​While I had been working with Viking Age textiles and women’s clothing for quite some time, my real interest in history was for much further back in time.  I started exploring the Migration Period in Scandinavia (roughly 400-600 CE), Early English (the period we used to refer to as “Anglo-Saxon”) and then fell even earlier in time and decided to take a closer look at Huldremose.

And thus, my first Ugly Skirt was born!

This is not intended as a timeline of garments with this article, as I will be speaking of them out of order because I want to start with where I began this journey.  This was an evolution of thought that eventually got me back to a time period (Late Hallstatt/Early La Tene period) that was my original place of interest in the SCA when I joined over 30 years ago.  Not that this article is not meant to be a comprehensive listing of possible skirts throughout early Scandinavia and Central Europe, nor is it a research paper.  My hope here is to only highlight my preliminary work some of the things I have worked with so far in my exploration.

​The Huldremose I skirt belonged to a woman buried in a bog in Denmark and has a date of 350-341 BCE.  This find included a plaid skirt and scarf woven in 2/2 twill, as well as two hide capes. Later the Huldremose II Peplos was discovered with that dated 350-330 BCE. (Frei, et al, Huldremose, p1965).  These are two separate finds, but chronologically close enough that it shows that both garment types (skirt and peplos) coexisted in the Pre-Roman Iron Age in Scandinavia.  Both the woven wool items in Huldremose I have traces of dye stuff.

While early analysis of this find showed no plant fibres from a potential clothing layer, it was discovered later that there is indeed the possibility of a linen or nettle tabby-woven garment that existed between the wool layers and the skin.  Unfortunately, we do not know if this garment’s construction is entirely conjectural because so little remains.  (National Museum of Denmark; Gleba and Mannering, p35: Below images from National Museum of Denmark)

The Huldremose skirt is a tubular garment with a single seam and a waistband that is built into the skirt.  It is 252cm in circumference and 84cm in height. (Mannering, Origini XL,  p118)

As mentioned, the waistband of the skirt was woven in one with the skirt body.  Because of the difference in take up in weave between the belt and skirt body, the top is almost gathered in appearance.  A leather cord was then drawn through holes in the belt to pull the waist in to large, chunky pleats that stand away from the body.  This effect, even on my skirt with a more loosely woven ”waistband” is very pronounced and adds a great deal of girth to the waist inspiring my naming it the “Ugly Skirt”.  

From Krogens Mølle Mose, Denmark, there is another bog body of a woman that had a length of cloth in 2/2 twill that would have been 3.68 meters. In Ancient Danish Textiles from bogs and burials, Hald posits that this might also have been a skirt such as the one found of Huldremose.  This find dates from 399-207BCE.  (Mannering, et al, Dating, p265)

One of the more famous skirt finds, that is from a similar time period that contains a skirt is one of the more Lonne Hede graves, from 92BCE-77CE Denmark.  While a couple of graves from Lonne Hede have the possibility of a short peplos similar to the  Hammerum garment, grave 1969, the “Lonne Hede Maiden”, seems to have a peplos type top with what they originally thought was a wrapped kilt-style skirt.  It was much more recently determined to not, in fact, be wrapped at all, but rather was a closed tube as traces of stitching have been found. Like the Huldremose skirt, there was a string used to form 2cm deep pleats at the waist. The tabby waistband was stitched on after the fabric was woven, unlike the Huldremose garment where it was integral.  (Demant, Lonne Hede, p229-231).  We do not know the circumference of the garment because not enough has been preserved.

There was also a woman’s skirt from Damendorf was 2.1 meters long and .85 meters wide that dates to the Pre-Roman Iron Age in Germany as well.  It also has prominent pleats at the top.

When I crafted my initial Ugly Skirt, I did it as a hybrid of the Huldremose and what I thought Lønne Hede was at the time (a wrap-skirt).  The wrap style allowed me to better push the pleats to the side and the back and make a slightly more flattering fit.  I do now need to sew up the garment and see how it works with this newer information.

For my skirt I choose a twill wool from my stash that is slightly more fine that the original, though the type of plaid (and number of colors used) does not match well with finds of the period.  The tabby wasitband that I wove and sewed on is not as stiff as the tablet woven band on the original, which makes the pleats lay slightly more flat than they historically would have (in other words, the original is much Uglier).  I did attempt to recreate a bit of the effect of the original draw-in of the waistband as I stitched it to the skirt.  With the leather cord and pleats, this skirt sits fine at the waist and does little in the way of shifting.  It is exceptionally functional, if Ugly.

If there is further interest in the Migration Period specifically, I have a bibliography here:  http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/resources-migration-era.html

Below are additional photos of my hybrid Huldremose-Lonne Hede skirt that needs the seam completed.
​

Huldremose and Lonne Hede are both Iron Age finds, but other Ugly Skirts exist from the Bronze Age in bog burials. Skrydstrup (1300-1100 BCE) grave contained a large piece of seamed fabric that is approximately 4m wide and 1.45m long (Frei, Matter of Months) while Borum Eshøj (351-345 BCE) has one that is 3.3m wide and 1.2m long.  Both are considered to have been skirts of some sort.  Neither of these garments has an integral waistband and both had short blouses found with them.  The cloth for both garments is described by Hald as thick, fulled and heavy. (Hald, Bogs, p370-371)

It is believed these skirts were held up by belts or cords and there is no presence of dyestuffs in these early finds in Scandinavia, rather naturally pigmented wool was used.

Borremose III dates from roughly 770 BCE and has a “skirt” of woolen twill that while displayed at waist length on manikins in museums, was pulled up under the arms in the burial.  It was 180 by 120 cm.  It had remains of a leather strip as a fastener, as well as holes through which it had passed.  With the original layout of this garment in the grave, I wonder did it indeed represent a skirt, or rather some sort of simple dress, or merely something with which to cover the body?

