Textile Archaeology Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Analysing textiles from Hallstatt in Austria always involves studying the whole chaîne opératoire. Due to their excellent preservation in the salt mine it is worth considering how the items were produced as well as the end point of the chaîne opératoire, the use, recycling and discarding. Additionally, the fi ndspot, Hallstatt, off ers insights into an interesting period for the development of textile crafts in prehistoric Europe: in the second and fi rst millennium BC many inventions and innovations fl ourished across Europe and transformed the textile world.

- by Karina Grömer and +1
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- Textiles, Material Culture Studies, History of Textiles, Textile Archaeology

Our analysis suggests that the box from Burial Ц-301 contained three garments made from Chinese brocades. Two of them were probably gowns of Chinese manufacture, though they could have been made from Chinese cloth in Iran or the Byzantine Empire, while the third, showing no traces of cutting and tailoring could be a scarf, shawl or veil. There was also a linen shirt-waister gown with a blue skirt in the box. The gown was probably worn beneath a kind of blouse so that only the skirt was visible. It is not clear whether a samite strip is a trim of this gown, but, judging from the treatment of selvedge, if it were so the trim would run along the hem. Since the complete articles were not worn by the deceased but found in the box, it is unknown whether they make up a set. The wool fabric could be a part of a cloak/veil, but this interpretation is not unambiguous as the shape of the article cannot be reconstructed. It is worth noting that the collar of the brocade Dress1 is divided by an inner fold into two parts in theratio 1:2. The same division is recorded for collars from burials in the Dmitrov kremlin dated to the 12-thcentury AD and for trimming of gown collars of the Golden Horde period. It may be due to the inﬂuence of Chinese tradition adopted in the north and manifested in the treatment of certain costume details. Griﬃns and dragons having come from the south could inﬂuence the depiction of local mythical beasts. This ﬁnd demonstrates the complexity of interaction of occidental and oriental, northern and southern cultures.

During the excavation campaign in 2019 in the Iron Age areas of the saltmine Hallstatt, Austria, an approx. 34 cm long tablet weaving band was discovered. The band shows a variety of patterns. Such, it differs from other approx. 70 Iron Age tablet woven fabrics from the Iron Age in Central Europe, which - apart from one example from the princely grave of Eberdingen-Hochdorf - usually have a very uniform pattern with consistent pattern repeats.
There are different possibilities how this deviation from the usual Iron Age textile design is to be interpreted: Maybe, the band might have carried a symbolic content. The pattern varieties also could have been simply an expression of individual creativity in design or might have been a "test piece". In a citizen science-approach, the newly excavated tablet woven band from Hallstatt saltmine might serve as an invitation to tablet weavers, makers and creators to share their ideas on ancient handcraft. New exciting prehistoric textile artefacts inspire various people to do own research on them, to recreate and sometimes even to use them in their daily life.
Keywords: Hallstatt, Iron Age, textile design, tablet weaving, salt mines

- by Karina Grömer and +1
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- Textile Archaeology, Early Iron Age, Hallstatt, Archaeological textiles and clothing

Die Wirtschaft der antiken Welt steht zunehmend im Mittelpunkt des Interesses der althistorischen Forschung. Obwohl seit Jahrzehnten vor allem um die quantitative wie qualitative Beurteilung des Handels in der Antike erbittert gerungen wird, wird in der Forschungsliteratur häufig nicht scharf zwischen Handel und Distribution differenziert. Um die Auswertung des antiken Quellenmaterials aus dem Mittelmeerraum mit dem aus dem Vorderen Orient zu verbinden, fand im April 2013 in Marburg eine interdisziplinäre Tagung statt, die sich der Thematik am Beispiel des Handels und der Distribution von Textilien vom 2. Jahrtausend v.Chr. bis ins frühe 2. Jahrtausend n.Chr. widmete.
Textilien eignen sich in besonderer Weise dazu, Einblicke in die Funktionsweise des antiken Warenaustauschs zu erhalten. Zwar gibt es bereits in vielen Disziplinen Forschungen zu Handel und Distribution von Textilien, aber diese werden häufig über die jeweiligen Fächergrenzen hinaus nicht wahrgenommen. Der zur Tagung gehörige Sammelband vereint daher Analysen internationaler Expertinnen und Experten aus unterschiedlichen Fachdisziplinen: Alte Geschichte, Altorientalistik, Archäologie, Textilforschung und Naturwissenschaften bilden den analytisch-methodischen Rahmen. Gerade der neuere Ansatz, dokumentarische Quellen mit archäologischen Funden und naturwissenschaftlichen Analysemethoden zu verknüpfen, erlaubt einen tief greifenden Einblick in die Funktionsweise antiker Warendistribution, der Auskunft über das „Wer?“, das „Wie?“ und das „Warum?“ gleichermaßen gibt. Überlegungen zu Absatz- und Beschaffungsmärkten, Warenpreisen und involvierten Akteuren (Institutionen) geben zudem entscheidende Informationen über den Warenaustausch im engeren Sinne hinaus.

