Pssst! Want to buy a copy of NESAT XII?

The North European Symposium on Archaeological Textiles, or "NESAT", is a symposium that is held about every three years.  Each NESAT has produced a symposium volume of papers on archaeological finds relating to textiles and costume that are eagerly sought after by people, like me, who are interested in the history of costume (especially early period European costume).  But the print runs are small, and the volumes remaining after the conference participants have received their copies tend to be expensive.

When I was making a lot more money, the expense was not as much of a problem.  But now I find the typical $70 USD price of the newer NESAT volumes prohibitive.  My collection of NESAT volumes ends with NESAT XI.  I have not been able to purchase NESAT XII and NESAT XIII, which were published after NESAT XI came out in 2013.

Recently, I began looking for the NESAT volumes I lacked at reduced prices.   To my dismay, I could not find a seller of NESAT XII that had the volume in stock for any price.  So I checked the webpage of the publisher of NESAT XII, Archaeolingua. Archaeolingua is based in Budapest, and all transactions in its webshop must be made in either Hungarian forints or Euros, but I figured if anyone would still have the book available, it would be them.

To my surprise, I was able to obtain a copy for 20 Euros (a bit less than $24 USD)!  The copy was an e-book, of course (a PDF, to be exact), but that was an advantage, since I was able to download it immediately as soon as my payment (via credit card) was accepted.  

NOTE:  I was not able to find the book's page via the search function, but if you choose the category "Archaeolingua Series Maior" you can page through the four pages worth of books to find it.  Be aware that the site can be balky.

NESAT XIV

The fourteenth NESAT (North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles) is coming up. It's scheduled to take place May 18-22, 2020 in Oulu, Finland. It has been organized in collaboration between the University of Oulu, Aalto University, and the University of Helsinki. The schedule, including names and topics of persons who will be presenting either posters or papers, may be found here. 

Of special interest to me, given my fascination with the Viking Age and European prehistory are the following. All descriptions come from the NESAT XIV area of the NESAT website.

• Katrin Kania: Tablet-Weaving: Weaving Complex Patterns Without Paper Drafts.

• Ulla Mannering, Eva Andersson Strand, Charlotte Rimstad & Ida Demant: Fashioning the Viking Age – the tools, textiles and costumes.

• Mervi Pasanen: It´s all about details – Finnish late iron age dress finishing and accessories.

• Alexandra Makin: A recreation of the early medieval St Cuthbert maniple.

• Jana Ratas: Spiral tube decorations on ancient clothing in Estonia and neighbouring countries on the Eastern coast of Baltic Sea.

• Sue Salminen: Ravattula Dress project.

• Maikki Karisto, Heini Kirjavainen & Jaana Riikonen: Fibres & Dyes, Bands & Seams - Preliminary results on Ravattula costume ca. 1200 AD.

• Tuija Kirkinen: Microfibers evidence the use of skin garments in the 11th century inhumation burial 56 in Luistari cemetery, southwestern Finland.

Annika Larsson is presenting a paper about silk samite textiles found in Boat Grave 36 at Gamla Uppsala. In light of some of Larsson's stranger theories, I view her upcoming presentation with a bit of trepidation, but hope that it will at least contain useful information about archaeological finds with which I am not familiar.

I have not succeeded in obtaining copies of the conference volumes for NESAT XII and XIII, though I've seen and obtained some of the papers involved from Academia.edu.  NESAT XIV looks as though it will concentrate heavily on my periods of interest and I'm excited to see what information is reported in it.

So What Are NESATs Anyway?

It occurred to me that anyone who is not familiar with costume from before the year 1600 C.E., or who is not accustomed to examining the archaeological literature for costume and textile-related information, may not know what I meant by referring to "NESAT X" in my last post.

"NESAT" is an acronym for a semi-regularly conducted international conference on archaeological textiles; it expands as "North European Symposium on Archaeological Textiles". The first one was held in 1982 and involved only a bare handful of scholars. the conference has grown significantly in size since then.

The papers presented at each NESAT are peer-reviewed, scholarly papers about archaeological textile finds (usually, but not always, clothing-related) from various locations in Northern Europe, dating from antiquity to as late as the 18th century. Some time after the end of the conference, the papers are published as a printed hardcover or paperback volume, depending on the publisher. (The conference has had different hosts, and the written volume different publishers, over the years.) About 60% of the papers typically are in English, with the rest in German. They have charts galore and black-and-white photos and illustrations. They are not always easy reading, but they are highly informative, and often contain information that is currently available nowhere else.

The most recent one, NESAT X, was held last May in Copenhagen: the website is here. The hardcover volume for that conference is expected to be published this October and will be carried by David Brown Book Company/Oxbow Books and Amazon. The abstracts for the papers can be found here.

For anyone interested in Viking age and early medieval costume, this volume in particular will be well-worth reading, and I am looking forward to doing so.