I have only tested this bulky tubular style out in linen, including both mid and heavy weights.  They function well if the top of the skirt is pulled up over the belt and left to drape down a fair bit.  When using linen, I will warn that you want a wool belt (or leather as I wear with my Celtic kit, you need the grip of the wool textile to help hold the bulk of the skirt up.). My skirts are also not as wide as these extant items.  I do intend at some point to test one out in heavier wool.

Shorter skirts are in evidence as well.  The 14 year old Damedorf Girl from what is now Germany (dated 895-810 BCE) had on a short Ugly Skirt of 30cm length and a circumference of 1.64m and was “strongly gathered at the the waist” according to Karina Grömer in the Art of Prehistoric Textile Making. 

There is another skirt type from the Bronze Age in Denmark and that is the famous corded skirt seen on the Egtved girl.  Traces of 30 of these types of skirts have been found.  These skirts are short and formed with cords suspended from a waistband and wrap around the body.  Because this does not fit the longer skirts I was modeling after, and because this represents a wrapped style, I did not use it as a basis for my own work here.  I do have a bibliography for these finds that can be found here: http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/iron-age-celtic-studies/egtved-bibliography
​

The fact is that my actual interest in early, early period clothing is actually Celtic (from Central Europe) rather than Scandinavian, so while researching textiles from Hallstatt and Dürrnberg, I discovered that there is possible pictural evidence for Ugly Skirts here as well.  Sadly, textile evidence is either small pieces or and rarely preserved in contact with a body so that we cannot know the exact garment type in most cases, which leaves us to draw on other times, places and period imagery to attempt to recreate the clothing of this period.

We start to see what might possibly be skirts in Bronze Age figures which indicate a narrow waist with a full hemline.  Example from Lower Danube from Art of Prehistoric Textile Making.  In “Visions of Dress” Bronze Age clothing is explored with various textile arrangements, including one the authors label the “Nordic Type” which includes a Danish style skirt.  Also discussed is a dress type garment, a peplos and a hypothetical wrap-dress.

​Early Iron Age pottery and Situala art shows us possible skirts as labeled by Karina Grömer in Art of Prehistoric Textile Making (p399).

​So what did I do with all of this information once I gathered it in one spot?  I started testing things out! 

As mentioned, my first Skirt was of the Huldremose/Lonne Hede type, with a waistband and cord passing through it to form stiff pleats.

I then made several tubular skirts in varying weights of linen for use at Pennsic.  I was testing them out, as mentioned before, with various types of belts.  Wool belts, especially those that at not ”slick” perform well with a linen skirt and would perform even better with a wool one.  I tried both a tablet woven band and a sash type belt (based on the numerous sash-like woven bands found at Hallstatt) and preferred the later for the most part.

The other belt type that works exceptionally well is a metal belt that I styled after Hallstatt.  Mine (and many reproductions) has a leather base, but a layered textile base is also a possibility.  This worked exceedingly well to prevent unnecessary skirt twisting or migration.  The wool sash I wove also works very well with this wool skirt, and is more practical for a working environment.

I also tested out what I consider a very hypothetical Hallstatt style skirt, based on some of the triangular skirt images and also an interesting fragment from the Hallstatt mines where cloth was sewn together in trapezoidal gores to another textile (personally, I think this was from a skirted tunic or something of the like, but the piecing also fits with the imagery so I decided I would do a little exarc and test out some theories.

Things I kept in mind:

• Simple, no-waste cutting
• Skirt would have enough ”fold” over the top to keep secure in the belt, but no so much as to obscure it.  This works better with wool than it did with mid-weight linen.
• Skirt is short enough to show ankles (as seen in many of the illustrations, but also the prevalence of ankle rings in many graves could indicate wanting to show that wealth)
• Skirt has to be wide enough to allow for growth of a baby.  In period you likely only had a garment or two and they would need to allow for life changes.  My blue wool one could stand to be about a foot wider, while the linen one I made is closer to what I think would be the minimal needed to be effective in that regard.
• For the wool skirt I adorned the top with fingerloop braid (as seen at Hallstatt) and a tabby woven ribbon at the hem (also seen at Hallstatt)
• I consider this Early Celtic skirt to be plausible (at least for Hallstatt or early La Tene periods in Central Europe), though I don’t know that I would push it into the category of “likely” at this time

Because I know it will be asked, what I wear my skirts with:

• Simple cropped blouses based on those found in Denmark (I actually like these the least because there is more slip between my skin and the skirt than with a longer shirt).
• Narrow tunics of varying lengths, often with tapered or 3/4 length sleeves.  Some of these come to mid-thigh on me, some are longer with venting from knee to a mid-calf hem to allow range of movement.  The bodies are rectangular and have no gores and are just wide enough to accommodate my hips without being snug.
• Chiton style garments (sleeveless, rectangular dresses, a neckline with no curve, just and opening in the top) and holes for my arms to pass through.  I really like the lack of sleeves for Pennsic heat and keep these to just below the keen or shorter.
• I even tried a skirt over a peplos…. It only “worked” with the boxy Bronze Age Danish ones, but it was a lot going on.  With a narrower peplos as we see from Hammerum, it might work rather pleasantly.

Annotated Celtic Bibliography is here: http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/iron-age-celtic-studies/celtic-textiles-of-central-europe-bibliography
​

A preview of some other Durrnberg textiles. Here are three fragments and my reconstructions of the patterns. Two of them are twill (the one with the dark background is listed in the literature as twill), the other is tabby.

The interesting thing about the two with the broad light stripe is that not only is one tabby and the other twill, one has the stripes in the warp and the other has them in the weft.

