War and Worship

Textiles from 3rd to 4th-century AD Weapon Deposits in Denmark and Northern Germany

Susan Möller-Wiering

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781842176573
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Archäologie

War and Worship concerns textile deposits from the bog sites of Thorsberg in Germany and Nydam, Vimose and Illerup Ådal in Denmark. All four sites are well-known for containing a substantial amount of archaeological materials, particularly weapons, but they also contain, as integral parts of the weapon deposits, a smaller number of preserved textiles, which nevertheless constitute outstanding assemblages. With the exception of Thorsberg, publications dealing particularly with textiles from weapon deposits are almost non-existent. The textiles from each site are analysed, then compared to one another and described as a unit characterising the particular site. Comparisons are then made between the four sites, with emphasis on the overall context. A final chapter by Lise Ræder Knudsen analyses tablet-woven textiles in the deposits, a textile technique used to make bands, edges and borders. Although the state of preservation of the textiles at the different locations varies hugely, the research has extracted a large amount of information allowing conclusions on status, origin, function and role in the deposits to be drawn. The fabrics presented here were, unquestionably, consecrated textiles. They had been worn by the defeated foreign warriors during the battle and were considered worthy as sacrificial offerings to the gods. Some individual high-status textiles were perceived to have a value comparable to certain metal items. Others - probably the majority - were used for covering and wrapping other offerings for the subsequent sacrifice. All were committed to the lakes in a sacred act of remembrance to celebrate victorious battles.

PART 1

1. INTRODUCTION

Until 150 years ago, bogs or fens characterised the landscapes of Denmark and northern Germany. Many of them once consisted of swampy areas as well as open lakes. In the course of time, the lakes disappeared due to natural processes and — later — as a result of human intervention. For archaeologists, many of these bogs prove to be a highly valuable source. This book focuses on the four bog sites of Thorsberg in Germany, and Nydam, Vimose and Illerup Ådal in Denmark.¹ All four sites are well- known for containing a substantial amount of archaeological materials, particularly weapons. They also shed light on the Roman Iron Age in the Barbaricum and continue to generate new research questions and results. They are not by far the only weapon deposits, but they are amongst the largest ones known to date. Weapon deposits of the first five or six centuries AD were discovered at about 30 sites, primarily in Denmark but also in southern Sweden and northernmost Germany (von Carnap-Bornheim and Ilkjær 2008, 10, Abb. 1). One of the smallest assemblages was found in Gremersdorf-Techelwitz in Schleswig-Holstein and is briefly included in this study.

CONSECRATED WAR BOOTY

Archaeological research into the bogs and their weapons began about 150 years ago. One of its pioneers was the Danish archaeologist Conrad Engelhardt (1825–1881) who excavated parts of Thorsberg, Nydam and Vimose as well as Kragehul.² His publications on these sites appeared in 1863, 1865, 1869 and 1867, respectively. The idea that the weapons could have been consecrated to deities emerged already in this early period. Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae (1821–1885) proposed this hypothesis in 1865 and Conrad Engelhardt supported it in his book on Kragehul in 1867 (pp. 16–17). To date, a lively scholarly debate has ensued over the identity of the people whose belongings were sacrificed, the question of who the aggressors were, the areas where the battles may have taken place, and many others issues. Recent contributions to this discussion may be followed in publications such as Sejrens Triumf (2003),³ Abegg-Wigg and Rau (2008) and the PhD thesis of Xenia Pauli Jensen (2008) and are not repeated here in any detail. On a more general level, sacrifices in the Roman Iron Age have been evaluated by Wolf-Rüdiger Teegen (1999).

The hypothesis of sacrificed war booty is supported by written evidence, of for example, Caesar, Strabo, Diodor, and Orosius. These sources were already cited by Worsaae and Beauvois in the 1860s, and then by Engelhardt (1867, 16–17) and still continue to be the subject of discussion (e.g. Ilkjær 1975, 151; Grane 2003). They report on a custom of the Gauls who dedicated some of the potential booty already before the battle, and who after the battle consigned gold and silver into lakes. They further report on similar habits amongst the Germanic tribes, namely the Cimbri and Teutons, who, after a battle against the Romans in the late 2nd century BC, destroyed their booty (including clothes) in fury before casting it into a river.

