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This is a rough translation (with the help of Babelfish.yahoo.com for much of the grunt labor) of the aforementioned article about the 15th c. underpants find at Schloss Lengberg. The original article is by Dr. Beatrix Nutz and I apologize to her if I've mangled any of the facts beyond recognition.
The Unmentionables
That's what one formerly called the undergarments, above all the underpants, which shame forbade one to talk about. Nevertheless they've been around for quite a while. The Romans called them "subligar" and in the Middle Ages they were called "broche", when they were primarily considered a garment for men. Nevertheless there is also a depiction of young Roman women at the baths (fig. 1) wearing a similar article of clothing. Yet in the Middle Ages they were known only from artwork (fig. 3) until now a pair of late medieval underpants were found in Tirol in an archaeological dig (fig. 4). The find was discovered, together with numerous other textiles, including leather, mainly shoes, and futher organic remains, including a wooden flute, from a spandrel in Schloss Lengberg, in the Nikolsdorf district in East Tirol in 2008. Spread out, they have a roughly hourglass cut, somewhat wider at the "hind" end and with ties on the corners, by which they resemble a modern bikini. Made from linen, which can be seen in three layers in the middle, they could have belonged either to a man or a woman. A DNA analysis, performed under the direction of Dr. Walther Parson at the Institute for Forensic(?) Medicine at the Medieval University of Innsbruck unfortunately furnished no knew insights. Through the archaeological find, the architectural history of the castle can be dated to the 15th century, with the help of Carbon-14 dating. The underpants date to sometime around 1440 and were disposed of as waste in the spandrel, during construction on the castle when an additional floor was added. This practice was common in the Middle Ages whereby one could get rid of garbage withou much cost. As the floor was laid over the spandrel, which the history of the castle indicates was in the year 1485, the waste became "out of sight, out of mind". Besides which, they could also serve as an insulating material between the floors.
The find of these underpants now makes it possible for archaologists to research the exact design and cut and to examine the seam techniques and materials that were used and to discover details that one can't determine from pictures. This promises new, exciting discoveries concerning underwear production in the 15th century. Eventually the underpants can be reconstructed so that one can experience a medieval "clothing-feel".
I'll add one comment from my own research on the topic of medieval underpants. The comment about not being able to determine whether the garment belonged to a man or woman, while technically true in an absolute sense, doesn't take into account the significant amount of evidence that this particular garment was not only restricted to men's use at the time, but was considered a "definitively masculine" garment in the sense that it was used symbolically in art to indicate masculine authority and the usurpation thereof.
Still and all, this find is very exciting, not only for the information it provides about the particular garment but for the promise of all the other textile finds there may be waiting for us out there.
The Unmentionables
That's what one formerly called the undergarments, above all the underpants, which shame forbade one to talk about. Nevertheless they've been around for quite a while. The Romans called them "subligar" and in the Middle Ages they were called "broche", when they were primarily considered a garment for men. Nevertheless there is also a depiction of young Roman women at the baths (fig. 1) wearing a similar article of clothing. Yet in the Middle Ages they were known only from artwork (fig. 3) until now a pair of late medieval underpants were found in Tirol in an archaeological dig (fig. 4). The find was discovered, together with numerous other textiles, including leather, mainly shoes, and futher organic remains, including a wooden flute, from a spandrel in Schloss Lengberg, in the Nikolsdorf district in East Tirol in 2008. Spread out, they have a roughly hourglass cut, somewhat wider at the "hind" end and with ties on the corners, by which they resemble a modern bikini. Made from linen, which can be seen in three layers in the middle, they could have belonged either to a man or a woman. A DNA analysis, performed under the direction of Dr. Walther Parson at the Institute for Forensic(?) Medicine at the Medieval University of Innsbruck unfortunately furnished no knew insights. Through the archaeological find, the architectural history of the castle can be dated to the 15th century, with the help of Carbon-14 dating. The underpants date to sometime around 1440 and were disposed of as waste in the spandrel, during construction on the castle when an additional floor was added. This practice was common in the Middle Ages whereby one could get rid of garbage withou much cost. As the floor was laid over the spandrel, which the history of the castle indicates was in the year 1485, the waste became "out of sight, out of mind". Besides which, they could also serve as an insulating material between the floors.
The find of these underpants now makes it possible for archaologists to research the exact design and cut and to examine the seam techniques and materials that were used and to discover details that one can't determine from pictures. This promises new, exciting discoveries concerning underwear production in the 15th century. Eventually the underpants can be reconstructed so that one can experience a medieval "clothing-feel".
I'll add one comment from my own research on the topic of medieval underpants. The comment about not being able to determine whether the garment belonged to a man or woman, while technically true in an absolute sense, doesn't take into account the significant amount of evidence that this particular garment was not only restricted to men's use at the time, but was considered a "definitively masculine" garment in the sense that it was used symbolically in art to indicate masculine authority and the usurpation thereof.
Still and all, this find is very exciting, not only for the information it provides about the particular garment but for the promise of all the other textile finds there may be waiting for us out there.