There are two other potential fragments that could follow this type of pattern (wide stripes with rows of two colors of narrow stripes between them), but they are too small to know for sure.
As with the textiles with the light background and narrow stripes, the colors here are again a light shade with red and blue.
​
Photo source for extant images: Stollner, Thomas. Durrnberg-Forschungen: Der prahistorische Salzbergbau am Durrnberg bei Hallein II (text and plate volumes), 2002. https://tinyurl.com/224cxfwt

As I am working making sharable info about these Durrnberg textiles, I am clearly seeing "types" of cloth. Most of the textiles are solid colored fabrics, but there are clusters of other types that show up. One of the most common ones are wool tabby textiles with a light colored base fabric and blue (or blue-green) and red (or red-brown) narrow stripes.  There are at least 21 textiles from the site that are a light background with narrow stripes.  At least five of those (potentially more) are bands.

Here are two examples, one was definitely a woven band in this type of cloth and the other might have been. Were these sashes worn at the waist or some other type of functional strap? We don't really know, but I would be comfortable wearing such a thing as a sash/belt. The narrower one (with less stripes) has only one selvedge intact, so we cannot be sure if it was a fragment of a larger cloth or if it was a narrow sash. My recreated image assumes mirroring of the pattern. It would be approximately 2.5 inches wide. The other was definitely a woven band and was about 4.6 inches wide. Both appear to be densely woven and at least somewhat sturdy.

These were probably woven on a warp-weighted loom, but modernly could be reproduced on a floor loom, or even a rigid heddle loom if you use two heddles for double the thread count.

We see a number of woven bands like this at both Dürrnberg and Hallstatt. If you are not a weaver you could hem a length of cloth to simulate the effect (and in fact, in the much, much later Martres de Veyre find there is a long sash that was sewn out of cloth, rather than being woven in the appropriate width from the outset). This might be a great way to use up excess cloth in your stash!

My eventual plan is to group the patterned textiles from both Hallstatt and Durrnberg and do diagrams with a scale for each and share that as a sort of "buying guide" that one can use to help shop for early, early period textiles.

Where possible I have included links for either Amazon (to purchase), Worldcat (to borrow) or direct links to the academic papers.  Some links are direct links and will automatically download when activated. 

Some items contain a Content Warning, because the swastika motif was used in period in textiles and jewelry.  I do not endorse replication of these items in any way without modification of that symbol.  I might not have caught them all, so please be advised that it is potentially included in other documents.

Banck-Burgess, Johanna. Mittel der Macht.  Textilien bei den Kelten, Theiss, 2012. https://tinyurl.com/3u8xvczc
•Small volume with photos and discussion on the meaning of textiles in the Celtic world.  Not a catalog but very useful. Content Warning: Swasticas in extant items and reproductions.

Banck-Burgess, Johanna.  Hochdorf IV, Die Textilfunde, Konrad Theiss Verig Stuttgart, 1999. https://tinyurl.com/mpjmpx53
•Discussion on the textiles finds at Hochdorf.  Includes a catalog of other textile finds for the period. Content Warning: Swasticas in extant items and reproductions.

Bichler, Peter, et al. Hallstatt Textiles: Technical Analysis, Scientific Investigation and Experiment on Iron Age Textiles, BAR International Series, 2005. https://tinyurl.com/bdh2tbtv
•This volume contains articles on textiles at Durrnberg and Hallstatt, has a catalog of additional items compiled by Lise Bender Jørgensen, sewning information from Hallstatt, dyes, tablet weaving, spinning and weaving information, and more.

Gleba, Margarita and Ulla Mannering. Textiles and Textile Production in Europe: From Prehistory to AD 400, Oxbow Books, 2012. https://tinyurl.com/26entc86
•Discussion of textiles and trends (as well as production) for various regions through the year 400CE.  Also has information on some surviving garments.

Gromer, Karina and Thomas Stöllner. EIN ABGERISSENER ÄRMEL AUS DEM SALZBERGWERK DÜRRNBERG, Jarbuch des Römaish-Germanischen Zentralmuseums 56, 2009.
•Analysis of a new tablet weaving find with catalog of other finds at the end. In German.  Content Warning: Swasticas in extant items and reproductions.  https://tinyurl.com/3tsv9eu4

Gromer, Karina. The Art of Prehistoric Textile Making, Natural History Museum, 2016. https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/32825
•This is the most recent, most comprehensive work in the field. Very comprehensive volume that covers prehistory of cloth, largely in Austria.  Includes fibre prep and production, weave types, dye analysis, clothing, cultures and more. Content Warning: Swasticas in extant items and reproductions.

Gromer, Karina. “Discovering the People behind the Textiles: Iron Age Textile Producers and their Products in Austria”, Making Textiles in Pre-Roman and Roman Times, Oxbow Books, 2016. https://tinyurl.com/6crvatbf

Gromer, Karina. Textiles from Hallstatt, Oxbow Books, 2013. https://tinyurl.com/yc3tkmzy
•Complete catalog and excellent analysis of the Hallstatt textiles.  If this is an area of interest, it is a must to ILL this book.  It is one of the best textile books I have ever seen.

Gromer, Karina. “Textile Materials and Techniques in Central Europe in the 2nd and 1st Millenia BC”, Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings, 2014. https://tinyurl.com/3c4fptbs
•Article contains a fantastic chart that shows how common different textile techniques are in different periods.

Stollner, Thomas. Durrnberg-Forschungen: Der prahistorische Salzbergbau am Durrnberg bei Hallein II (text and plate volumes), 2002. https://tinyurl.com/224cxfwt
•Volumes 1&2 of the textiles found in the Durrnberg mines.  Includes a catalog and photos, but the analysis is minimal compared to the Hallstatt book.

von Kurzynski, Katharina. "--und ihre Hosen nennen sie 'bracas'": Textilfunde und Textiltechnologie der Hallstatt- und Latènezeit und ihr Kontext, M. Leidorf, 1996. https://tinyurl.com/4vrd4dy5
•This volume contains discussion of textile production, references of textiles in historic texts, and analysis of period art to attempt to form a picture of Celtic clothing.  German.


