that PDF can be purchased from is here. This is possible because Casemate is the American affiliate of Oxbow Books, and Oxbow happens to be the publisher of NESAT X. 

Granted, $48.00 still may be a lot of money for one book, especially for a digital book.   But, in my opinion, it still represents an improvement over having to track down NESAT X by interlibrary loan (and having to return it before fully absorbing the information you've sought it out to find) or paying the much higher dead-tree price, so I figured I'd pass the information along.

My Copy of NESAT X Has Shipped!

So says Amazon.

The weather forecast for tomorrow and Saturday here is for heavy snow, so I doubt I'll see my copy before next week anyway. However, it's good to know that it's on its way. I will likely post about the Pskov article, once I've read it, and probably some of the other articles as well.

EDIT: I've been tracking the parcel's progress on line, and it apparently made it to the West Chester warehouse of UPS (i.e., about 10 miles away) before the big snowstorm hit our area. If there had been no snow, I would have had it this afternoon; now, I should have it Monday.

NESAT X--A Tiny Taste

I have on order from Amazon.com a copy of NESAT X, which was originally scheduled to be published by Oxbow Books on December 1.  Amazon duly sent me e-mail a few weeks ago, reporting an anticipated shipping date of December 4-8, 2009.

Two days ago, I got another e-mail from Amazon, advising that there would be a delay in getting the book from the publisher and that the shipping date was therefore being pushed back to December 17.

Since Amazon used to have a reputation for making excessively optimistic shipping date predictions for new books, I went to the Oxbow Books website to see whether they were representing that the book was out.  I learned that it is not, and also found a full table of contents which is positively mouthwatering.   It's also long, so instead of reproducing the table of contents here, I'll provide a link to it instead.

Below I've listed a selection of articles that I believe will appeal to costume researchers with particular interests, based primarily on the titles (but partly upon the abstracts from the proceedings that are available on line).  Just reading the titles is making me drool.  And Katrin Kania, my friend over at A Stitch In Time, has an article in this NESAT. 

For those interested in Roman period costume:
Textile Remains on One Roman Bronze Vessels from Repov (Czech Republic) (Kristýna Urbanova and Helena Brezinova).

For those interested in Bronze Age through Migration Period costume:
Difference in the Elaboration of Dress in Northern Europe during the Middle Bronze Age (Sophie Bergerbrant);
A Bronze Age Plaited Starting Border (Amica Sundström);
Textile Craftsmanship in the Norwegian Mirgation Period (Synnøve Thingnæs)

For scholars of Early Period Frankish costume:
Garments for a Queen (Antoinette Rast-Eicher) [N.B.  This is about the find believed to be Queen Arnegunde's remains, approximately 7th century C.E.]

For Viking era enthusiasts:
Oriental Influences in Viking Age Denmark: a Kaftan with Belt and Pouches (Anne Hedeager Krag);
Warrior’s Clothing in the RigsÞula Poem (Annika Larsson);
Studies of the Textiles from the Excavation of Pskov in 2006 (Elena S. Zubkova, Olga V. Orfinskaya and Kirill A. Mikhailov);
Elite and Military Scandinavian Dress as Portrayed in the Lewis Chess Pieces (Elizabeth Wincott Heckett);
Headwear, Footwear and Belts in the Íslendingasögur and Íslendingaþættir (Anna Zanchi).

For early period Baltic fans:
Textiles from the 3rd-12th Century AD Cremation Graves found in Lithuania (Elvyra Peceliunaite-Bažiene);
The Neolithic Mats of the Eastern Baltic Littoral (Virginija Rimkute).

For medieval costume fans:
The Perfect Picture – A Comparison between 13th-century Art and Two Preserved Tunics (Eva I. Andersson);
A Study of Two Medieval Silk Girdles: The so-called ‘Eric of Pomerania’s Belt’ and the Dune Belt (Viktoria Holmqvist);
Construction and Sewing Technique in Secular Medieval Garments (Katrin Kania);
Patterned Tablet-Woven Band – In Search of the 11th Century Textile Professional (Silja Penna-Haverinen);
Two Early Middle Age Caps from the Dwelling Mounds Rasquert and Leens in Groningen Province, the Netherlands (Hanna Zimmerman);
The Use of Horsehair in Female Headdresses of the 12th-13th Century AD (Irita Zeiere).

I can hardly wait to start reading it!