Crafting Textiles: Tablet Weaving, Sprang, Lace and Other Techniques from the Bronze Age to the Early 17th Century

By Frances Pritchard

New research into the techniques of tablet weaving, sprang, braiding, knotting and lace is presented in this lavishly illustrated volume written by leading specialists from Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and USA. Drawing inspiration from the pioneering work of Peter Collingwood, this publication explores aspects of these craft skills in the prehistoric, Roman, and medieval world through scientific, object-based analysis and 'research through making'.

Chapters include the growth of patterned tablet weaving for trimming garments in prehistoric Central Europe; recently identified styles of headdress worn in the Roman Rhineland and pre-Islamic Egypt; Viking-age Dublin as a production center for tablet-woven bands; a new interpretation of the weaving technique used to make luxurious gold bands in the twelfth to late thirteenth centuries; and the development out of plaiting of bobbin lace borders in gold and silver threads from the fifteenth to early seventeenth centuries. Practical experiments test methods of hand spinning and the production of figure-hugging hose in ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy. A typology of braid and knotting structures in late medieval Europe is also set out for the first time. Diagrams, illustrations, and photographs enrich each chapter with a wealth of visual source material.

The work is the outcome of recent discoveries of archaeological textile finds from excavations as well as fresh examination of material recovered in the past, or preserved in treasuries. Early textiles form an increasingly popular subject of interest and this publication, which is a landmark in the study of various specialized textile techniques, aims to provide the reader with a better understanding of these virtuoso craft skills in antiquity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Release date: Oct 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781789257601

Book preview

Section I

Tablet weaving

Chapter 1

‘Tablet weaving is a small byway of textile production…’: Bronze and Iron Age tablet bands with stripes, meanders and triangles from the salt mines in Austria

Karina Grömer

Introduction

In 1982, Peter Collingwood wrote one of the fundamental books about the technique of tablet weaving. He explained all known techniques, exploiting historic and ethnographic sources. A deep insight into practical work and the creative process of tablet weaving allowed him to shed a fascinating light on this old technique, which makes it possible to produce many complex weave structures and patterns.

Collingwood’s chronological list of tablet weaving before AD 1000 starts at the sixth century BC. From Central Europe he only mentions the Hohmichele find, describing it as ‘A woollen weft-face fabric found in the Hohmichele tumulus, Germany (a royal burial ground of the nearby Heuneburg hill fort), with a starting border consisting of six cords of four-strand warp twisting’ (Collingwood 1982, 12). The splendid textiles in the princely tomb in Eberdingen-Hochdorf, Germany (Banck-Burgess 1999) or those from Verucchio, Italy (von Eles 2002; Ræder Knudsen 2012), had not been published at this time. To expand the timespan here are added some fascinating new finds, originating from the salt mines at Hallstatt and Dürrnberg in Austria, dating between 1600 and 400 BC.

Hallstatt and Dürrnberg in Austria, two textile hotspots

The salt mines at Hallstatt and Dürrnberg provide excellent preservation conditions for organic finds. The prehistoric underground mining activities resulted in precious layers of waste. While working in the mine, textiles as well as other organic finds were left behind after their use. In a salty environment, single-celled bacteria dry out and die (Fig. 1.1). This prevents the decomposition process of organic materials due to bacterial activity. Unlike other environments such as bogs or waterlogged contexts, the salt preserves everything without exception. Therefore, artefacts made from animal as well as of plant origin are present. The textiles are preserved so well in their organic matter that they are still colourful, elastic and supple when recovered (Grömer 2016, 24−25).

Fig. 1.1. Salt rock from Hallstatt with enclosed textile fragment, 10.4 × 8.5 cm, Natural History Museum Vienna (Inv. No. 73.180). (© Natural History Museum Vienna, photo: A. Rausch)

Hallstatt is famous for a huge cemetery with more than 1500 graves (Kern et al. 2009). The rich artefacts found in the cemetery inspired the researchers to name the Early Iron Age in Central Europe (800−400 BC) after this site ‘Hallstatt Period’. The graves enable the social hierarchy of this period to be traced back. The style and decoration of the grave goods found in the cemetery are distinctive, and artefacts made in this style are widespread in Europe. The community at Hallstatt exploited the salt mines in the area, providing them with wealth (Reschreiter 2013). Mining activities can be proved at least from the Bronze Age (1500−1200 BC). The dating of the Hallstatt salt mine is proved by hundreds of dendrochronology dates and radiocarbon dating from various artefacts, including textiles. The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age mining activities are archaeologically of specific importance. Among the organic finds from the salt mine are e.g. hats and shoes of leather and skin, bags for hauling the salt and wooden objects such as tool handles, wooden vessels and a spoon for cooking in the mine that still retains residues of the meal cooked.