Additional Resources

Barber, E. J. W. Prehistoric Textiles, Princeton University Press, 1992. https://tinyurl.com/3t3bvetd
•Great book that details the evolution of cloth from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.

Banck-Burgess, Johanna. “Prehistoric textile patterns: transfer with obstruction”, A Stitch in Time:  Essays in honor of Lise Bender Jørgensen, Gothenberg University, 2014. https://tinyurl.com/dc97y58t
•Discussion of pattern production on early textiles.

Banck-Burgess, Johanna. “’Nothing like Textiles’: Manufacturing Traditions in Textile Archaeology”, Swiatowit, 2017.
•Discussion of woven techniques in early textiles and their importance as well as scarcity of embroidery. https://tinyurl.com/2n72hxjz

Bender Jørgensen, Lise. “Pre-Roman Iron Age Textiles in Europe North of the Alps”, NESAT 4: Archaeological Textiles in Northern Europe: Report from the 4th NESAT Symposium 1.-.5 May 1990, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, 1992.
•Comparison of Halstatt and Le Tene period textiles in Eastern and Western Europe.

Bender Jørgensen, Lise.  Northern European Textiles until AD 1000, Aarhus University Press, 1992.  ISBN: 9788772884165
•Book sections cover various regions, including Germany, Poland and the British Isles from the Stone Age through 100AD

Bender Jørgensen, Lise.  Prehistoric Scandinavian Textiles, Det Kongelige Nordiske oldskriftselskab, 1986. https://tinyurl.com/uaszb8az
•Invaluable resource for those interested in early Norse textiles.  Gives information such as weave, spin direction and thread count from the Bronze Age through the Viking Age in Scandinavia, separated by country, including an expansive catalog of finds.  The text is in Danish, but there is a 66 page English translation of the work (the catalog is in Danish only, but fairly easy to parse out).  The downside is that these items are not broken out into types of textiles (functional or garment), so one would need to cross reference individual graves with other reports if that information was needed.

Bucher, Julia, et. al. “Kelte trifft Keltin”, Jarbuch Archäologie Schweiz: Annual review of Swiss Archaeology, Volume 102, 2019. https://tinyurl.com/jn27at9h
•Grave report and analysis of the Kern schoolhouse find.

City of Zurich. Links below are to media releases from the City about the Kern school house find, 200CE.
•2017: https://tinyurl.com/yvc97rfp
•2019 (with reconstruction photos): https://tinyurl.com/5dsdsp27

Cunliffe, Barry. The Ancient Celts, OUP Oxford, 2018.
•History of the Celtic people that uses archaeology, ancient writings and DNA to trace the roots of this group. https://tinyurl.com/2p9xvvkh

Droß-Krüpe, Kerstin, “Unravelling the Tangled Threads of Ancient Embroidery: A Compilation of Written Sources and Archaeologically Preserved Textiles,” Greek and Roman Textiles and Dress, Oxford, 2015. https://tinyurl.com/2s3ar5bb
•Discussion of misinterpretation of what was historically embroidered rather than woven and how and when embroidery might have spread in the ancient world.

Dürrnberg finds series: Dürrnberg-Forschungen, Books 5-12, VML Publishing, 2012- 2021.
•Each of books 5-12 cover different grave groups are are catalogs and analysis of the finds.  They include schematics of the graves, as well as images (line drawings and sometimes photos) if the goods.  Book 1 covers the research history of Dürrnberg, 2 is the archaeozoological remains, 3 covers the salt mins and 4 is the timber.  These books can sometimes be found on Amazon or at German book sellers like Antikmakler.de.  All are in German

Geggel, Laura. “Iron Age Celtic Woman Wearing Fancy Clothes Buried in This 'Tree Coffin' in Switzerland”, LiveScience.com, 2019. https://tinyurl.com/37t8hmk9
•Information on the Kern Schoolhouse find in Switzerland (200CE).

Gromer, Karina; Rosel-Mautendorfer, Helga; and Reschreiter, Hans.  “Out of the dark… New textile finds from Hallstat”

Grömer, Karina and Margarita Gleba. “Tracing Checked Cloth in Prehistoric Europe”, Purpurae Vestes VII, 2019.

Grömer, Karina, Katrin Kania and Joy Boutrup.  “Iron Age Finger-Loop Braiding Finds from the Hallstatt Salt Mines”, Archaeological Textiles Newsletter 57, 2015. https://tinyurl.com/eyc3znw9
•Article has detailed photos of braids and schematics for reproduction.

Haffner, Alfred. Gräber Spiegel des Lebens, Verlag Phillip von Zabern, 1989.
•Book, in German, covers finds in Belgium and the Traverian tribe. Nice illustrations and photos with discussion of specific graves. https://tinyurl.com/2hj58ssu

Hald, Margarethe. Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials;  Nationalmuseets skrifter. Arkæologisk-historisk række ; v.21, National Museum of Denmark, 1980. https://tinyurl.com/3j5xpy2r
•This book covers numerous finds from prehistoric Denmark as well as the techniques used to craft them.  It also has comparative data from elsewhere for some items.  Cross-check dating with more modern sources as some items have been redated since the publishing of this book.

Hammersen, Lauren Alexandra Michelle.  Indigenous Women in Gaul, Britannia, Germania and Celtic Hispania, 400BC-AD 235, dissertation, Bangor University, 2017.
•Expansive paper on women’s lives, roles and appearance in the ancient world.  https://tinyurl.com/4a38pfpb

Harris, Sussana, Helga Rösel-Mautendorfer, Karina Grömer, and Hans Reschreiter.  “Cloth cultures in prehistoric Europe: the Bronze Age evidence from Hallstatt”, ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 12. https://tinyurl.com/4baxyfyb

Hencken, Hugh.  The Mecklenberg Collection, Part 2: The Iron Age Cemetary of Magdalenska gora in Slovenia, Harvard University Printing Office, 1978. https://tinyurl.com/yh238cb9
•Catalog, line drawings and some photos, in English. Content Warning: Swasticas in extant items and reproductions.

