Translated by Märit Gaimster.
Textiles and the work with its production is something which I always have been interested in. I think that all these women who over the years have been working and preparing the textiles for their families are owed all respect. When I got the opportunity to combine my interest for the textile handicraft with archaeology I didn’t hesitate, this was the opportunity to make my small contribution to this endless and necessary work which so many have been working with through the ages.
Author(s): Eva Andersson
Series: University of Lund. Institute of Archaeology. Report Series, 67
Publisher: University of Lund
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 54
Introduction 7
The endless work with wool: estimates of work time in the textile production 9
Household needs and specialised production 10
Household products or valuables? 10
The organisation of textile production 10
Household production 11
Textile valuables: sails and fine cloth 12
Sail cloth - textile production on a large scale 12
Fine cloth and textile art 13
Towards a new study of textile production 14
Considerations and hypotheses 14
Methodology 15
Problems 16
Summary of the individual projects 18
Invisible Handicrafts, The General Picture of Textile and Skin Crafts in Scandinavian Surveys 18
Textile production in an archaeological context, a methodical study of late Iron Age settlements in Scania 18
Spinning wool: now and then 23
Textile production at Löddeköpinge - household needs or large-scale production? 25
Textile production at Birka, with a comparative study of hinterland settlements in the Mälar Valley, and of the
contemporary trading settlements at Haithabu 29
The visible textile production 35
Raw material 35
Spindle whorls 36
Loom weights 38
Bone needles 38
Other textile tools 39
Textile production in the viking period 39
Household production 39
Large-scale production: sail cloth 40
Fine cloth and textile valuables 40
Concluding remarks and future research 41
Bibliography 44
