Ajankohtaista

 

Luento  4.4.2013 klo 12 - 14 arkeologian seminaarihuoneessa

Provenancing archaeological wool textiles from the European Middle Ages with light stable isotope analysis, Isabella von Holstein, BioArCh, University of York

Manufacture of wool textiles, and trade in both the finished artefacts and their raw materials, were of fundamental economic and social importance to countries of northern and western Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Distinguishing local from non-local textiles in an archaeological assemblage is therefore essential to understanding the production, distribution and consumption of these goods, and how this changed over time.

Isabella von Holstein’s PhD research developed a method to investigate the origin of wool textiles preserved by anoxic waterlogging, based on their carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen stable isotopic compositions. These measures are related to the environment (climate, vegetation, farming practice) of origin of the wool.

This talk will show how light stable isotopic composition can be used to indicate provenance, based on modern agricultural and materials science research approaches. It will discuss results from the first application of the technique, to 90 medieval textiles from eight archaeological sites in Iceland, Great Britain, Germany and Sweden, from contexts dating from the 7th to the 16th centuries. The talk will explore how this data can be combined with established methods of understanding the origin of these objects, such as textile construction, dye identification and fleece type analysis. It will also explore potential applications of the method to samples from Finland and the Baltic area.

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