Caps, Scarves, Hoods and Hair nets

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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.

Caps with hair showing [V]

A small cloth cap like those from York, Lincoln and Dublin
Art
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Literature
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Archaeology

  • York, England. 3 caps, all of silk.
  • Lincoln, England. 1 cap of silk.
  • Dublin, Ireland. 16 caps, 4 of silk and 12 of wool. 4 of these finds are only possibly from caps. [WINCOTT HECKETT 2003]
  • Dokkum, Netherlands. [BRANDENBURGH 2009]:p.69-70 c.568-651AD?
  • Birka, Sweden. 1 cap of silk, Grave 946. Secured with a silver tablet woven band.

Discussion
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Headscarves

This style of head covering is frequently depicted in books and worn by re-enactors. To the best of our knowledge there is currently no real evidence for women wearing this style of head covering. Algren in his 1966 book 'The Viking' depicted almost all of his Viking women wearing this type of scarf. Algrem invented this head covering because he believed that "In those days a married woman had to cover her hair." [ALGREN 1966:p.201]. In the absence of any real evidence for head coverings he seems to derived this simple although probably inaccurate article and it has in turn been copied ever since.


Dublin scarf with hair showing

A number of small tasseled woven scarves of wool and silk were found in Viking Age Dublin. The head coverings from Dublin date from the early 10th century to the mid 12th century
Archaeology

  • Ireland, Dublin
    • 10 woollen scarves [WINCOTT HECKETT 2003]:p.4 Where some complete dimensions could still be established (5 scarves) the width ranged from 15cm to 24cm, averiging a width of 20.2cm. None of the woolen scarves were complete enough to establish an origianal length, but the longest fragment was 52cm long. [WINCOTT HECKETT 2003]:p.113
    • 6 silk scarves [WINCOTT HECKETT 2003]:p.4 Where the complete original widths of the silk scarves could be established (6 scarves) the width ranged from 15cm to 23cm, averiging 20cm. The original length could be established for 3 of the silk scarves and were 61cm, 59.5cm and 70cm long, averiging 63.5cm. [WINCOTT HECKETT 2003]:p.113 Dye was found on three of the silk scarves, two were dyed with madder (red), one with woad (blue). [WINCOTT HECKETT 2003]:p.4, 128

Discussion
Wincott Heckett has put forward a number of possible ways that these scarves may have been worn [WINCOTT HECKETT 2003]:p.5 The average size, assuming the silk and wool scarves were the same size which the established widths suggest, the scarves were about 20cm wide and 63cm long (including the tassels), but with some variations in both directions from these measurements. A human hair was found in DHC16, a woollen scarf, suggesting these were head coverings.[WINCOTT HECKETT 2003]:p.134

[OWEN-CROCKER 2004]:p.224

Hoods



Sprang hair net (V)

Art
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Literature
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Archaeology

  • York - interpreted as leggings?
  • Birka (HAGG 1986, p.51)

Discussion
Sprang hair nets have been recovered from Danish bog finds 800-500BC. A later interpreted find from Vindonissa, Switzerland is dated to 100AD. A possible sprang loom was found in the Oseberg burial. Although this was probably a tapestry loom [INGSTAD 1992]. A few fragments of possible sprang have been found in Birka [HAGG 1986]:p.51 Other sprang finds include leggings from Tegle, Norway, C6th and some fragments from York that have also been interpreted as leggings. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprang

References

Brandenburgh, Chrystel R. (2009) 'Early medieval textile remains from settlements in the Netherlands. An evaluation of textile production'. Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries 2-1(May 2010). [BRANDENBURGH 2009] ^ *
Hagg, Inga (1986) 'Die Tracht'. In Arwidsson, Greta (ed.) (1986) Birka II:2 Systematische Analysen der Graberfunde. [Systematic Analysis of the Graves Findings] Birka, Kungliga Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien: II:2 [HAGG 1986] ^ *
Ingstad, Anne Stine (1992) 'The textiles in the Oseberg ship'. In Christensen, A.E.; Ingstad, A. and Myhre, B. (1992) Oseberg Dronningens Grav - Vår Arkeologiske Nasjonalskatt i Nytt Lys [INGSTAD 1992] ^ *
Owen-Crocker, Gale R. (2004) Dress in Anglo-Saxon England. 2nd ed. The Boydell Press. [OWEN-CROCKER 2004] ^ *
Wincott Heckett, Elizabeth (2003) Viking Age Headcoverings from Dublin. Medieval Dublin Excavations 1962-81: Ser.B Vol.06 [WINCOTT HECKETT 2003] ^ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 *