- by Kerstin Droß-Krüpe
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- Economic History, Roman History, Papyrology, History of Textiles
- by Margarita Gleba
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- Textiles, Textile Archaeology, Mediterranean archaeology, Archaeological textiles

Este artículo ofrece los resultados de prospecciones realizadas en el centro-sur de la
llanura de Santiago del Estero (Argentina), dando cuenta de 12 sitios arqueológicos. Gran
parte de ellos pudieron ser correlacionados con los mencionados por las investigaciones
arqueológicas pioneras en la región, cuya identidad y ubicación se habían perdido con
el tiempo. Para cada sitio se exponen características, factores de alteración y diversidad
material, la distribución que asumen y sus posibles implicancias cronológicas y culturales.
Se enfatizan las evidencias reconocidas en algunos sitios que muestran un patrón material
diferente al del Período Tardío regional y que podrían aportar a la discusión de una posible
ocupación desde el primer milenio de la era, hasta ahora invisible para el área. Se plantea
la necesidad de abordar la cuestión a partir de excavaciones y fechados actuales.

- by Constanza Taboada and +1
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- Textile Archaeology, Amazonian Archaeology, Ceramics (Archaeology), Burial mounds (Archaeology)
- by Sophie Bergerbrant and +1
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- History of Costume, Textile Archaeology, Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology)

The Neolithic period in the Aegean has not yielded any textile remains. Thus, we know very little about textile production itself and even less about the identities of the earliest Aegean weavers. Some related information derives from their contemporary toolkit and from textile imprints on wet clay and, to this indirect evidence, pottery decoration may be added. This often shows symmetrically painted or relief systems, which are interpreted as textile patterns based on their strong similarity to patterns present on textile products throughout the ages. Such ornamentation can be considered to be representations of patterned textiles, and they sometimes enable us to recognise specific textile techniques. Moreover, textile patterns reveal the abilities of the weavers to calculate, conceptualise and represent geometrical shapes, to create hierarchies and to estimate sizes, volumes and values. This observation is the key to the connection between the Neolithic textile art and measuring systems, as yet unknown or unrecognised in this cultural stage of the Aegean area. This paper approaches the tracing of early metric systems in the Aegean Neolithic through the analysis of textile patterns and discusses the calculating abilities of textile workers in a culture whose calculating and metric systems are as yet unknown.

- by Rodrigo Montani
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- Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Art, Textiles, History of Textiles

English Abstract
An unusually large amount of Bronze Age textiles have been preserved in southern Scandinavia. My research on the Bronze Age textiles has focused on yarn diameter and twist angles, sources of variation in an apparent uniform material. Differences in the textiles are due to varying quality of raw materials and the usage of different types of tools, but also the skill of the craftsperson and how the handcraft knowledge is transmitted to new generations. The room for variation and creativity in the handcraft seems to be closely linked to the education strategy.
The South Scandinavian textile material can be separated in two different groups. The specialized textiles show high technical variation, produced to fulfill specific tasks as belts, corded skirts or hair nets. The generalized textiles, tabby woven and visually uniform, are used in all the known woven Bronze Age clothing. The yarns of the specialized textiles have shown to be more even than the coarse yarn of the generalized textiles. The knowledge of generalized textiles has probably been taught in a cultural conservative way, giving the textiles a very uniform appearance and little room for variation. The specialized textiles had more room for innovation and variation, and were probably made by more specialized crafts people taking their higher complexity. Several changes in the textile handcraft took place between PII and PIII. The generalized textiles show less uniformity and change from s/z-textiles to s/s-textiles. This change might be linked to an alteration of ideological beliefs concerning the spin direction.
A high amount of generalized textiles are found in oak-coffin graves. In order to produce this amount of textiles one must have had access to a big amount of resources and enough skilled craftspeople. Both the spinning of the wool and the weaving was a job for several people. The specialized textiles are not so numerous and required less resources. Only one craftsperson was needed to make the yarn and do the weaving of for example a belt. Due to the dissimilar nature of the textile groups they can be linked to two different kinds of style. The uniform generalized textiles could have been used as emblemic style, communicating a common South Scandinavian Bronze Age Identity. The specialized textiles, however, have a variation that can be used for assertive style, communicating personal identity. Especially female graves have show to contain a high number of very different kinds of specialized textiles.