The majority of archaeological war booty assemblages testify to damage which precede their immersion in the bogs. Conrad Engelhardt surmised that much of this damage did not originate in the battles themselves, but was due to the subsequent rituals (1869, 5). This has been confirmed by modern research (e.g. Petersen 1995, 24).

TEXTILES

Following Claus von Carnap-Bornheim and Jørgen Ilkjær's interpretation of the situation in Illerup Ådal (1996a, 16), which represents the currently held view on the weapon deposits (Carnap-Bornheim and Ilkjær 2008, 9), the point of departure for the present investigation is the hypothesis that the materials were sacrificed by the people living in the neighbourhood or region of the bog in question, and that the weapons and personal belongings were once owned by foreign warriors. It was not assumed, however, that this also applied to the textiles which might have been taken from local resources. Von Carnap-Bornheim and Ilkjær (ibid.,15) proposed that the items had been collected in sacks. Güde Bemmann and Jan Bemmann too argued that some fabrics, which had been discovered in Nydam as a closed find together with spearheads, represented a sack (1998 vol. 2, 229). Sacking material would probably rather indicate local additions than foreign material. On the other hand, Jørgen Ilkjær also considered the possibility that the textiles might have been garments belonging to the warriors (1993a, 16). Since clearly identifiable pieces of clothing were excavated in Thorsberg, this hypothesis seems valid. The possibility that the fabrics represent bags hanging from the belt and containing personal belongings (ibid., 123) may only be a minor one.

While the clothes found in Thorsberg attracted much attention from the very outset, the textiles from other sites remain relatively unknown to date. The literature related to the various deposits is cited below in the relevant chapters. With the exception of Thorsberg, publications dealing particularly with textiles from weapon deposits are almost non-existent, apart from the preliminary results of the present research (Möller-Wiering 2008; 2000; forthcoming b).

CHRONOLOGY

In recent decades, the rapidly growing knowledge of the weapon deposits have resulted — amongst other issues — in the identification and definition of single deposits on the large sites and thus in a detailed chronology. Much of this work was undertaken by Jørgen Ilkjær, who provided information pertaining to about 17 sites correlated in a table (2003, 46, fig. 2). Of the four sites relevant here, the sacrifices first began in Vimose, followed by Illerup, Thorsberg and Nydam. In the case of Vimose, an even more refined chronology was developed by Xenia Pauli Jensen (2008, 34–40) demonstrating that, the first weapons had already been deposited by the first century AD (Vimose 0). Yet, since all four sites contain more than one deposit, some chronological overlapping exists in the later phases. On the other hand, textiles are not preserved from every single deposit. The oldest large group of weaves proves to be the material from Illerup Ådal. Therefore, Illerup was chosen as the first site to be described here, followed by Vimose, Thorsberg and finally Nydam. More information about each site is given below.

METHOD

Due to different preservation conditions in Illerup Ådal, Vimose, Thorsberg and Nydam, the textile materials and thus the possibilities for their evaluation vary from site to site. This results in separate descriptions, interpretations and lists for each site. Yet, it is self evident that in each case, the investigation begins with an examination of the technical details of the fabrics including microstratigraphy. The inspection was focused on those items which were recognised as textiles from the outset. Moreover, certain amounts of weapons were examined in order to identify possible additional textile material. It was impossible — and did not seem reasonable — however, to check the entire corpus of material comprising tens of thousands of metal items. Based on these fundamental data, the textiles from each site are then compared to one another and described as a unit characterising the particular site. Yet, the evaluation is not restricted to technical aspects. In order to answer questions e.g. about the textiles' functions before and within the sacrifice, the correlation between weave and non-textile artefact as well as their spatial distributions need to be analysed wherever possible. Having interpreted the material from each site from various perspectives, comparisons are drawn between Illerup, Vimose, Thorsberg and Nydam. Again, the evaluation not only includes technical features but emphasises the overall context. Finally, textiles from other sites and even other regional and chronological contexts are taken into account for comparison.

