Tracing Textile Production from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages: Tools, Textiles, Texts and Contexts

This book explores textile production in north-western Europe during the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, focusing on its tools, textiles, and their use in various contexts. It aims to contextualize archaeological finds and uncover patterns across larger areas and a long-term perspective of half a millennium, revealing diversity, stability, and change related to societal changes.

Format: Hardback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 15 March 2022
Publisher: Oxbow Books

Textile production at the fringes of north-western Europe during the early Viking Age and the Middle Ages is the focus of this book. Textiles are essential for human life, providing warmth and protection while also serving as a means of expressing social status and affiliations. The book explores the tools and textiles used during this period, including their characteristics, production processes, and the various contexts in which they were employed. The Viking Age, in particular, saw the development of sails, which played a crucial role in the region's development and character. The book employs a multi-disciplinary approach, combining archaeological findings, textual sources, and gender analysis to uncover patterns and insights into the technology, qualities, gender roles, social relations, power dynamics, and networks of the period. By tracing textile production across diverse landscapes and settings, including Viking Age graves and in-situ workplaces, the book aims to contextualize dispersed archaeological finds and provide a long-term perspective of half a millennium. The tools and textiles reveal diversity, stability, and change, reflecting the broader societal changes from the early Viking Age raids, colonization, centralization, and urbanization in the Middle Ages.

Dimension: 280 x 216 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781789257779