O.V. Orfinskaia, Y.V. Stepanova. On the Issue of Origins of Russian Traditional Dress with Shoulder Straps
The article draws on a variety of archaeological, written, and ethnographic sources in an attempt to examine the issue of origins of the traditional Russian shirt with shoulder straps (polika). The pri-mary sources for the study are archaeological data from the 16th –17th -century burials at the Voznesen-skii monastery of the Moscow Kremlin. The authors analyze a variety of 12th–18th
-century images depicting the decoration and speciﬁc features of the Russian dress. They argue that the origins of the shirts with shoulder straps could therefore go back to the 11th –13th
-century period, and make conclu-sions about the further development of the style.

- by Yuliya Stepanova and +1
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- History of Costume, History of Textiles, Textile Archaeology, Archaeological textiles and clothing

IN 1938, a woman’s burial was uncovered by road builders at Ketilsstaðir in north-eastern Iceland. Recently, her physical remains and associated funerary goods were re-examined by an international, interdisciplinary team and formed the basis for an exhibition at the National Museum of Iceland in 2015. This paper focuses on the items of dress that accompanied the woman — born in the British Isles, but who migrated to Iceland at a very young age — to gain insights into the ways her cultural identity was expressed at the time of her death. Here we explore the roles played by material culture in signaling her identity, and the technologies and trade networks through which she was connected, visually, to Scandinavia, the British Isles, and the Viking world at large.

- by Daniel Lau
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- Early Modern History, Textile Archaeology, Medieval Archaeology

This article explores the first chapter of the history of knitting in Europe, and connects it to its ‘pre-history’, the related but very much older craft called needlebinding or nalbinding, and also known as looping, knotless netting, or single-needle-knitting.
Since Richard Rutt’s authoritative history of hand knitting (1987), more data on early knitting have been turning up all over Europe, in archaeology, painting and even literature, about 1300 onwards. From the material surveyed here, it appears that all objects claiming to be knitting from before ca.1250 have so far turned out to be either not true knitting, or not reliably dated. The survey also indicates that the earliest knitting seems to have been done in the round; that multicoloured intarsia knitting may predate shaping by increase/decrease; that the decorative possibilities of intarsia, openwork and raised patterns were extensively explored well before 1550, while ribbing for elasticity was not in use at all; and that the elasticity of knitted goods was actively discouraged, up to at least 1600, by knitting extremely tightly, and often fulling the work afterwards as well.
Needlebinding is so basic to fibre crafts that all human societies have discovered it for themselves during their respective Stone Age periods – like twining/cording, braiding and knotting, but unlike spinning and weaving, whose invention was limited by the natural availability of suitable fibres. Needlebinding has been used for much more varied piecework than knitting: from basketry to lace and ropework, via nets, bags, and wildly varied coverings for the head, hands and feet. A short historical survey, limited to Northern Europe, starts in 4200 BC with the oldest find (from Denmark) and ends with a startling nightcap from the Northern Netherlands, made of cotton and dated to the 18th- or even 19th-century, which challenges the assumption that by 1700, knitting had displaced the older craft in all but the most marginal communities.
Current theory holds that knitting was invented in Egypt. The hypothesis was originally put together on the basis of some late Roman socks which were thought to be knitted, and some multicoloured knitted fragments with claimed dates from the 11th to the 15th century. However, all Roman ‘knitting’ has turned out to be needlebinding. As this became known, the Egyptian socks were interpreted instead as the immediate ancestors of true knitting. Examining this notion from a technical point of view, as a practitioner of both crafts, the author finds little or no chance of direct descent by accidental discovery. This leaves the Egyptian origin of knitting hinging on the dating of the medieval knitted pieces, which is neither precise nor secure.
The author therefore advocates treating the origin of knitting as a research question, without preconceptions, and looks forward to what archaeology may contribute to answering it.