Notes

1 As the names do not refer to settlements but to landscape elements — a hill (Thorsberg), a pond (Nydam), a bog (Vimose) and a valley (Illerup Ådal) — it might be correct to use them together with an article, i.e. “the Vimose” etc. Yet, since the article is usually left out in the literature, this will be done here as well.

2 Kragehul is situated about 30 km southwest of Odense on the island of Fyn. This site, however, was not included in this project.

3 An English edition, The Spoils of Victory: The North in the Shadow of the Roman Empire and a German one, Sieg und Triumpf: der Norden im Schatten des Römischen Reiches, both edited by L. Jorgensen, B. Storgaard and L. G. Thomsen, were published in 2003 by the National Museum of Denmark.

2. ILLERUP Ådal

2.1. INTRODUCTION

Site and research history

The valley of Illerup Ådal is situated in the Jutland Peninsula, about 25 km southwest of Ärhus. Earlier, a lake had covered the valley bottom. The prehistoric site was discovered in 1950 (Ilkjær 1990a, 15–16) and excavations were begun the same year. However, the major fieldwork was conducted between 1975 and 1985. Subsequently, Jørgen Ilkjær has played a salient role in the research pertaining to this site. Although only c. 40% of the area has been excavated, more than 15,000 objects have come to light (ibid., 24). A recent overview of the site's history, its material and interpretation was given by Ilkjær in 2006 (published 2008). Detailed results have been issued in a series of twelve volumes to date. They deal with different categories of materials, i.e. lances and spears (Ilkjær 1990a, 1990b), belts and personal belongings (Ilkjær 1993a, 1993b), luxury sets of weapons and horse-riding equipment (von Carnap-Bornheim and Ilkjær 1996a, 1996b, 1996c, 1996d), shields (Ilkjær 2001a, 2001b) and swords (Biborski and Ilkjær 2006a, 2006b). Among these, vol. 8 (von Carnap-Bornheim and Ilkjær 1996d) is of particular interest as it contains the complete set of site maps in a scale of 1:10, 1:5 and 1:2. Three brief reports on some textiles had been submitted by Lise Bender Jørgensen 30 years ago,¹ but remain unpublished to date.

The basic chemical composition of the ground in Illerup Ådal was favourable to the preservation of metals. Moreover, substantial amounts of items crafted of wood, bone and antler were found. However, the chemicals were not conducive to the preservation of wool and leather. Yet, some textiles did survive, primarily preserved by iron oxides from shield bosses, lanceheads and spearheads, swords, arrows and axes. Moreover, pieces of cordage as well as complete ropes came to light. The finds were not distributed evenly in the bog but were encountered in certain areas, i.e. within more than 40 "find clusters". Such a cluster ("Fundkonzentration") is defined as an assemblage in which the finds lay so closely that they must have been deposited together (Ilkjær 1993a, 16). These artefacts are stored at Moesgård Museum near Århus.

Chronology

As far as is excavated to date, the weapon deposit of Illerup Ådal consists of four depositions, "Platz" A—D. Platz A covered most of the former lake while B and C encompassed smaller areas stretching from the southern shore out into the lake. Platz D was restricted to a small spot in the very northeast (Ilkjær 1990a, 25, Abb. 14). Both Platz A and B belong to period C1b, Platz A being dated to c. AD 200, Platz B to the years around AD 230 (Ilkjær 2003a, 46, fig. 2; Biborski and Ilkjær 2006a, 13). The deposition of Platz C was created in period D1 or c. AD 375. The material of Platz D is even younger, belonging to the later part of period D1 (Ilkjær 1993a, 16).

