I just looked into a book on cloth and clothing from the Bronze Age (this preceded the Vikings in what is now Scandinavia) - belts and shawl pins were very much in evidence in the clothing already. Weaving tapes and making braid is well documented from that time on. The Thorsberger Prachtmantel is a wonderfully complex piece with card woven borders. I find that many "researchers" do not go beyond coffee table books and then pass judgment. As the owner of a quantity of well respected books on textile archaeology, the re-enactment people look rather suspect and revisionist in their assessments. They do their "period piece" get a bit bored and start making up rules and assumptions to justify making more "stuff". I lived near Heddeby for a long time and am very familiar with the bog textiles on display in N. Germany - they are well made, but coarse by modern standards - in spite of high thread counts. It was cold - cloth was made more densely then. The color is nearly uniform - sort of a golden brown - from either oak caskets or peat bogs. There is little discussion at museums about white or colored wool - it is assumed that both were available. Even the clothing from the bogs - not rich persons - indicated some shaping of the clothing - the women's dress accompanied by belting and/or metal clasps and pins. When I worked in a museum (1550 - 1830 period emphasis) - the mattresses were mostly straw. This is more than likely hygiene. Wool absorbs sweat and anything else spilled on the bed, attracts insects and moths, and retains moisture. In the damp bed-closets, straw was cleaner and very inexpensive to replace - open the ticking, dump the old, put in the new, and sew it back up. Sara von Tresckow, Fond du Lac, WI [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.woolgatherers.com Dutch Master Loom/Spinning Chairs/Öxabäck Looms
