A blue pile textile dating to the Viking Age from Saaremaa, Estonia

Abstract

A wool textile with a pile surface on one side was found in a bog in Pöide, Saaremaa Island (Estonia), in the 1870s. It was brought to Finland in 1878 and donated to the National Museum collections of Finland soon after. Radiocarbon 14 dates the find to the Viking Age. This fragmentary textile is the oldest significant piece of textile available for study from Estonia and is a remarkable find for the north-eastern Baltic region. The first detailed analysis of the Pöide textile shows that the warp, weft, pile and braid bordering the textile all contain indigoids, suggesting an originally blue vararfeldur textile.