From Hallstatt, more than 700 single fragments of textiles are preserved and it is thus possible to study textile techniques from 1500−400 BC by examining them (Grömer et al. 2013). The fabrics from the salt mines are mainly made from wool, and some are of extraordinarily fine quality in tabby, basket weave and various twill variants. The Hallstatt weaver was familiar with the dyeing of thread or finished fabric in colourful shades of blue, yellow, green, red and brown. Natural shades of sheep’s wool, from white through brown to black were also exploited in their designs. This fondness for using colour is particularly effective in striped and ‘plaid’ patterns, created using coloured warp and weft threads. Colourful bands were produced with a rigid heddle or with tablet weaving, the latter are of interest here.

Dürrnberg near Hallein was a large economic centre and market and, especially between the sixth and the second century BC, it was one of the leading salt-producers in southern Central Europe (Stöllner 2002; 2005). Similar to Hallstatt, the artefacts in the Dürrnberg graves represent a wealthy population. Finds of gold and imported objects of Greek and Etruscan origin reflect the wide-distance trade of salt. The outstanding survival of rich burial grounds, of settlements and production areas present a complex picture of the society over a period of more than 500 years. Unlike Hallstatt, at Dürrnberg the Iron Age settlement is known with remains of the houses and artefacts demonstrating different handcrafts employed at the settlement, including textile tools (Brand 1995). The tools have been found all over the settlement areas and this points to extensive textile production.

The textiles from the various underground findspots at the salt mine in Dürrnberg are about 800 in number, with most of them dating to the Late Hallstatt and the Early La Tène Period (Stöllner 2005). In Hallstatt individual patterns and weaving techniques dominate while at Dürrnberg more standardised fabrics are known. Fine and coarse tabbies dominate in fabrics made of hemp/flax or wool; twills are known in smaller proportions, as are repp bands or tablet-woven items. If decorated, Dürrnberg textiles are striped, with the exception of one outstanding textile patterned in ‘flying shuttle’ technique. Nearly 40% of the textiles show traces of dyeing, with the dyes still impressively preserved due to the salt as bright colours in red, blue or bluish-green.

Towards the beginnings of tablet weaving in the second millennium BC

From the Bronze Age findspots at Hallstatt salt mine (c. 1600−1200 BC), a distinctive textile was found. HallTex 288 consists of two light brown tabby textiles, torn into strips and tied together (Grömer et al. 2013) (Fig. 1.2). To make this fabric, Z-spun single yarn with a thread diameter of 0.4−0.5 mm was chosen, the thread count is 10−12 threads per cm in warp and weft. The technical data places this textile amongst the finer Bronze Age textiles from Hallstatt. Wool measurements describe this item as high quality wool, light and unpigmented (Rast-Eicher & Bender Jørgensen 2013, table 4, sample no. 10/135, sheep cat. AB) (Fig. 1.3). What makes HallTex 288 outstanding out of all the other Bronze Age textiles from Hallstatt is the starting border. It has a warp-twined appearance, which perhaps was made in a two-hole-tablet weave technique. The starting border has blue warp-twined (for warp-twined bands and their characteristics see Collingwood 1982, 112−32) stripes on light brown background, three times alternating one dark blue and one light brown line.

This is the earliest evidence for a colour-patterned, tablet-woven band in Central Europe. The Hallstatt item was made at a time when sheep with light wool evolved, which made colour patterning possible.