Hendzsel, Ilona, et. al. “On the Borders of East and West”: A Reconstruction of Roman Provincial and Barbarian Dress in the Hungarian National Museum”, DRESSING THE PAST ANCIENT TEXTILES SERIES VOL. 3, Oxbow Books, 2008. https://tinyurl.com/tk3ba4us

Hodson, Frank Roy.  Hallstatt: The Ramsauer graves, Bonn: Habelt. 1990.
•English text with line drawings of graves and artifacts.  Includes analysis. https://tinyurl.com/2p8pvr77

Hoffman, Marta. Warp Weighted Loom (Scandinavian University Press), 1975.

Kern, Anton, Lois Lammerhuber and Rudolf Gamsjäger. Hallstatt 7000, Naturhistorisches Museum, 2008.
•Coffetable style book with lavish photos of the site and some of the more spectacular finds.  Available in both English and German. https://tinyurl.com/4w4v27jh

Kossack, Georg. Südbayern Während der Hallstattzeit, Text und Tafel, Verlag Von Walter De Gruyter & Co. 1959.
•Catalog of Hallstatt period finds from southern Bavaria.

Manching finds series: Die Ausgrabungen in Manching, books 1-17, Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart Publishing.
•Series covers items from the Oppidum of Manching by type of item or specific gravegroup.  Book 9 – La Tene Graves, Book 11 – Glass, Book 14 i- Fibula, Book 17 – Weapons, etc.   Some volumes are available on Academia.edu in their entirety.

Médard, Fabienne and Muriel Roth-Zehner. “Textile remains on Hallstatt bracelets in Alsace (France), Burial context of Soufflenheim-Obermattwald, Tumulus IX”, NESAT 12: The Northern European Symposium of Archaeological Textiles 21-24 May 2014 Hallstatt, 2015. https://tinyurl.com/2s42jsvd

Müller, Felix and Geneviève Lüscher.  Die Kelten in der Schweiz, Theiss, 2004. 
•Nicely illustrated volume (in German) of the history of the Celts, and Celtic archaeology, in Switzerland. https://tinyurl.com/26rddj5a

Müller, Rosemarie and Heiko Steuer. Fibel und Fibeltracht, De Gruyter, 2011.
•Analysis of fibula and dress fasterners from the Bronze Age through the Viking Age. https://tinyurl.com/5em6jenh

Nagler-Zanier, Cordula. Ringschmuck der Hallstattzeit aus Bayern, Franz Steriner Verlag Stuttgart, 2005.
•Analysis, in German, of ring jewelry from the Hallstatt period in Bavaria.  Includes line drawings. https://tinyurl.com/43fcyjvp

Pieta, Karol. “Keltische Textilereste mit Stickereien aus Nové Zámky, Südslowakei”, NESAT 4: Archaeological Textiles in Northern Europe: Report from the 4th NESAT Symposium 1.-.5 May 1990, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, 1992.

Ræder Knudsen, Lise.  “Tablet Weaving on Reconstructed Viking Age Garments – and a Method to Optimise the Realism of Reconstructed Garments”, Refashioning Viking Age Garments,  (SAXO-Institute, University of Copenhagen

Rieckhoff, Sabine and Jörg Biel. Die Kelten in Deutschland, Theiss, 2001.
•History and finds for Celtic people in Germany.  There are some nice illustrations, but the book is largely text.  This is not a catalog. https://tinyurl.com/mrypv66r

Rösel-Mautendorfer, Helga. Genähtes aus dem Hallstätter Salzberg, 2011.
•Thesis that explores seams from the Hallstatt textiles. In German. https://tinyurl.com/4pkuzcs5

Rothe, Ursula. ”The ’Third Way’: Treveran Women’s Dress and the ‘Gaulic Ensemble’”, American Journal of Archaeology 116, 2012.
•Discussion of a specific regional style for women’s dress from early 1st century BCE to 4th century CE.

Ryder, M.L. “Fibres in Iron Age Textiles from the Dürnnberg, Austria”, Archaeological Textiles Newsletter, 33, 2001. http://atnfriends.com/download/ATN33Final.pdf

Solly, Meilan. “This Iron-Age Woman was buried in a hollowed out tree trunk”, Smithsonian Magazine, 2019. https://tinyurl.com/5d98w6se
•Information on the Kern Schoolhouse find in Switzerland (200CE).

Venclová, Natalie. Nemčice and Staré Hradisko, The Czech Science Foundation, 2016.
•English volume that gives complete catalog (with images) of glass finds as well as discussion on how they were made. https://tinyurl.com/4htrp4kt

Warneke, Thilo F. Hallstatt und frühlatènezeitlicher Anhángerschmuck, Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, 1999. https://tinyurl.com/25zs4ndb
•Analysis of ”ring hanger amulets” from Hallstatt and La Tene periods.  In German.  I was able to purchase a copy from the publisher by writing to them.

Wells, Peter S. The Mecklenberg Collection, Part 3: The Emergence of an Iron Age Economy. The Mecklenberg Grave Groups from Hallstatt and Stična, Harvard University Printing Office, 1981.
•Catalog with photos, line drawings and analysis in English. https://tinyurl.com/3vwbrh5e

I am pulling together the materials for my Early Celtic Textiles and Dress of Central Europe class for Pennsic.  It is not as fleshed out as my Viking Age one yet, because the materials are much harder to access and almost everything requires some heavy lifting in the translation department.  But I will have a draft version of the class ready for War and I am very excited to share some things with folks there!

One thing that I will toss out there in advance is that if you are planning to attend in hopes of seeing glorious embroidery as an option for clothing, you might just find yourself highly disappointed.  As I am collating information, even I was a little shocked to find that the fairly sparse offerings of embroidery from the Viking Age seem vast compared to this material.

