Norsk versjon her. Last updated: May 14 2018
I am about to make an overview of tablet woven bands and fragments in Norway predating the 16th century. To my knowledge, noone have published this kind of list previously, thus I have to dig through a lot of archeological reports and the work progresses very slowly. Nevertheless, here are some of my current findings.
So far, there are known archeological findings of fragments of tablet woven bands dated to these time periods:
| Iron Age[1] | Roman Iron Age | 0-400 |
| Early Germanic Iron Age/ Migration Period | 400-550 | |
To my knowledge, no findings. |
||
| Viking Age | 800-1050 | |
| Middle Age[2] | High Middle Age | 1050-1300 |
| Late Middle Age | 1300-1500 |
Most of the archeological findings of tablet woven bands found in Norway are dated to the migration area, with famous locations such as Evebø/Eide and Snartemo graves. Other well known tablet woven bands are the ones found in Uvdal (assumed to be of medieval age) and Oseberg (viking age), as well as some less known but not less impressive brocaded tablet woven bands found in Trondheim (medieval).
Some may consider the migration era a golden age of tablet weaving in Norway, but statistically speaking there are not really many fragments found at all. Textiles were treated catastrophically bad in excavations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and thrown away when metallic artefacts were rinsed and conserved. A limited number of surviving bands in general and uncertainties in dating, makes it impossible to draw such conclusions.
I’ve divided the findings by geography as well as chronology:
- Central Norway
- Northern Norway
- Western Norway
- Southern Norway
- Eastern Norway
If you are aware of other bands that I have not mentioned, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I would very much like to make the lists as complete as possible.
If you are aware of relevant literature I should know about too, please also notify me about these.
References:
- Store norske leksikon.«Jernalder» http://snl.no/jernalder 31.10.2013
- Store norske leksikon.«Middelalderen» http://snl.no/middelalderen 31.10.2013