It is known that the beginnings of tablet weaving in Europe date back to Bronze Age. Heidemarie Farke re-assessed the textile assemblage of the Middle Bronze Age Schwarza graves in Germany and identified a tablet-woven starting border (Farke 1993). Fabric No. 13c from Tumulus C1 has a twined appearance, which is contemporary with, and comparable to, HallTex 288. Both items represent one of the basic techniques of tablet weaving, the so-called ‘warp twined tablet weaving’ (Collingwood 1982, 102−111).

The ‘Ramses Belt’ from Egypt, c. 1200 BC, and three linen bands dating to the twenty-second Dynasty (945–745 BC) have often been considered the oldest evidence of tablet weaving but this has been refuted by Peter Collingwood in his rigorous studies (Collingwood 1982, 10−11).

Another hint for this weaving technique is the square bone tablet with holes in the corners, which was discovered in a Late Bronze Age layer (radiocarbon-dated to 1400–1075 BC) of the site Abri Mühltal I in Germany (Grote 1994, pl. 101−103). The weaving tablet was found in a context with other textile equipment, such as a polishing stone and a fragment of a spindle whorl.

Advanced techniques in the first half of the first millennium BC

After the very early Bronze Age finds, which are relatively simply made, there is an increasing demand to add decoration in the Early Iron Age between 800 and 400 BC. From the Early Iron Age, at Hallstatt there are striped tablet-woven textiles made with warp-twined tablet weaving (Hundt 1960, 145−46; Grömer et al. 2013, HallTex 43 & 136). HallTex 136−1 is a tablet-woven border with a warp-stripe design, 0.7 cm wide. Horsehair is added to a wool weft thread. The pattern consists of tablet-woven warp-stripes made with tablets, each of which is threaded with a single colour: 1 tablet blue on each selvedge, at the inner part 2 tablets yellowish and 3 tablets reddish (Fig. 1.4). The Dürrnberg salt mines also yielded simple tablet-woven items, dated between the sixth and fourth century BC (Grömer & Stöllner 2011, 7.1.1). All of them are monochrome and woven with square tablets. They are made as narrow borders in simple warp twining and woven as an integral part of larger weaves. But even more complicated weaving techniques appeared at this point. How the patterning techniques in tablet weaving evolved is difficult to trace from the archaeological record; it is not yet clear which pattern type was an evolutionary basis for the other.

Fig. 1.2. Textile with tablet-woven starting border HallTex 288, salt mine Hallstatt, c. 1500−1200 BC, 15 × 7.5 cm, Natural History Museum Vienna (Inv. No. 120.050). (© Natural History Museum Vienna, photo: A. Rausch, graph: K. Grömer)

Fig. 1.3. Details of the starting border and fibres, Dino-Lite Digital Microscope, 30× and 250×, Natural History Museum Vienna (Inv. No. 120.050). (© Natural History Museum Vienna, microphotos: K. Grömer)

Fig. 1.4. Tablet-woven band HallTex 136 with warp-stripes, salt mine Hallstatt, c. 800−400 BC, 3.6 × 1.2 cm, Natural History Museum Vienna (Inv. No. 89.844b). (© Natural History Museum Vienna, photo: A. Rausch)

Next to the ‘warp-twined’ tablet-weaving technique, the second basic technique is to reverse the twining direction of the cords. This can be done with all cords or only in some cords (Collingwood 1982, 112−34). If single tablets are twisted in special frequencies, a ‘double faced weave with diagonal structure’ appears as known from Hallstatt where four-hole tablets threaded with two light and two dark coloured threads were used to produce patterns by being turned groupwise in different directions. This technique can be used to create intricate patterns.

Two examples can be identified from Hallstatt. They have a light pattern on a darker background in different hues. HallTex 123 was made with 21 tablets, the warp consists of fine, well-twisted wool yarn, which is plied, in blue-green, brownish, olive-green and yellowish (Fig. 1.5). Dark pigmented horsehair was used as weft thread to strengthen the fabric, as it was a trimming for a sleeve. The pattern consists of yellowish meanders and cross-filled triangles. The background is blue-green and brownish, the sides of the band were made with monochrome threaded tablets in blue-green and black, which serve as a perfect frame to highlight the pattern.

