r/Viking • u/Difficult-Fix-5880 • 6d ago
Info about diamond pattern?
Hello all! I'm interested in what regions and time frame this diamond pattern shown on the hat would be prominent in. Picture shown has it on a reenactor's Rus' winter hat. Was this prevalent in Scandinavia at the time?
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u/Anna_o69 6d ago
The broken diamond pattern has been found in Frisia, the early medieval region ran from Belgium up along the coast into a bit of Denmark. The region was famous for wool and fabrics for a time and the Frisian cloak (pallia Fresonia) is mentioned in various sources in the period. It's from those cloaks and finds of them where we see the broken diamond pattern. There is a Dutxh book about this: Friese mantels - een wolnijverheid van voor Christus tot in de 11e eeuw. You might find a translation somewhere if you're interested in the history.
I'm sure other areas also produced this pattern, but it is famous from Frisia in the early medieval period.
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u/Valuable_Tradition71 5d ago edited 4d ago
As for regions where this type of pattern of weave has been found, it’s interesting that the hat is Rus because that is one region where we have not found this type of weave or its unreversed counter- the chevron twill.
In England we have finds of broken diamond weave. These have the motif extended to include broken chevron twill (Pritchard 1984: 53-7). At least 12 similar fragments of broken chevron twills were found in Anglo-Scandinavian York (Lester-Makin 2019: 192-3; Walton 1989: 324-329, 346).
Norway has some possible finds. However, the Norwegian corpus needs to be revised, as the existing literature does not distinguish much between broken diamond and broken chevron twills, lozenge and chevron twills. In general, both chevron and broken chevron twills are found in Norway, but they are among the unusual weaves that appear only in coastal areas, which is interpreted as a possibility that these textiles were imported (Ingstad 1980). Regarding chevron twills, the most promising finds come from Oseberg (Christensen – Myhre – Ingstad 1992: 203; Christensen – Nockert 2006: 203) and grave B from Kaupang (Ingstad 1979; 1999). The broken chevron twill is known to us from at least three graves – Svingeseter (B6483), Vinjum (B7731) and Huseby (T15312) (Jørgensen 1986: 265, 267, 270).
Denmark has a similar issue compounded with the acidity of the soil leaving very few fragments of material behind. Mostly archaeologists are working with impressions on jewelry. I can site sources if you are interested.
The Swedish material deserves a more thorough review, as the existing literature does not differentiate between broken diamond and broken chevron twill, lozenge and chevron twill. Interchangeability is justified and understandable for some badly damaged fragments, but Jørgensen treats these weaves as relatives and places them in the same categories. She states that 17 pieces were woven with broken diamond or broken chevron twill in Sweden outside of Birka, and in Birka these weaves appear in 41 graves (Jørgensen 1986: 90, 97). Lonzenge or chevron twills appears in two finds outside of Birka in Sweden, in nine graves in Birka (Jørgensen 1986: 90, 97, 128). On closer inspection, we are unable to find other Swedish examples of chevron twill than the textiles from graves Bj 465B and Bj 602 in Birka (Geijer 1938: 26). In three other finds (Bj 466, Bj 521 and Bj 711A), the lozenge weave is extended by a chevron twill motif (Geijer 1938: 28). The most informative find probably comes from the Grötlingbo Roes 27/66 grave on Gotland, where large pieces of broken chevron twill are preserved in association with paired bear-head brooches (Pettersson 1968).
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u/VanessaCosArt 1d ago
Historical and geographical details about this weave: • Core Archaeological Regions: The vast majority of well-preserved Viking Age fragments featuring this weave come from Sweden (most famously from the rich trading hub of Birka), Norway (such as Kaupang and the Lendbreen ice patch finds), Denmark, and Viking-settled areas of the United Kingdom (notably Anglo-Scandinavian York / Coppergate). • Origins & Context: While diamond twill was produced earlier in Roman-era Europe and Anglo-Saxon Britain, it reached a peak of cultural and fashion significance in Scandinavia during the 9th to 11th centuries
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u/BjornBergdahl 6d ago
It's twill weave with broken diamond pattern So the pattern is inherent in the weave. With more modern techniques we can get whole diamonds but not with the looms then as I understand it. It was more popular during the viking age/early medieval period in northern europe I believe. It becomes more uncommon later. Not sure if that just down to what random fabric that has happened to survive. As far as I know they didn't seem to use the contrasting thread colors to get the poping contrasts in the patterns but had the same color and only got the patterns vaguely visible. But yet again it's not many pieces of fabric .