There is exactly ONE piece (from Slovenia) that is without a doubt embroidered.  It is even a weird beast in the context of it's find because it was tucked inside a hollow ankle bracelet.  So was this something that was ever actually even worn?  There is also a simple plait-like surface decoration from Glauberg that could potentially have been woven or possibly inserted with a needle after the cloth was finished.  There is another item, a three-color geometric pattern from Durrnberg that some authors feel is woven, while another believes that embroidery is a possibility.  And finally, there is a line of compact whipstitches over the join on two pieces of flat fabric from Hallstatt.

If I go out of my region of study (Central Europe from the Late Hallstatt period through 1BCE, with close looks at a few hundred years after that as well), there is one geometric pattern from Britain that was also likely embroidery.  Even if I move into Northern Europe, what we see are lines of stitches or decorative edges, not figurative embroidery of any type.

That is it.  

Below are a couple of articles that talk about examples and the origins and spread of embroidery from further East.  I also am reminded of arguments I see in the Viking space about it, about the actual cultures involved.  These are prehistoric cultures, writing as not the norm among these people.  Children were not taught to draw as we were when we were young.  Figurative embroidery might just not have been natural to a culture who does have two-dimensional art that is so pervasive that anyone could learn it.  Weaving, on the other hand, was a necessity.  Adding in motifs that are counted by threads, arranged geometrically and that could be repeated, would already be more natural to the women who did this work daily.

So much food for thought here, and much of it really deserves reworking of how we think we want the ancient world to look.

Banck-Burgess, Johanna. “’Nothing like Textiles’: Manufacturing Traditions in Textile Archaeology”, Swiatowit, 2017.
•Discussion of woven techniques in early textiles and their importance as well as scarcity of embroidery. https://tinyurl.com/2n72hxjz

Droß-Krüpe, Kerstin, “Unravelling the Tangled Threads of Ancient Embroidery: A Compilation of Written Sources and Archaeologically Preserved Textiles,” Greek and Roman Textiles and Dress, Oxford, 2015. https://tinyurl.com/2s3ar5bb
•Discussion of misinterpretation of what was historically embroidered rather than woven and how and when embroidery might have spread in the ancient world.

My first attempt at a handsewn garment was somewhere around 1994 when I was working on a houppeland with a train and long hanging sleeves.  Overkill?  Yes.  Also, I never finished but one sleeve by hand and then moved on to finish the rest by machine.  I just did not have the patience at the time, nor did I actually care enough to sew the whole thing by hand.

Over the next decade or two, I attempted several more times to hand sew items.  I was using a running stitch to sew two pieces of fabric together and each time the stitch was a fraction of a millimeter to the side of the row, it drove me bonkers.  I felt it made a lumpy, gappy area (even though it likely was just fine to anyone else).  Eventually, as I started down a path towards more historical accuracy, I decided I needed to hand sew at least a few items of my Viking kit.  I was also researching more and more and learned something that changed my entire  perspective.

I commissioned several types of period and reproduction needles.  I found that they did not function at all well for the type of running stitch that I was used to.  My mundane preference is for a long, slim needle on which I can gather up several neat stitches at once and then pull the needle through the cloth and align the next series.  I could NOT do this with the period needles.  Instead, I found myself executing a stab type stitch, where the needle comes up from behind the cloth, gets pulled completely through it, and then passed from the front to the back again.  This takes three times as long as my former process and was three times as frustrating.

Fortunately, I was also doing more research at this time, and learned that in Viking Age textiles, types of oversewing were more common than running stitch by far.  That proverbial lightbulb went off and I realized that both hemming and joining seams like this works very well with a period needle, AND was much faster than stabbing at the cloth.

What does this look like?  I made illustrations below to show the items that are often called oversewing, overcast, whip stitch or hem stitch.

In the illustration on the left, you can see the hem is folded up and fixed down with the oversewing stitch.  The inside of the textile will show a row of diagonal stitches while the outside has only tiny parallel stitches on it.  If your thread matches the cloth and you work small, this sewing can be fairly invisible on wool textiles.

The next illustration is of an oversewn seam.  The two textiles to be joined have their seam allowances folded over (and I sew these down with a hem stitch first, but that is not noted  in the image for clarity).  They are held together and the needed passes through the very edge of the folds creating a joining seam.  When finished, the fabric can be opened flat and pressed.  This creates seam that is quite strong.  Again, on the inside you see a row of diagonal stitches and on the outside it will appear to be a row of parallel stitches.  In the photo of a linen Dublin Cap below, you can see that I used oversewing for the hems and for the seam.

The best part of this?   I can execute this type of seam very easily with a period needle, and my stitches tend to be less wonky than my running stitch.

Now, how is this relevant to early Celtic costume?  These stitches are the same ones used at Hallstatt and Dürrnberg.  These two sites provide a wealth of extant textiles for Celtic Central Europe because of the preservation conditions found in the salt mines.  For Hallstatt, Karina Grömer states that three quarters of the textiles used oversewing (hem and overcast stitches).  Two additional pieces employed a Trailing Stitch (which uses the same type of stitch, but they are so packed together that you cannot see the fabric between the stitches). 

Running Stitch is only used once to sew two textiles together.  There is one example of Bronze Age use of Stem Stitch (or potentially back stitch) and two from the Iron Age.  Blanket Stitch/Buttonhole  Stitch is more common in the Bronze Age than the Iron Age in Hallstatt.

Grömer also notes that the stitching at Dürrnberg is similar in proportions to the Hallstatt finds.

Can I just say that this all makes me really happy?

Also, there are two finds from Dürrnbeg that use "wide feather stitches".  This is very similar to the Huldremose Skirt found in Denmark.  I plan to test this out on the peplos I am currently sewing!
​

References

Peter Bichler, Karina Grömer, Regina Hofmann-de Keijzer, Anton Kern and Hans Reschreiter. Hallstatt Textiles, BAR International Series, 2005.

