The Museum in Bergen holds a large collection of textile remnants preserved at the back of viking jewellery.
Currently this collection is undergoing a renewed analysis to get an overview of what may be gleaned through the application of computer-analysis.
Fragments of Women’s Costumes from the Viking Age – A method for identification of ancient textile finds.
By Hana Lukesova, Bergens Museum, Universitetet I Bergen.
In: Viking 2011. Norsk arkeologisk Selskap – Norwegian Archaeological Society, pp. 149 – 164
ABSTRACT:
Bergen Museum owns a large collection of textile fragments from the Viking Age; the result of more than a hundred years of excavations. Textiles from three graves, which provide information about some parts of female Viking costumes, are presented in the article. An identification of costume fragments relies on the original positioning of the textiles on metal brooches. However, this position had to be reconstructed, because the textiles were separated from the metal objects at the time of their excavation. As part of the project a special process was developed in which a computer-program was used to identify the layering etc. Using this method it was possible to identify the following types of garments: a shift, a tunic, a strapped gown and a cloak. Features of a complete costume are however left open intentionally , since only preserved parts of garments are discussed. All of tehse belong to the area of the chest. Achieved results encourage further investigations and the author hopes it will be possible to publish upcoming results from an examination of the whole collection in the future.
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Featured Photo:
Tekstile-fragments from Veka – © Hana Lukesova