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 t is a simple unarguable fact of human life. We have no fur, scales or feathers.  Given that we have inhabited all parts of this planet for millennia in sometimes near inhospitable conditions of cold or heat, we must clothes ourselves or die. Over the course of several thousand years we have worn untanned animal skins then tanned leather till we took a major step in our technological evolution with the manufacture of cloth. Cloth could not only be cut and sewn together to cover our bodies in a variety of ways, it could be made into many useful articles for homestead as well as allowing us to travel further on the waters with the help large canvas sails.
From an archeological perspective, textile is a frustrating subject. Unless the cloth is made of wool or has silk fibers, it tends to decompose quickly making identification of fibers and techniques very difficult. Coupled with the unfortunate fact that when compared to say gold jewelry, weapons or ring forts, textiles, since they are usually associated with "womanly" arts, are given little mention in anthropological or archeological texts. Hopefully that will change in the near future. That being said and done, I've had to range farther than usual to be able to collect enough information to make an comprehensive statement about the manufacture of textiles and the resulting folklore regarding spinning, weaving, dying, waulking and the finished cloth. Within these paragraphs we will travel from the Early Neolithic through the Bronze and the Iron Ages, from Medieval times to the 17th and 18th centuries. We will journey among the tribes of Old Europe, the continental Celts, a bit among the Iron Age Germanics, as well as the Scots and the Irish. This work is like an old tapestry. Some colors have faded, some threads are frayed while some are missing all together. In places it has been patched relying on a hypothesis of missing elements, yet within it's design are hidden forms that can only be seen if we look beyond the obvious.
 Ten thousand yeas ago, early Europeans were weaving cloth out of Nettle, Hemp and Linen fibers. Five thousand years later, along the Mediterranean and in the mountains of the Eurasia, the ancestors of the modern sheep was coming into being through selective breeding. Remnants of textiles found in Armoy and Island Hugh in Ireland show that by the Late Bronze Age weaving was quite advanced. The cloths found were a tabby weave with a sophisticated selvedge and a twill that was softer and thicker with the nap of the fabric treated in such a way as to make it more water resistant. Three fragments of Irish Iron Age cloth have surfaced, two from a burial in Galway and one from Fort Navan (Emain Macha). Two of the fragments are linen tabby weaves, one interesting piece from Galway is a very fine gauze or net made from horsehair woven in tabby. In Central Europe small clay stamps dating back to the Neolithic era were discovered. In the same region as these were found, similar stamps are in use today print designs on textiles. Striped, twilled and checked cloths found in an early Iron Age mine near Salzburg Austria, show signs of ornamentation through embroidery. Found in the excavation of a Late Hallstat (500 - 450BCE) tomb, was cloth woven with fine gold thread in a kind of brocade. This type of thread was made by wrapping very thin strips of gold, bronze or silver around fine wool or linen thread. Another example of Iron Age brocade with geometrical designs of checkers and triangles comes from Ingerhause, Switzerland. Along with varied coloring and different weaves, finished garments in Europe were often decorated with fringe, embroidery and some beading. Fringes were woven separately and could include thread of wool, linen, silk, bronze, gold or silver. Embroidery s done with silk, wool or linen. The silk, generally of Chinese origin, was likely thread unraveled from an older garment. Much of the earlier embroidery used a simple stem stitch to outline meanders, sun wheels and other locally used patterns. The Gaelic term for the one who embroiders is druinenech. Two other techniques which may have been used for creating early garments and containers are sprang and nalbinding. Sprang is a netting technique used to make bags, caps and other items which later would have been constructed through knitting. Knitting as we know it first appeared in Europe in the 500CE. It became a recognized craft in Scotland in the 14th and 15th centuries. Nalbinding which is found from Scandinavia to Egypt is a technique of looping thread with a needles to make stretchy fabrics used for mittens, socks or other items that would later have been constructed through knitting or crochet. Crochet became common in Europe during Medieval times-12th to 13th century. In addition to domestic uses, cloth was endowed with magickal properties. From the growing of the plant or raising of the sheep, through the spinning and weaving, to the dyeing and the finishing of the cloth, every aspect of cloth production had its rituals and prohibitions. The main prohibition was the almost total exclusion of males from the process. For thousands of years across Europe, cloth making was the work of women. The hands of women carded and spun the fibers, wove the cloth, formulated and applied the dyes and finally cut and sewed the garments to keep their mates and children safe and warm. This common work carries within it a deep and rich mythology, as fine as the cloth of gold brocades worn by Celtic princes. For many Celtic, Germanic and Slavic tribes, the connection of women, textiles and the sacred feminine led to scraps of cloth being used as offering in a number of situations. In parts of Ireland, this practice has survived even to this day; we can still find trees and bushes bent beneath the weight of offerings and prayers. It is thought that the cloth, commonly known as a "cloothie" is the repository of the spiritual energy or bodily ailment of the supplicant and that as the cloth fades so too does the illness. Large amounts of cloth were sometimes used to line the floors and walls of Iron Age timber framed tombs in Central Europe, whether this was purely decorative, a sign of status or a symbolic representation of death as a return to the divine womb is difficult to ascertain. It could easily be any one or a combination. We'd like to think it was a purely spiritual gesture of the highest order, however at this time in our history, the accumulation and displaying of material wealth was a way of gaining and maintaining status and thereby power within the tribe. An elaborately decorated grave not only signified wealth and status in this life but enabled the occupant to lead an equally luxurious life in the next. |
