I was looking at a reference about textiles found at a Viking site called Birka, tracking down some info about tablet-woven bands found there. The town was founded about 750 CE and abandoned about 975 CE, according to the Wikipedia entry, and is a rich archaeological source. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birka
The monograph on the textiles has been digitized and is on line: http://historiska.se/birka/digitala-resurser/filer/pdf/Birka_III.pdf Look at page 115 in the monograph (page 119 in the pdf file) -- 29b is needlelace! See the explanation on page 116. I don't know much about needlelace, but it's my understanding that the accepted origins of needlelace are in 16th C Italian reticella. But here it is almost a millennium earlier!! I have to translate more of this section, but I am so excited that I just had to share this. Nancy Connecticut, USA - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