Fig. 1.5. Tablet-woven band HallTex 123 with meander and triangle design, salt mine Hallstatt, c. 800−400 BC, 1.3 cm wide, circumference 22 cm, Natural History Museum Vienna (Inv. No. 89.832). (© Natural History Museum Vienna, photo: A. Rausch)

HallTex 186 consists of two fragments of a tablet-woven ribbon with a pattern of triangles (Fig. 1.6). It was made with 13 four-holed tablets. Plied wool was used in both warp and weft. Like the other band, the sides of the band are made with monochrome threaded tablets, in this instance dark green and dark brown. The background of the decoration zone is light olive-green and dark brown. The pattern consists of yellow triangles filled with a twirl. This pattern reflects typical Hallstatt design principles, which can even be found on contemporary pottery (Schappelwein 1999). The fineness of the bands is extraordinary; both were made with fine plied yarns (0.2−0.4 mm diameter) used as warp and the thread count is 64 threads per cm (HallTex 123) and 52 threads per 9 mm (HallTex 186).

Fig. 1.6. Tablet-woven band HallTex 186 with twirl-filled triangles, salt mine Hallstatt, c. 800−400 BC, 0.9 × 8.4 and 5.1 cm, Natural History Museum Vienna (Inv. No. 90.186). (© Natural History Museum Vienna, photo: A. Rausch)

Fig. 1.7. Tablet-woven band HallTex 152, two-hole technique, salt mine Hallstatt, c. 800−400 BC, 12.5 × 1.2 cm, Natural History Museum Vienna (Inv. No. 89.870). (© Natural History Museum Vienna, photo: A. Rausch)

There is also a tablet-woven band from Hallstatt patterned in a two-hole technique, HallTex 152 (Grömer et al. 2013, 483; Karisto & Grömer 2017) (Fig. 1.7). It is a 1.2 cm wide tablet-woven border with a coloured lozenge pattern, which is sewn to the remains of a yellowish fabric. Here also the plied yarn has a diameter of only 0.3−0.5 mm and the thread count is 44 threads per cm. It was woven with 12 four-holed tablets in a two-hole technique. This technique was very popular to make complex patterns in the Early Iron Age. The Hallstatt band has a pattern-field showing yellow rhombs with a crossed filling on an olive-green and brownish-black background. The pattern-field is surrounded by one tablet with brownish-black threads on one side and a brownish-black tablet followed by two tablets with olive-green threads on the other side.

To put this into context, it is worth noting that besides the bands described from Hallstatt, other archaeological sites from the Early Iron Age have provided tablet-woven bands. In addition to the techniques carried out with four-hole tablets, finds from Sasso di Furbara in Italy point to the use of triangular three-hole tablets (Mamez & Masurel 1992). The items belong to the Villanovan culture with a dating of ninth to eighth century BC. But most of the tablet weaves from other sites are made with four-hole tablets (Grömer & Stöllner 2011). Usually they are grave finds, attached to metal objects and, therefore, in most cases the original colour has unfortunately not been preserved and only the binding structure can be reconstructed from these pieces. At Apremont in France, the recognisable changes in the rotation patterns were most likely not only structural patterns with uni-coloured yarns, but perhaps also included coloured warp threads to form a colourful pattern that is lost from view today (Banck-Burgess 1999, figs 40−41).

Outstanding are the woven-on tablet borders from Verucchio, Italy, dating between 725 and 650 BC (von Eles 2002; Stauffer 2012), which have structural patterns, e.g. Cloak 2 from Verucchio in Italy has a wide tablet-woven border with a triangular pattern produced by changing the turning direction of the tablets. In addition, it has stripes formed by tablets turned in the opposite direction (Ræder-Knudsen 2012, figs 11.2−11.5).

From Hohmichele (late sixth/fifth century BC) there is not only the simple tablet-woven band mentioned by Collingwood that was found, but also a more complex item with double-faced weave and a diagonal structure (Banck-Burgess 1999, fig. 39). Here also the changing warp twist directions indicate that those structures are the remains of a former colour pattern of significant complexity. The most famous examples in this technique are the finds from the princely tomb of Hochdorf (late sixth century BC), which will be discussed later.

