Shift

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Completion Rating
This article's completion rating is 2 out of 5. Article structure and content is subject to change as data is still being collected.
Completion Rating
This article's completion rating is 2 out of 5. Article structure and content is subject to change as data is still being collected.

Garment worn next to the skin

Shift Material

Linen

Recreation Guide
800-899 900-979 980-1040 1041-1100
Optional

Art

  • In Anglo-Saxon manuscripts shifts are often left white possibly signifying that they were made of linen. (OWEN-CROCKER 2004, p.218)

Literature
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Archaeology

  • Birka, Sweden (C9th-10th) 61 graves containing bleached or white linen shifts. Hägg categorises these into two categories, smooth and pleated (HAGG 1986)

Discussion
In both types of shift, though far more common in the pleated shift, the neck hole was slit and fastened with a small round brooch or, more rarely, with a small penannular. The datable graves from Birka containing remnants of shifts show a trend where the smooth linen shift becomes less popular in the C10th (JBS) while the pleated shift becomes more so (HAGG 1986).
The datable graves from Birka containing remnants of shifts show an increase in the number of pleated shifts in the later stages of the site (JBS) [Hagg 1986].


Smooth Linen

See Also

References

  • [Hagg 1986] Hagg, Inga. Die Tracht, in Birka II-3. 1986.