All textiles belong to Platz A. This is confirmed for most of the relevant clusters in the description of the shields (Ilkjær 2001a). In four cases, i.e. find clusters 70/114,123/114,129/105 and 151/119, no such hints are given in that context. Yet, a comparison between a map showing the location of the various clusters (von carnap-Bornheim and Ilkjær 1996a, 20, Abb. 1) and another map giving the extensions of Platz B—D (Ilkjær 1990a, 25, Abb. 14) supports this view, since those four clusters are located north and east of Platz B and C while Platz D is situated still further northeast.

Origin of non-textile finds

According to Jørgen Ilkjær's research, it is rather the personal belongings of the warriors than their weapons that are able to illuminate the provenance of the materials found in Illerup and the other sites (1993a, 374–386). As far as Platz A in Illerup is concerned, lighters and combs and thus their owners are claimed to be of Scandinavian origin, particularly from south and west Norway and west Sweden including Västergötland (ibid., 378-380).

Textiles

Although the number of textile finds from Illerup Ådal — c. 100 — is rather small in comparison to the thousands of metal objects recovered from the site, this material has to be considered one of the major Roman Iron Age textile assemblages in Denmark. The present investigation encompasses a total of 102 find numbers with textiles and/or fur (1 item being without an official number): 53 shield bosses, 1 hand brace, 2 pieces from shield rims, 20 lanceheads, 9 spearheads, 3 swords, 3 axes, 1 knife, 1 rivet, 1 belt buckle, 1 piece of wire and 2 pieces of shafts. Lise Bender Jørgensen's examinations (1978–1980) of in total 18 finds were incorporated in this research, particularly for finds HBD, HBE, IXK, IXU, IYE and IYK, either due to their unavailability for the present investigation or as no textiles remained on the iron. In these cases, her results appear in the list and are marked as such. A few weapons displayed in the exhibition at Moesgård Museum near Århus were mounted and could therefore only be inspected on one side and then only without a microscope, e.g. shield bosses MBL and VFB. Other pieces, such as spearhead AAII and axe AAMC, are currently covered in textile only on one side although the fabrics seemingly reached around to the back; it may be surmised that, the textile was removed on the back in order to make the metal visible. It was impossible to ascertain the kind of objects to which five find numbers had belonged. Three very small fragments were rejected because they are kept in liquid and the containers were unopened (LKU, MAE, without number [IMP?]). Five finds were in such a poor condition that they could not be included. In another five cases (FNZ, GHZ, MQU [MQV?], VEE, ZML), no textiles could be identified. In some instances, traces or imprints of textiles were observed in the ground during the excavations, but could not be saved (Ilkjær 1993a, 16). Such traces are known from clusters without preserved textiles, e.g. 166/121 (ibid., 112), as well as from spots with surviving weaves. Examples of the latter are find clusters -6/60 and 85/85. In the last mentioned case, some textile seems to have lain partly on top of knife LFS — from which no textiles are recorded; but this patch also extended to a large area all around the knife (ibid., 25–26, 78).

On a few artefacts, more than one fabric was preserved. In other cases, textile remnants belonging to a particular weapon are partly preserved on the iron, partly as loose fragments of fabric. Additionally, some find numbers include more than one box with loose woven pieces, but no corresponding metal object. In the majority of cases, the examination included the entire range of features — when possible, while for 24 loose fragments only the main characteristics were studied. One item (TEX) consists of unwoven yarn. On ULW and RBB, fur was preserved in combination with textile.

In sum, the following amounts constitute the basis for the further description: 101 well- documented² woven textiles (belonging to a fewer number of cloths), some of them including tablet weave; 1 tablet weave without other weave, 1 x fringes, 1 x yarn, 8 x incomplete sets of data.

2.2. TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF THE TEXTILES: COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW

The documentation of the finds from Illerup Ådal is of an excellent quality, allowing for a very detailed interpretation of the technical results within the context of each item, e.g. identifying how textile fragments from different weapons belong to one cloth. Th...