Reconstructing garments
The people buried in the graves often wore several layers of clothes over one another, Brandenburgh concludes after analysing the textile remnants. ‘But I generally have to hazard a guess at the shape and cut of the garments: there isn't enough information available to be certain.’ She did carry out some experiments on the material, from which she was able to determine the type of material and for a limited number of the samples she could also determine the colour. What she discovered was that the red colour found in clothes from burial mounds in the northern Netherlands came from the common madder plant and the dark brown colour came from other sources. ‘I discovered, for example, that a brown hat was made of brown wool that had been dyed even darker. I was able to see this because there was some decorative stitching on the hat that hadn’t been dyed.’
Clothes have meaning
Clothing provides valuable information about people, according to Brandenburgh. ‘It’s functional, but it also expresses the identity or position of the wearer.’ She regards her research as the starting point for further studies on textiles. ‘I have concentrated only on the textile remnants found because so little research has been done in this field. But there is more information to be gained from the other contents of the grave, which can add to our knowledge.’ New excavation techniques like CT and 3D scans and isotope research make it possible to draw further conclusions about clothing.
15h century Book of Hours Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. lat. 33, p. 4r – Book of Hours - Image: e-codices / Flickr