Grömer, Karina. "Austria: Bronze and Iron Ages", Textiles and Textile Production in Europe: From Prehistory to AD 400. Oxford, Oxbow Books, 2012. 27-64

Grömer, Karina. "Textile Materials and Techniques in Central Europe in the 2nd and 1st Millennia BC" (2014). Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. 914.

Grömer, Karina, Anton Kern, Hans Reschreiter and Helga Rosel-Mautendorfer. Textiles from Hallstatt, Archaeolingua, 2013.
​
Susanna Harris, Helga Rösel-Mautendorfer, Karina Grömer, and Hans Reschreiter.  “Cloth cultures in prehistoric Europe: the Bronze Age evidence from Hallstatt”, ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 12.

Stollner, Thomas. Durrnberg-Forschungen: Der prahistorische Salzbergbau am Durrnberg bei Hallein I & II, 2002.
 
 

I have a long rant coming about the need to better share information within the SCA, but until I have time to post that on the main blog, I am going to just start sharing more here as well (and on the FB group I have set up for Early, Early Period Central Europe which is HERE).

The Egtved Girl is a rather famous find with an intact blouse and an incredible string skirt.  It has gotten a lot of attention in recent years and a lot of new material has been written about it.  My list of resources for the find to date is below.

If you are unfamiliar with the find itself, you can learn more here: en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-bronze-age/the-egtved-girl/

Egtved Girl Bibliography 
 
Barber, E.J.W. Prehistoric Textiles, Princeton University Press, 1991. 

• History of cloth from Neolithic to Bronze Ages, has detailed information, in particular, on the string skirt.

 
Bender Jørgensen, Lise.  “Ancient Costumes Reconstructed: A New Field of Research”, NESAT 5 (Textilsymposium Neumünster: Archäologische Textilfunde), 1993. 

• Article on the use reconstructing historic clothing with Egtveg as one of several brief examples.

 
Bender Jørgensen, Lise.  Forhistoriske Textiler I Skandinavien, 1986. 

• This book has analysis of textile finds and types by region and period.  Egtved is listed, but not detailed, though the over-all analysis of the period is worth reading.

 
Bender Jørgensen, Lise, Joanna Sofaer and Marie Louise Stig Sørensen.  Creativity in the Bronze Age: Understanding Innovation in Pottery, Textile, and Metalwork Production, February 2018. 

• This book has chapters on textile production as well as the article “Creativity in Bronze Age tailoring: women's blouses from Denmark”.

 
Bergerbrandt, Sophie. “Ginderup – Textiles and Dress from the Bronze Age Gleaned from an Excavation Photograph”, Archaeological Textiles Review No. 54, 2012. https://www.atnfriends.com/download/ATR54samlet.pdf 

• Article uses Egtved grave as a comparison to another find.

 
Bergerbrandt, Sophie. “New research challenges the origin of the ‘Egtved girl’”, ScienceNordic, August 2019.  https://phys.org/news/2019-08-egtved-girl.html 

• Rebuttal to the University of Copenhagen research on origins of this individual.

Bergerbrant, Sophie. ”Ordinary or Extraordinary? Redressing the Problem of the Bronze Age Corded Skirt”, Current Swedish Archaeology, 2014.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270684610_Ordinary_or_Extraordinary_Redressing_the_Problem_of_the_Bronze_Age_Corded_Skirt 

Bergerbrandt, Sophie. “Revisiting the ‘Egtved Girl’”, Arkeologi og kulturhistorie
fra norskekysten til Østersjøen, May 2019. 

• Additional origins analysis.

 
Bergerbrandt, Sophie, Lise Bender Jørgensen, and Sølvi Helene Fossøy.  “Appearance in Bronze Age Scandinavia as Seen from the Nybøl burial”, European Journal of Archaeology, Volume 16, Issue 2, 2013. 

• Egtveg blanket used in comparison to those from other burials.

 
Brandt, Luise Ørsted. “Species identification of skins and development of sheep wool”, PhD Thesis, The SAXO Institute, 2014.

• Analysis of prehistoric wools includes discussion of Egtved.

 
Demant, Ida.  “Making a Reconstruction of the Egtved Clothing”, Archaeological Textiles Review, Number 59, 2017.  https://www.academia.edu/35631058/ATR59_Making_af_reconstruction_of_the_Egtved_clothing_pdf 

• Highly detailed information on how the author reproduced the garments.

 
Felding, Louise.  “The Egtved Girl: Travel, Trade & Alliances in the Bronze Age”, Adoranten, 2015.  https://www.academia.edu/27390143/Felding_L_2016_The_Egtved_Girl_Trade_Travel_and_Alliances_in_the_Bronze_Age_Adoranten_2015_Scandinavian_Society_for_Prehistoric_Art_Tanums_HallristningsMuseum_Underslos

• Research article on origins.  Has descriptions of grave items.

 
Frei, Karin Margarita, Ulla Mannering, Ina Vanden Berghe, and Kristian Kristiansen.  “Bronze Age Wool: provenance and dye investigations of Danish Textiles”, June 2017.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317347024_Bronze_Age_wool_Provenance_and_dye_investigations_of_Danish_textiles 

• Dye analysis for early some Bronze Age textiles.

 
Frei, Karin Margarita, et. al.  “Tracing the dynamic life story of a Bronze Age Female”, Scientific Reports 5, 10431, May 2015. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep10431

• Full study on origins, a rebuttal was published later.

 
Gleba, Margarity and Ulla Mannering. Textiles and Textile Production in Europe from Prehistory to 400AD, Oxbow Books, 2012. 

• Has a chapter on ancient Danish textiles.

 
Hald, Margarethe.  Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials, National Museums of Denmark, 1990. 

• Comprehensive (if dated in some areas) work that covers finds ancient finds in Denmark. Discussion for this find includes details about the blouse (referred to as a “poncho” in this work).

