The Bernuthsfeld Man's tunic is really a rather special affair - a very, very simple cut, but it is put together from only patches. It's not a heavily worn tunic that was patched up.

Most publications about the tunic are in German, including one published in one of the NESAT proceedings, which includes this overview picture of the tunic's front:

[caption id="attachment_3151" align="alignnone" width="640"] Picture from: Farke, Heidemarie. "Der Männerkittel aus Bernuthsfeld. Beobachtungen während einer Restaurierung." In Textiles in European Archaeology. Report from the 6th NESAT Symposium, 7-11th May 1996 in Borås, edited by Lise Bender Jørgensen and Christina Rinaldo, 99-106. Göteborg, 1998, p. 100.


As you can see, it's rather... patchy. The individual bits of fabric all show marks of wear from previous use, possibly in garments; there's lots of twill variations and only rather few plain weave bits. My count is 19 different fabrics, used for 43 patches. Some of them are folded double, others are used as single layer. The "cut", if you can call it that without there having been proper garment cutting, is as simple as possible.

Why that tunic looks like it does? Nobody knows - it is a singular piece (alas, like quite a few textile finds). With its patches, possibly in different colours, but at least in very different kinds of fabric, all looking old and worn, and with the very conspicuous checkered fabric #31 right on the breast in front, it would have been very obvious that this was not a "normal" member of society, though. There are a few late medieval images that show beggars dressed in very, very patched garments - so maybe this tunic was a beggar's work clothing?

While I was at it, and the Zwirnzwerg was out, I finally finished spinning up that nice, dyed top that had been hanging out here for a good while. It was about 150 g altogether, which means it's a rather generous amount for a pair of socks, but way too little for anything sweater-like. I have more than enough pairs of socks, though (the sock drawer is overflowing), and I also have more scarf- or shawl-like objects than I actually wear. Same goes for hats. Which means... sweater-like things are currently high on the list of stuff I'd like to knit.

So out came some of the Gotland sheep wool. There must be an upside to having different kinds of wool for sale, right? And obviously, from time to time, I have to check whether the quality is good and it spins nicely...

Well, I can tell you - it did. The fibre is really lovely, with a soft, silky feel to it, and the colour is ever so slightly variegated, since the grey effect is achieved by a mix of dark and white individual fibres. It looks very nice, and very chic all on its own.

So. Spinning took place, which means that after a while, I had this:


...which turns into something like this when plied together:


And that's the current status. Which will not progress at all until tonight, when I will hopefully have a nice hour or two on the sofa, with the spinning dwarf in front of me, humming away quietly and turning these two singles into lovely, lovely yarn to knit with...

There was some spinning today... in both black, and white. The reason for this is the exciting new and large project - recreating the finds (including the garments) that were found with the bog body of the Man from Bernuthsfeld (Wikipedia has an article about him, but only in German).

The body and the finds were off for research since 2011, but have returned last summer to the Landesmuseum Emden. The wish to show a better picture of the man, and how he might have looked in his lifetime, has led to this reconstruction project of the finds... which is totally awesome, and means a lot of (partly quite fiddly) work.

First step, after the extensive planning, is getting the fabrics. And, you might have guessed it - they are not your common garden-variety pieces, available without a problem in the next fabric shop. The tunic is put together from patches - more than 40! - and these patches are mostly from already worn fabrics, more than 20 different kinds.

Weaving small bits of fabric (a patch here, a patch there, patches, patches everywhere) is much less efficient than weaving a proper, large piece - which means that a lot of the planning was figuring out how large the individual pieces have to be, and how they can be woven without driving everybody involved utterly crazy.

The yarns are partly also a problem - which is the reason that I did a tiny bit of spinning. The rest of the yarns will be machine-spun, but as close to the original yarns as possible, and the weaving has already started. So exciting!

[caption id="attachment_3143" align="alignnone" width="442"] The yarn, dark and light - it is for a checkered patch that sits prominently on the breast of the tunic...

Just in case you are looking for a job connected to experience archaeology: There's a job opening in Dorset for an Ancient Technology Tutor, teaching children. There's a second job in the same place, the Cranborne Ancient Technology Centre, for an Outdoor Education Administrator. Both offers have an application deadline on June 18.

And just in case you're looking for something to read: Springer is running an e-book sale, where all English e-books published before 2004 are available for 9.99 €. You need to enter the coupon code SBA17E when ordering, and you can take a look at the books here.

Aarhus Uni Press is offering "Mobile Bodies, Mobile Souls" as free e-book of the month. The book is taking a look at the complex relationships between family, religion and migration.

Hooray it's Friday, and the start of a long weekend! The weather is pretty hot and sunny here, my workspace looks quite a lot better now that I've finally put away most of the stock into the newly ordered shelf (yay for visible floor space), the next project is just getting  started, promising to be exciting and a lot of fun and I'll tell you more about it soon, I got another lesson in beekeeping this morning (which included trying a bit of honey), my dad's health checkup came back with the result of "everything stable", I have ordered enough F-clamps to enable me to do the long-planned tablet-weaving workshop, and I have the strong suspicion there will be iced coffee in my very, very near future.

So - life is good. And full of things. Which is also good.

Another bit of good news - you remember the petition to save the museum in Lyon that ran a good while ago? The president of the region has pledged to help save the museum and provide an annual sum in support of it, provided that the city and state also pitch in. This is the first really tangible good news on this, and I do hope it will all end well, and with the museum in a stable position. You can read the full update (in French) here.

And that's it for now, from me. I'll see you on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday here) and hope you will have a nice weekend too!

This day.. somehow got away from me. Or at least it cunningly succeeded at hiding the fact that I hadn't blogged yet. There were a lot of things getting done, and with this and that and then a phone call inbetween and my parents stopping by for a short visit, somehow the day flew past, and there I am, suddenly remembering a lack of writing.

Well, you're not getting a long text now - but I have a few garden pics for you:

[caption id="attachment_3131" align="alignnone" width="600"] Everything is blooming these days - the white bellflowers...


[caption id="attachment_3132" align="alignnone" width="600"] ... the wild poppies...


[caption id="attachment_3133" align="alignnone" width="600"] ...one last iris is holding its own, while its comrades have already finished...


[caption id="attachment_3134" align="alignnone" width="600"] ... there's yellow and purple lilies...


[caption id="attachment_3135" align="alignnone" width="600"] ... and finally the elderflowers, filling the garden with their sweet smell. Maybe we'll manage to make fritters of these during the next few days!

Here's a stack of things you might enjoy... first of all, the children's quiz show that I was filmed for in January is online for four more days, and you can watch the episode here. (It's the second question in.)

Here's an article about the hatpin in the early 20th century and its use for self-defense.

Looking for something less martial? Here's a 14th century recipe for doughnuts, courtesy of the British Library.

If you are interested in studying Experimental Archaeology, the UCD is offering a new course for a MSc in Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture. Application deadline is on June 2, so if that sounds interesting to you, you will need to be quick.

Speaking of programmes, the Nobilitas Akademie this year will be 10-12 November on Burg Hessenstein. As usual, there's a variety of different topics, all sounding quite interesting! Their programme is online, and you can register for it; if you do it soon, you'll get a bit of an early bird discount, too.

Finally, here is a blog article about a spinning technique with hand spindles that I have on my list of "things to try and figure out how to do" - rotating the spindle in the hand, but not with the hand and finger position similar to short suspended spinning, but more or less horizontally. I've seen this a good while ago for the first time and have since dabbled some with the motion (which is totally intriguing), but as I said, it's still on the list.

Hope you enjoy one or more of those!