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I don't have a morning session to blog as I spent all morning shopping in the bookroom. More on that laater.
Session 259 Schneider 1120
Dress and Textiles I: Looking North
Sponsor: DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion)
Organizer: Robin Netherton, DISTAFF
Presider: M. A. Nordtorp-Madson, Univ. of St. Thomas, St. Paul (pinch-hitter = Gale Owen-Crocker)
Viking Age Dress in Norway: Textiles, Quality, and Social Status
Ingvild Øye, Univ. i Bergen
Addresses the question of what textile tools and evidence of production can tell us about social context and status. Burials with grave goods are common and women often buried with textile tools. Specific focus is central west coast of the lower portion of Norway. Significant wool production area. 126 graves from the studied period with textile tools. In some cases, graves had essentialy complete textile tool kits.
Spindle whorl size and shape indicate thread fineness, also loom weights similarly. Textiles themselves typically only survive in contact with metal, and most in women's graves.
Typical groupings:
1. conical brooches an a 3rd brooch with beads, keys, agricultural and textile tools (least presteigious)
2. [slide moved on before I could take notes]
3. (most presteigious)
Group 3 is least common, but distribution betwen 1 and 2 depends on geography.
Summarizes Bender-Jorgensen's statistical studies on weave types in early Scandinavia. Tabbies are most common everywhere, but 2/2 and diamond twill also significant. Density is another indicator of quality, with finer threads, more dense weaves, and twill patterns all indicating higher quality.
Sample graves with high status assembleges: Tools in grouping type 3: spindle whorls, loom weights, weaving beaters, wool combs, shears, smoother, (other?). Textiles include wool and linen, with the wools including diamond twills.
Diagrams of sample textile fragments from the back of brooches, showing possible garment layers. Traces of samite towards the center, dress and cloak layeers in twill, brooch straps, braided and woven.
Women buried in their best clothes with 1 or 2 dress layers and a cloak. Other status indicaators are burial mounds, rich jewelry, tool kits with varied implements. Tools are all practical working equipment for textile production and the most varied tool collections correspond to other high status indicators.
Tentative conclusion that the evidence of textile tools indicates local production of the fine textiles in the graves.
A Tale of Rags and Sheep: Dress Practices in Medieval Iceland, AD 1100–1500
Michèle Hayeur Smith, Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown Univ.
Scratched.
“Silk and Fine Cloth”: Distribution and Consumption of Textiles in Late Medieval and Early Modern Denmark
Eva Trein Nielsen, Independent Scholar
Significance of silk and other luxury cloth as a signifier of royal and noble status with lower classes wearing wool etc. Representations in art of fine/light textiles on religous figures. Physical evidence is spotty and only sketches a general sense of the reality. Talk covers 1160-1600 -- where luxury textiles came from and who wore them.
Cloth sales confined to designated markets, as elsewhere in Europe. Hanseatic trade was important but not the only factor. England was one source and often mentioned by name as a source of royal gifts of cloth. Flanders also had strong Danish connections. I started loosing track of the thread at this point.
[It's a bit difficult to take coherent notes on this talk as it is structured more as a stream of details and she keeps breaking off the talk to point out locations on the projected map.]
Discussions of how tightly controlled both the production and sale of luxury cloth was, in order to assure quality. She makes reference to having conclusions, but I somehow missed what they were.
The Effects of Spindle Whorl Design on Wool Thread Production: A Practical Experiment Based on Examples from Eighth-Century Denmark
Karen Nicholson, Independent Scholar
[There is an assembly of spindles lined up on the podium, so I assume we're going to get a demonstration.]
Study on the impact of spindle design and whorl shape on the thread produced (and hence the farbric that could be produced). The models were based on finds from Ribe, Denmark. 34 spindle whorls found in 8th c. layers of the site. Most are conical or truncated cones, 2 bi-cones, and one lens-shaped. In addition to these shapes, others were used to compare. The test whorls were all mounted on the same type of shaft and all spinning was done with commerical combed Shetland top by the same spinner. The finest thread possible is the smallest that can be spun without regular breakage. Thickest possible thread is what can be spun while maintaining the spin. The optimum thread falls in between. Thread was spun and measured for diameter.
We get a diagram of finest, thickets, and optimum range for each of the test whorls. Using the reproduction Ribe whorls, the range was 5-34 wrapes per cm. The optimum thread for cone shapes was 11wpc. The bi-cones spun an optimum thread around 18wpc. Bi-cones spun a finer thread for the same weight of whorl.
Non-reproduction test shapes included disk, star, thimble, barrel, and convex disk. Weight balance is the most important factor in shape. (Discussion of the physics of spinning and angular momentum.) Weight of whorl affects fineness of thread but twist the same. Shape affects the amount of twist but produces the same thickness of thread for the weight. Smaller angular momentum produces higher twist.
Lightweight, small-diameter spindle = thin thread, higher twist
Heavier, large-diambeter spindle = thicker thread, lower twist
All 33 test whorls could produce threads in the range found for the reproduction Ribe whorls, but with different overall ranges beyond that. The neolithic-style whorls have more limited ranges and produce less fine threads. A test tabby-weave piece from finely spun wool from a bi-conical whorl produced a textile similar to archaeological finds (?from Ribe as well?), similarly for a 2/2 twill.
