Interior Textiles in the Viking Age

When Viking Age houses are reconstructed, the focus is often on the hearth and arrangements for tables, benches and sleeping places. This is all of great importance in understanding how people organized their lives, nevertheless, we often forget that various forms of textiles are natural and necessary parts of almost all the functions of the house. When examining Viking Age houses, it is essential to understand the functionality of textiles in bedding, linens, tablecloths, blankets, pillows, wall hangings, and cleaning rags. Moreover, textiles played a significant role as media for collective storytelling and in the ongoing negotiation of social status. Most of the preserved textiles from the Viking Age have been found in graves. However, analyses show that burial textiles included not only clothing but also bedding, pillows, and wrappings for objects. A burial chamber can be viewed as a room for the deceased, furnished with objects that reflect social practices and customs. The interior of the burial chamber therefore offers the best available archaeological source for household textiles. By adopting a holistic approach that combines different methods and sources, and by treating textiles based on the contexts in which they appear, the Viking Age interior textiles become visible, highlighting their use, needs, and value.

The chapters in this volume present different categories of interior textiles and their contexts, how they have been used, their spatiality and the relationships they have with other materials. The textiles are also considered in relation to the three-dimensional space a house constitutes. How was the room furnished and how was it perceived by the people who moved within it? This is a kind of spatial archaeology that is often lost when interpreting houses based on postholes and hearths.

Author Biography

Eva Andersson Strand is Professor in Archaeology, University of Copenhagen. Her research lies in 35 years of experience in recording and combining ancient textile crafts and production processes combined with comprehensive context analysis and experimental and digital archaeology. Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson is Associate Professor in Archaeology, Uppsala University. She has a long-time engagement in the archaeology and research of Viking town Birka, focusing on martial society, cultural interactions, and contacts between Scandinavia, eastern Europe and Eurasia. Ulla Mannering is Research Professor in Textile Archaeology, National Museum of Denmark. She is responsible for the prehistoric textile and clothing collections at the National Museum of Denmark and has over 25 years of experience in textile analyses and the development and adaption of scientific analyses for textile research. Marianne Vedeler is Professor in Archaeology, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. She has more than 30 years of experience in museum collection management and textile analysis. Her research focus is on dress and accessories, textile trade and distribution and on food culture.