- by Glennda S Marsh-Letts
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- Textile Archaeology, Textile Conservation
- by Christiane Truelove
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- Textiles, History of Textiles, Textile Archaeology, Knitting

Foreword, Michael Herdick Introduction, Heather Hopkins and Katrin Kania 1. On the terminology of non-woven textile structures and techniques, and why it matters Ruth Gilbert 2. A new notation system for nålbinding stitches Harma Piening 3. Lost weaving tablets: Identifying weaving tablets during excavation Heather Hopkins 4. Romans, intimately. New thoughts on reconstruction and purpose of use of Roman Empire and Late Antiquity ‘tanga briefs’ Julia B. Krug-Ochmann 5. Linen sprang from Lengberg Castle Beatrix Nutz 6. Early Byzantine embroidery techniques and an unusual tunic in the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz Petra Linscheid 7. Late Antique resist-dyeing technique Katrin Kania, Sabine Ringenberg, with contributions from Sabine Schrenk 8. The influence of metal kettle materials on the mordanting and dyeing outcome Katrin Kania, Heather Hopkins and Sabine Ringenberg 9. The supply of water to the dyeing workshops of Pompeii Heather Hopkins

- by Beatrix Nutz
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- Medieval History, History of Textiles, Textile Archaeology

Wichí women weave string-bags (called 'yicas' in the regional creole Spanish) with different raw materials, with many kinds of loops, a variety of forms, and a wide range of patterns. These bags are used in a huge sort of traditional activities and are sold to 'Whites'. From the begining of 20th century, it is known that pictures woven on the bags are not randomly designed but follow formal patterns, which have complex names in the native language. Nevertheless, few studies have tried to describe and interpretate the names of the patterns, because of many difficulties found, which the linguistic obstacle has prove to be a major one. The goals of this work are: a) to enlarge, from first-hand material, the existing description of names of string-bags; b) to offer a short discussion about the relationship
between form and name of design; c) to make a review of other researchers' interpretations of the subject, and propose a structural hypotesis that would explain the maening of the names of the patterns.

- by Beatrix Nutz and +2
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- Textile Archaeology, Fashion History, Historical Tailoring Techniques, Medieval Textiles and Clothing

Textiles from the Bronze Age and Iron Age have been preserved for more than 3000 years in the salt mine of Hallstatt, Austria. Copper originating from prehistoric mining tools made of bronze has probably altered the colour of many of the textiles. Three woven bands from the Iron Age were chosen for reproductions in order to show how they might originally have looked, and to acquire knowledge of prehistoric dyeing technology. Dyeing techniques documented in historical, ethnographic, and experimental archaeological literature were analysed. Fibre, dye and element analyses of the prehistoric bands formed the basis for the experimental development of dyeing methods using woad (Isatis tinctoria L.), weld (Reseda luteola L.) and scentless chamomile (Tripleurospermum inodorum (L.) Sch. Bip.). The hand spun yarns were woven with rep band and tablet weaving techniques. Each band was successfully reconstructed in two possible colour variants. The light fastness of the dyed woollen yarns ranges between level 3 and 6 and matches everyday requirements today. Element and dye analyses and a post-mordanting experiment with copper acetate explain today's colours of the woven bands. A detailed picture of conceivable dyeing techniques in the Hallstatt Culture is provided, concerning the handling of textile material during dyeing, woad processing and dyeing procedures, mordanting techniques, and the tools and resources required. Dyeing with natural dyes is an ancient cultural technology that is simple in terms of equipment and resources, but sophisticated in terms of the knowledge required. It fully reflects the comprehensive knowledge prehistoric people had of the chemical properties of natural substances, the effect of temperature on (bio)chemical processes, and the ability to control and manage these processes. In central Europe, the beginning of this knowledge dates back to Bronze Age, the 2nd millennium BC, as proven by the textile finds in Hallstatt.

