Woven Into the Earth : Textiles From Norse Greenland

One of the century's most spectacular archaeological finds occurred in 1921, a year before Howard Carter stumbled upon Tutankhamun's tomb, when Poul Norlund recovered dozens of garments from a graveyard in the Norse settlement of Herjolfsnaes, Greenland. Preserved intact for centuries by the permafrost, these mediaeval garments display remarkable similarities to western European costumes of the time. Previously, such costumes were known only from contemporary illustrations, and the Greenland finds provided the world with a close look at how ordinary Europeans dressed in the Middle Ages. Fortunately for Norlund's team, wood has always been extremely scarce in Greenland, and instead of caskets, many of the bodies were found swaddled in multiple layers of cast off clothing. When he wrote about the excavation later, Norlund also described how occasional thaws had permitted crowberry and dwarf willow to establish themselves in the top layers of soil. Their roots grew through coffins, clothing and corpses alike, binding them together in a vast network of thin fibers - as if, he wrote, the finds had been literally sewn in the earth. Eighty years of technical advances and subsequent excavations have greatly added to our understanding of the Herjolfsnaes discoveries. Woven into the Earth recounts the dramatic story of Norlund's excavation in the context of other Norse textile finds in Greenland. It then describes what the finds tell us about the materials and methods used in making the clothes. The weaving and sewing techniques detailed here are surprisingly sophisticated, and one can only admire the talent of the women who employed them, especially considering the harsh conditions they worked under. While Woven into the Earth will be invaluable to students of medieval archaeology, Norse society and textile history, both lay readers and scholars are sure to find the book's dig narratives and glimpses of life among the last Vikings fascinating. Preface 6 Author’s Preface 8 Contents 10 Introduction 14 Finds of Norse Textiles in Greenland 18 The Excavations 22 The Textile Finds from Greenland – overview 33 Processing of the Raw Wool 43 The Production of Thread 46 The Warp-Weighted Loom 54 Techniques 62 Greenlandic Textiles 63 Flax and Linen 77 Fibres and Dyes in Norse Textiles 80 The Production of Garments 94 Decoration of Garments 105 Accessories 109 Implements 112 Other uses of Textiles 117 Furs and Skins 120 Textile Fragments from Greenland 124 Summary 146 CATALOGUE OF THE HERJOLFSNÆS FINDS 150 Where the Garments were placed 153 Garment Type | Ia 156 Garment Type | Ib 161 Garment Type | Ic 175 Garment Type | Id 186 Garment Type | Ie 191 Garment Type | If 193 Garment Type | II 197 Hoods Type | I 204 Hoods Type | II 208 ‘Pill-Box’ Caps 220 Stockings 224 Fragmentes of Leather, Cloth and Cords, Ornaments and Accessories 230 Garment finds, described by Nørlund, but which could not be preserved 232 The Length of the Garments 233 Analytical Tables of all Textile Finds 234 Radiocarbon Dating of Norse Textiles 254 Notes 257 Bibliography 266 Explanation of Specific Words 275 List of Illustrations 277 NAALISAANEQ 280 Subject Index 284 Place and Name Index 288 Measurements 290 Woven,into,the,Earth "The book tells the story of one of the 20th century's most spectacular archaeological finds: the excavation of the Herjolfsnaes graveyard in 1921 where - because wood has always been extremely scarce in Greenland - bodies had been buried in multiple layers of cast-off clothing instead of coffins. The occasional thaws had permitted crowberry and dwarf willows to establish themselves in the top layers of soil. Their roots grew through clothing and corpse alike, binding them together in a vast network of fibres - as if the finds had literally been woven into the earth."--BOOK JACKET