The Bryndum burial ground in Denmark: News on Viking Age women's clothing

Abstract

In the village of Bryndum on the west coast of Denmark four kilometres north of the modern town of Esbjerg, a Viking Age cemetery dated to first part of the ninth century CE was excavated in 2016. A block lift from grave G12 turned out to contain two oval brooches covered with organic remains and textiles. The subsequent lab-controlled excavation revealed that there were six different textiles preserved in the grave. It is possible that the buried woman was covered by a greyish wool duvet filled with threshed straw which originally may have been filled with down and feathers. The clothing most likely consisted of a blue or purplish wool overwear lined with a whiteish linen fabric. She was probably clad in a blue wool dress with straps made of a tablet-woven wool band, held together with a pair of oval bronze brooches. This is the first time that the tablet weaving technique has been recorded for this specific use. Underneath the dress, remains of a pleated linen inner garment were found. The grave thus contains both well-known and new details relating to Danish Viking Age female clothing. The findings were uncovered during a careful excavation and registration process and are the results of a fruitful collaboration between conservators, archaeologists, and other scientists.