- by Karina Grömer and +3
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- Experimental Archaeology, Textile Archaeology, Iron Age (Archaeology), Natural Dyes and their applications

Mixtec pictorial manuscripts from Late Postclassic Oaxaca represent textiles as costume but also in relation to both the natural and built environments. This paper relates these apparently anomalous images to accounts of the mythical weaving of sacred landscapes. Weaving metaphors become important for interpreting emic concepts of the sacred landscape and, based on the engendered quality of costume elements and of spinning and weaving as stereotypically female practice, add a gendered world-view to Mixtec ideology. We suggest that by representing the natural landscape as ‘woven,’ the Mixtec brought it into the cultural realm, and therefore claimed control over natural forces.

Hundreds of years of excavations along the Nile Valley have yielded great amounts of ancient textiles from Egypt and Sudan, well preserved thanks to the arid climate. Settlement sites have shown textile fragments, archaeobotanical remains, fibres, and threads, as well as many implements used for textile manufacturing; but it is from graves that most of the material comes from. The complex funerary rites of ancient Egypt and Sudan made great use of textile material, for wrapping human and animal remains, for offerings and for furnishing the tombs. From settlements to cemeteries, from iconography to textual sources, textiles were everywhere in the economy and society of the ancient Nile Valley.
Their omnipresence and important social role are often implied in scholarly literature, but this formidable textile material is still not studied and published to its full potential. Inspired by the current renewal of textile research in academia, new research projects are now emerging, advocating for a more inclusive and multi-disciplinary approach. This lecture will propose a model to build textile archaeology in the Nile Valley, using material from Meroitic Sudan as a case-study (TexMeroe, Marie Skłodowska-Curie project 743420). It will then present new perspectives currently opening in the domain of Pharaonic textiles.

- by Elsa Yvanez
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- Egyptology, Textile Archaeology, Late Antiquity, Ancient Textiles

in: Barbara Horejs & Mathias Mehofer (ed.), Western Anatolia before Troy. Proto-urbanisation in the 4th millennium BC? Proceedings of the International Symposium held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria, 21‒24 November, 2012 (Austrian Academy of Sciences Press: Vienna 2014) 421–446.
Abstract: The nature and development of textile production in prehistoric Anatolia has received very little systematic attention so far. This paper attempts to show that it is at the end of the 5th millennium BC when we first see a great increase of effort being invested into this field, a development which may be linked to the introduction of wool-producing caprids into the region. The social and economic implications of this development are investigated through a review of the evidence for flax-cultivation, pastoral strategies and the distribution of tools used in textile manufacture. The paper questions views that woven textiles were produced for their use-value and that they served the generation of cumulative wealth in this initial configuration. Alternative explanations are sought to understand better why the production and consumption of textiles suddenly became of central interest to Anatolian societies during the Late Chalcolithic and following times.

Ongoing excavations at the Middle Bronze Age site of Erimi Laonin tou Porakou (Cyprus) have been revealing substantial evidence for textile production and clues of its economic impact and social implications to this prehistoric community. The analysis of the architecture and artefacts recovered in the workshop complex, in combination with archaeobotanical evidence, has allowed us to identify the presence of different textile activities, including dyeing. An additional textile data-set comes from coeval extramural funerary contexts pertaining to the Erimi settlement. As a key-site for understanding textile production during the Middle Cypriot period (MC), Erimi offers a privileged viewpoint on a large array of social dynamics connected to textile work. This paper will discuss the impact of textile production in the transmission of knowledge and expertise, and in the construction of the community mindset by applying the model of Communities of Practice (CoP) as a theoretical background.

- by Luca Bombardieri and +1
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- Textile Archaeology, Cypriot Bronze Age, Community of Practice

Begleitheft des Kolloquiums im Rahmen der Masterveranstaltung am Institut für Prähistorische Archäologie an der FU Berlin Clothing in prehistoric times, booklet from the master colloquium at the Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology (FU... more

- by Ronja Lau and +7
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- Prehistoric Archaeology, Textile Archaeology

Beim Begriff „Kinderkleidung“ denkt man unwillkürlich an eine spezielle Art von Kleidung, mit eigenem Schnitt, besonderen Stoffen, Farben und Mustern. Abgesetzt in verschiedene Zeitabschnitte – Baby, Kleinkind, „Schulkind“, Jugendliche – sind auch noch heute verschiedene Kinderkleidungen üblich, wenn auch (bis auf das Baby- und eventuell noch Kleinkindalter) nicht mehr so signifikant eine bestimmte Altersstufe kennzeichnend wie im 18.– und 19. Jahrhundert. Damals setzte sich Kinderkleidung gewollt deutlich von jener der Erwachsenen ab. Im folgenden Beitrag gilt es nun, in größere zeitliche Tiefen vorzustoßen, an den Beginn unserer Geschichte. Wie drückte sich Identität durch Kleidung aus? Gab es bereits vor 2.000 Jahren spezielle Kinderkleidung?