Early Celtic craftsmanship

Early Celtic craftsmanship starts at the end of the Hallstatt Period with the Hochdorf finds. The tablet-woven bands from Hochdorf show various types of patterning. A very wide tablet-woven band made in a combination of double-faced weave and double-faced 3/1 broken twill using only three threads per tablet was found on a very large cauldron at the princely tomb of Hochdorf, Germany. Narrower tablet-woven bands made with four-hole tablets using only two threads per tablet and patterned with swastikas and meander motifs have also been recorded (Ræder Knudsen 1999, 56−58). In the princely tomb of Hochdorf, tablet-woven bands were also found with extra weft decoration on the surface.

Here again, a tablet-woven item from the Austrian salt mines can be mentioned (Dürrnberg, No. 4470), which is outstanding concerning its technique of manufacture. This item dates to c. 350 BC due to dendrochronology dating of this part of the mine (Stöllner 2005). The border from Dürrnberg is mounted on a sleeve edge, which consists of a wool, spin-patterned tabby. The entire band was made using 29 four-hole tablets (Fig. 1.8). At the edge towards the sleeve and in the middle section there are one and four tablets each holding four blue threads. At the outer edge, the border does not have edge tablets. In the two pattern sections there are 13 and 11 tablets. For the pattern zone, backgrounds of greenish-blue and dark brown colour were fashioned to form yellow meandering motives using intricate patterning. Thus it can be seen that tablet weaving enabled people to create more complex patterns. The patterns echo contemporary motifs on pottery and bronze artefacts as well and therefore represent the Zeitgeist of a design (Grömer & Stöllner 2011, 109−11). In addition, the threads used for this band are of good quality, 0.2−0.3 mm Z- and S-plied yarns.

Fig. 1.8. Salt mine Dürrnberg, tablet-woven band with meander decor, c. 350 BC, 6.5 × 4.6 cm, Bergbaumuseum Bochum (No. 4470). (Photos: A. Schumacher, NHM)

As figured out by Lise Ræder Knudsen, the band was woven in a previously unknown technique combining pattern weaving with three colours and one empty hole in each four-hole tablet (Grömer & Stöllner 2011; Ræder Knudsen & Grömer 2012). The pattern is of a light colour and the background changes colour. The tablet-weaving technique usually cannot produce a pattern like this, but the weaver overruled the laws of tablet weaving and just pressed down the undesired colour with the shuttle. On the back of this band a lot of tiny errors can be detected (Fig. 1.8 right), indicating that the production of this pattern caused difficulties. Another detail is visible: the weft is horsehair (Fig. 1.9). This would produce a stiffer band. This phenomenon is also known from some tablet-woven and repp bands from Hallstatt (Grömer et al. 2013, HallTex 123A & 136/1). The phenomenon of tablet braids with horsehair pattern weft occurs again in Scandinavia in the Migration Period (see e.g. Nockert 1991 on the Högom find in Sweden).

Fig. 1.9. Salt mine Dürrnberg No. 4470, SEM pictures of details, Bergbaumuseum Bochum (No. 4470). (SEM pictures: VIAS)

A similar technique to the Dürrnberg band can be identified from a tablet-woven item from Altrier in Luxembourg dated to the Early La Tène Period, but the motif differs slightly: the decoration is a red swastika (dyed with kermes) and the background is blue (Rast-Eicher & Vanden Berghe 2015, 122, fig. 10.6).

Experiments on a band from Hallstatt

Analysis of textiles can reveal key data behind the finds: yarn strength, weaving method and surface quality. In experimental textile archaeology, attempts are made to understand how the items were made. A basic tenet of this method is that several skilled people should repeat the experiment in order to achieve a result that is of statistical relevance (Mårtensson 2007, 97−106). The persons involved must have experience in the relevant handcraft and the process must be completed with precise documentation.

An experiment on the complex tablet-woven band HallTex 123 will now be presented in detail – with all thoughts, implications and decisions. This was undertaken within the framework of the project HallTex FWF ‘Dyeing techniques of the prehistoric textiles from the salt mine of Hallstatt – analysis, experiments and inspiration for contemporary application’ (2008–2012) which was supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF [L 431−G02]. Together with the original find, the reconstruction of the band was included in a special exhibition, Colours of Hallstatt, at the Natural History Museum Vienna in 2012 (Fig. 1.10), as well as the tools used, the documentation, time