 
Hald, Margarethe. Ed Traad Gennem Tekstilkunst, 1942.  https://ctr.hum.ku.dk/research-programmes-and-projects/the-margrethe-hald-archive-digitalization-and-dissemination/MH_En_Traad_gennem_dansk_Tekstilkunst-compressed.pdf 

• Older article by Hald on ancient Danish costume.

Harris, Susanna. "From the Parochial to the Universal: Comparing Cloth Cultures in the Bronze Age", European Journal of Archaeology, Volume 15, Issue 1, 2012

• This find is discussed as part of the research on the evolution of textiles​

 
Nielsen, Karen-Hanne. “Meljøj – An Unheeded Parallel to Skrydstrup”, NESAT 2 (Archaeological Textiles, Report from the 2nd NESAT symposium), 1988. 

• Egtveg items to compared to other finds.

 
Nosch, Marie-Louise, Ulla Mannering, Eva Andersson Strand and Karin Margarita Frei. “Travels Transmissions and Transformation”, Counterpoint: Essays in Archaeology and Heritage Studies in Honour of Professor Kristian Kristiansen, BAR International Series 2508, 2013.  Discussion of Bronze Age textiles and tools from Denmark. 

• Only one brief mention of Egtved but has applicable information.

 
University of Copenhagen.  “The Bronze Age girl was not from Denmark”, Phys.org, May 2015.  https://phys.org/news/2015-05-bronze-age-egtved-girl-denmark.html

• Discussion on origins of the girl in the string skirt, later rebutted.

 

 
 
 
 

If you heard me screaming today it was because I went to the post office and found an amazing gift in the mail!!!  A good friend, Lady Suphunibal in the SCA (Elegantly Eccentric Designs), makes stunning jewelry sent me an incredible gift!  She fashioned a bronze necklace for me based on some extant pieces from Dürrnberg.  I am blown away at how incredible this is.

I know you all want to come join us in the Iron Age now, right???

Before you ask, she did already tell me she will take commissions on these!  (It is my understanding that all proceeds go to expanding her book collection in effort to further her Punic studies.  Take a class from her next time you are at Atlantia U or Pennsic if you want to know more!)

​The first example I have is Grave 205 (Source: Der Dürrnbergbei Hallein, Die Gräbergruppen Kammelhöhe und Sonneben).  This grave dates to the La Tene A period and contained a child/infant and a teen/young woman.

The second example I have is Grave 118 (Source: Der Dürrnberg bei Hallein, Die Gräbergruppe im Eisfeld).  This necklace has similar piecing and has the addition of beads and baubles (not uncommon on early Celtic neckrings from this region).  This grave had a teen/young woman and two adults of indeterminate sex.  Dating for the young woman is La Tene A2.

This summer she also crafted some rings and a bracelet based on the Dürrnberg finds as well.  (Sorry for the blurry photo, my hands are shaky today.). Definitely worth your time to check out her shop (she does incredible Roman pieces as well)!

Last summer I put together the first of my Ugly Skirts for Bronze and Iron Age wear.  It's not actually "ugly", though it kinda is, by design.  Let me put it mildly that the Huldremose Skirt is NOT a flattering thing by modern standards if made to historic specs.  

Ugly or not, I love it.  And it lead to another, and another.  All in effort to experiment with some very early clothing ideas that I have.  (Eventually, I will post about the Ugly Skirts to date.)

I also have a fascination with Fugly Beads, because seriously, there was some bizarre stuff in early finds!  

I also realized that I want to have a space online where people can discuss and share early continental Celtic finds.  I have learned that too many people think of "Celtic" as being synonymous for Irish and Scottish (and they also tend to some how think all of the latter is 17th century and beyond, lol) and that most discussion groups revolve around the isles (and periodocity of kilts, ugh).

Ugly Skirts and Fugly Beads (name is likely to change at some point), caters to those interested in Central and Northern Europe from the Bronze Age till approximately year 1 BCEish.  The jewelry finds from these periods are AMAZING, and we have textiles here!  Lots of them compared to some places!  Gaul is welcome too, as well as the Eastern Hallstatt region, but the idea is to focus on the early Celtic, Germanic and Nordic cultures that get little air time in the SCA.  If these things are your geek, please come join us!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1619238801586051

After the neck ring was finished, I decided to start cranking out cobalt glass beads in the studio.  Cobalt glass is beautiful and is ubiquitous in the ancient world.  It seems that every culture both had, and coveted more of, this type of glass.  (And fortunately, mundanely it is one of the least expensive colors of soft glass that exists.)

While looking though finds from graves near the salt mines of Dürrnberg, I noticed a couple of necklaces comprised of only cobalt glass and amber and I found them very striking.  They appear at other sites as well, including some from Switzerland.  Realistically, both bead types are so prevalent that I have to imagine this type of jewelry is not at all uncommon (and both plain amber and plain cobalt necklaces show in in graves as well).  I decided that I would craft one based loosely on grave 193#2 from the Römersteig grave group.
​

I started crafting my cobalt glass beads and also started researching vendors for the amber.  I ended up going with Baltic Amber Masters, from Estonia.  The beads in his shop were perfect for my project, being not perfectly spherical in shape ​but still catching the light beautifully.  I contacted him about a custom order (as the necklaces he had had more beads than I currently needed for this project) and he showed me several options from stock and even tossed in a few larger beads as a gift.  I absolutely recommend this vendor.

In the extant piece the cobalt glass beads ranged from .95-1.1 cm and the amber was .65-1 cm.  The amber I was able to order ranged up to 1.3 cm, and I made my cobalt beads in a range that compliments that size.  My clasp is an S-hook and ring, even though no clasp was found in the grave to my knowledge.

The necklace below is not Celtic but rather is for a friend who has some early Greek clothing for Pennsic.  The beads, including SO MUCH COBALT GLASS, are all of types from Greece or Egypt from about 600-300BCE.  Several of them also show up in Celtic graves from the period as well.