- by Eva Steigberger and +1
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- Prehistoric Archaeology, Sociology of Children and Childhood, History of Dress, Identity (Culture)

Two thread buttons from Lengberg Castle with instructions on how to make them by Gina Barrett.

- by Beatrix Nutz and +1
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- History of Textiles, Textile Archaeology, Textile and Fiber Art, 15th Century

Systematic excavations at the Castillo de Huarmey archaeological site, located on the North Coast of Peru, enabled researchers to collect an immense number of fabrics. During the first season of textile investigations, carried out in July of 2014 by American and Polish researchers, 724 objects were examined, including textile fragments, yarns, and cordage. A general description of the basic structures indicates a variety of weaving techniques. Although the collection consists mainly of plain weave of all kinds, new structures such as three-dimensional cross-knit looping and feather-mosaic work were recognized, none of which were encountered among textiles collected from the surface in previous decades.

- by Aleksandra Laszczka and +1
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- Andean Archaeology, Textiles, Textile Archaeology, Andean Prehistory (Archaeology)

Scenes of textile production on Athenian vases are often interpreted as confirming the oppression of women, who many argue were confined to "women's quarters" and exploited as free labor. However, reexamination of the iconography--together with a reconsideration of gender roles and the archaeology of Greek houses dating to the 5th and 4th centuries BC--suggests that these images idealize female contributions to the household in a positive way. The scenes utilize the dual metaphor of weaving and marriage to express the harmonia of oikos and polis, a theme particularly significant under the evolving Athenian democracy.

Bone needles are often recovered from archeological sites dating to Roman times. They are found in both settlements and in burials. Most bone needles have a single eye, but some have been identified with two or three holes. Were bone needles exclusively used for sewing, or does the occurrence of multi-eyed needles indicate their use in other crafts? This paper proposes that the bone needles, especially those with three holes, could have been used to make fabrics using the nålbinding technique. With this technique, many items could have been made without sewing, as it creates a very stretchy fabric, which would have been particularly useful for socks and other garments. To test our hypothesis, we conducted an experiment to create fabric using copies of Roman bone needles. Bone needles were very common, and their occurrence could be explained by use of the nalbinding technique to produce fabrics both in the familia and in textile workshops. The nålbinding technique would make it possible to diversify textile production, with important economic consequences.

- by Carla Corti and +1
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- Textiles, Material Culture Studies, Textile Archaeology, Roman Economy

This paper reexamines discoid loom weights, a specific type that originated in Early Bronze Age Crete and was widespread in the Bronze Age Mediterranean. The growing popularity of these tools, as attested by the archaeological record, is discussed in relation to their general functionality and specific weaving techniques that may have come with them. The functional parameters of discoid loom weights, i.e., weight and thickness, implying the types of fabrics that may have been produced with their use, are analyzed together with use-wear marks on the tools, which demonstrate how the loom weights were attached to warp threads. The grooves on the upper edges of some of these tools are discussed as a post-production feature on the basis of experimental modelling. The presented results are the effect of
archaeological experiments and tests undertaken by the author with
students of archaeology from the University of Warsaw and weavers
from the Biskupin Archaeological Museum.

- by Katrin Kania
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- Archaeology, History of Costume, Textile Archaeology

Extant medieval sprang textiles are rare. A linen table cloth dated to the 1st half of the 15th century from Switzerland (Swiss National Museum) and a woollen sprang fragment dated to 1450-1500 from London (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), both in hole-design, are probably the largest pieces. In 2009 three linen sprang fabrics were found among the more than 2700 textile finds from Lengberg Castle (East Tyrol, Austria) and now add to that number. The biggest sprang fabric, decorating an almost completely preserved headdress and worked from 120 warp threads, has been 14C-dated to 1390-1450 AD.