Bronze Age wool:  provenance and dye investigations of Danish textiles

Karin Margarita Frei; Ulla Mannering; Ina Vanden Berghe; Kristian Kristiansen

doi:10.15184/aqy.2017.64

Bronze Age wool: provenance and dye investigations of Danish textiles

Karin Margarita Frei, Ulla Mannering, Ina Vanden Berghe, Kristian Kristiansen

Saxo-Instituttet - Arkæologi, Etnologi, Historie og Græsk og Latin

21 Citationer (Scopus)

82 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Recent analysis of the wool textiles from the famous Egtved oak coffin burial in Denmark indicated that the wool had been obtained from beyond Denmark. Was this an isolated case or evidence of a large-scale wool trade in the Danish Bronze Age? To investigate the broader pattern of wool provenance, textile manufacturing and trade practices, strontium isotope and organic dye analyses were conducted on textiles from a variety of selected burial contexts. Strontium isotope analysis revealed that at least 75 per cent of the Bronze Age wool samples originated outside present-day Denmark. Results also showed no evidence for the use of organic dyes, thereby supporting the hypothesis that no dyestuffs were used in Nordic Bronze Age textile production. These results challenge extant interpretations of Scandinavian Bronze Age textile provenance, and demonstrate the complexity of exchange networks in wool textiles during this period.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Tidsskrift	Antiquity
Vol/bind	91
Udgave nummer	357
Sider (fra-til)	640-654
Antal sider	15
ISSN	0003-598X
DOI	https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2017.64
Status	Udgivet - 1 jun. 2017

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10.15184/aqy.2017.64Licens: CC BY

bronze_age_wool_provenance_and_dye_investigations_of_danish_textilesForlagets udgivne version, 1,04 MBLicens: CC BY

https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003598X17000643/type/journal_articleLicens: CC BY

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Bronze Age wool: provenance and dye investigations of Danish textiles

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