Session 259 Schneider 1120
Dress and Textiles I: Looking North
Sponsor: DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion)
Organizer: Robin Netherton, DISTAFF
Presider: M. A. Nordtorp-Madson, Univ. of St. Thomas, St. Paul (pinch-hitter = Gale Owen-Crocker)
Viking Age Dress in Norway: Textiles, Quality, and Social Status
Ingvild Øye, Univ. i Bergen
Addresses the question of what textile tools and evidence of production can tell us about social context and status. Burials with grave goods are common and women often buried with textile tools. Specific focus is central west coast of the lower portion of Norway. Significant wool production area. 126 graves from the studied period with textile tools. In some cases, graves had essentialy complete textile tool kits.
Spindle whorl size and shape indicate thread fineness, also loom weights similarly. Textiles themselves typically only survive in contact with metal, and most in women's graves.
Typical groupings:
1. conical brooches an a 3rd brooch with beads, keys, agricultural and textile tools (least presteigious)
2. [slide moved on before I could take notes]
3. (most presteigious)
Group 3 is least common, but distribution betwen 1 and 2 depends on geography.
Summarizes Bender-Jorgensen's statistical studies on weave types in early Scandinavia. Tabbies are most common everywhere, but 2/2 and diamond twill also significant. Density is another indicator of quality, with finer threads, more dense weaves, and twill patterns all indicating higher quality.
Sample graves with high status assembleges: Tools in grouping type 3: spindle whorls, loom weights, weaving beaters, wool combs, shears, smoother, (other?). Textiles include wool and linen, with the wools including diamond twills.
Diagrams of sample textile fragments from the back of brooches, showing possible garment layers. Traces of samite towards the center, dress and cloak layeers in twill, brooch straps, braided and woven.
Women buried in their best clothes with 1 or 2 dress layers and a cloak. Other status indicaators are burial mounds, rich jewelry, tool kits with varied implements. Tools are all practical working equipment for textile production and the most varied tool collections correspond to other high status indicators.
Tentative conclusion that the evidence of textile tools indicates local production of the fine textiles in the graves.
A Tale of Rags and Sheep: Dress Practices in Medieval Iceland, AD 1100–1500
Michèle Hayeur Smith, Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown Univ.
Scratched.
“Silk and Fine Cloth”: Distribution and Consumption of Textiles in Late Medieval and Early Modern Denmark
Eva Trein Nielsen, Independent Scholar
Significance of silk and other luxury cloth as a signifier of royal and noble status with lower classes wearing wool etc. Representations in art of fine/light textiles on religous figures. Physical evidence is spotty and only sketches a general sense of the reality. Talk covers 1160-1600 -- where luxury textiles came from and who wore them.
Cloth sales confined to designated markets, as elsewhere in Europe. Hanseatic trade was important but not the only factor. England was one source and often mentioned by name as a source of royal gifts of cloth. Flanders also had strong Danish connections. I started loosing track of the thread at this point.
[It's a bit difficult to take coherent notes on this talk as it is structured more as a stream of details and she keeps breaking off the talk to point out locations on the projected map.]
Discussions of how tightly controlled both the production and sale of luxury cloth was, in order to assure quality. She makes reference to having conclusions, but I somehow missed what they were.
The Effects of Spindle Whorl Design on Wool Thread Production: A Practical Experiment Based on Examples from Eighth-Century Denmark
Karen Nicholson, Independent Scholar
[There is an assembly of spindles lined up on the podium, so I assume we're going to get a demonstration.]
Study on the impact of spindle design and whorl shape on the thread produced (and hence the farbric that could be produced). The models were based on finds from Ribe, Denmark. 34 spindle whorls found in 8th c. layers of the site. Most are conical or truncated cones, 2 bi-cones, and one lens-shaped. In addition to these shapes, others were used to compare. The test whorls were all mounted on the same type of shaft and all spinning was done with commerical combed Shetland top by the same spinner. The finest thread possible is the smallest that can be spun without regular breakage. Thickest possible thread is what can be spun while maintaining the spin. The optimum thread falls in between. Thread was spun and measured for diameter.
We get a diagram of finest, thickets, and optimum range for each of the test whorls. Using the reproduction Ribe whorls, the range was 5-34 wrapes per cm. The optimum thread for cone shapes was 11wpc. The bi-cones spun an optimum thread around 18wpc. Bi-cones spun a finer thread for the same weight of whorl.
Non-reproduction test shapes included disk, star, thimble, barrel, and convex disk. Weight balance is the most important factor in shape. (Discussion of the physics of spinning and angular momentum.) Weight of whorl affects fineness of thread but twist the same. Shape affects the amount of twist but produces the same thickness of thread for the weight. Smaller angular momentum produces higher twist.
Lightweight, small-diameter spindle = thin thread, higher twist
Heavier, large-diambeter spindle = thicker thread, lower twist
All 33 test whorls could produce threads in the range found for the reproduction Ribe whorls, but with different overall ranges beyond that. The neolithic-style whorls have more limited ranges and produce less fine threads. A test tabby-weave piece from finely spun wool from a bi-conical whorl produced a textile similar to archaeological finds (?from Ribe as well?), similarly for a 2/2 twill.
