For a person that has spent a lot of time examining stockings, this is an excellent time of the year. The Museum der Kulturen Basel has the largest collection of Egyptian nalbinding1 and they just recently put their entire collection online. So this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week is one of my favorite of the children’s socks.
Object: Child’s sock with orange, blue and yellow stripes – III 15474
Description: The sock is striped with blue, orange, and yellow stripes and a natural (now cream) base that shows mostly in the wedge heel. It has a relatively short, undifferentiated, toe box with a rather large wedge heel. The ankle is damaged and its true height unknown. Length 17 cm2
Dated to: 4th century ?3 CE (This is a very old art historical based dating. There has been no scientific dating of compound Egyptian nalbound socks. More recent excavations are finding compound nalbound socks in 11th century layers. I would dearly love to have a few of these radiocarbon dated as exactly when compound nalbinding began cannot be determined without solid dating.)
Some sources in which more information can be found:
Bƶttcher, Gudrun. āKoptische Nadelbindungstextilien im Museum der Kulturen Baselā in Experimentelle ArchƤologie in Europa: Bilanz 2004 Heft 3. edited by Corinna Endlich. Oldenburg: Isensee Verlag, 2004: 211-214. ISBN 3-89995-204-9.
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This week I get to share with you the excitement of finding out about a rare find in a church I once visited. Some regions have preserved many finds, but textiles in Ireland are relatively rare and nalbound ones more so. Thus this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week is the second known nalbound artifact from Ireland. The fragments were found in the 12th century occupational debris. Photos have been published this year in Textiles of Ireland: Archaeology, Craft, Art by Elizabeth Wincott Heckett if you would like to see them. There’s also a nice diagram in 2006 Archeological Monograph on the excavations.
St Audoen’s Church & Visitor center when we visited on April 27, 2014. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker
Object: Two main fragments. Usage unknown, but possibly a sock or cap.
Description: The larger fragment is 30 cm long by 8 cm high1 showing the remains of 6 rows. The smaller fragment is 6 cm long by 5 cm high2 with remains of 3+ rows. The thickness of both is c. 2mm.3 Original use as a mitten was ruled out as the length of the larger fragment would exceed the circumference appropriate for a mitten and is more suitable for a sock or a piece of a cap.4 There is no evidence of either intentional or wear fulling.5
Find location: Found in the 12th century occupation debris associated with timber structures during excavation of St. Audoen’s church, Cornmarket, Dublin, Ireland.7
Material: A dark brown, naturally colored, coarse, perhaps kemp-like, wool. No dye detected. The yarn has been combed and worsted spun in a medium to loose Z spin then two-plied with an S twist. The yarn is 1.5 mm in diameter.8
Stitch(es) used: uo o/u uoo F1 based on analysis of one of the outermost rows of loops.9 (Korgen)
Inventory number: E497:2428.325
Current location: Still tracking that down. The detailed catalog was lodged with the excavation archive in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Some of the items excavated at St Audoen’s remain there on display in their Visitor’s Centre.
Link to museum catalog or other data: none known
Some sources in which more information can be found:
Wincott Heckett, Elizabeth. “Textiles” in the Archaeological Finds chapter of St Audoen’s Church, Cornmarket, Dublin: Archaeology and Architecture by Mary McMahon. Dublin: The Stationary Office, Government of Ireland, 2006. ISBN 0-7557-7315-2
Wincott Heckett, Elizabeth. Textiles of Ireland: Archaeology, Craft, Art. Edited by Mary Ann Williams. Cork: Cork University Press, 2025. ISBN 9781782055716
There is also an archeological drawing contained the the archeological monograph, St Audoen’s Church, Cornmarket, Dublin: Archaeology and Architecture, by Mary McMahon: Fig. 6.9 on page 74.
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This week’s Nalbound Object of the Week is an Egyptian Sock that is currently located in the National Museum of Ireland. Early online photos of the sock were taken at such an angle that the toe split was not visible. This led to mistaken impression that this sock was the only adult cross-knit looping (Coptic stitch) nalbound sock with a single toe box. I was lucky enough to come across this sock on display in April of 2014, so I had seen in person that it did have a split toe to accommodate sandals. In fact, out of the 49 or so cross-knit looped nalbound Egyptian socks we have images of and are whole enough to tell, only the tiniest baby socks for not yet mobile infants do not have split toes.
Description: A now light brown wool sock for the left foot with a split at the ankle and ties still remaining. There is a decorative welt around the ankle where the heel cup shifts to the ankle. Height 9cm, width 8cm, Length 22 cm.1 The sock arrived at the National Museum of Ireland as part of the distributions the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1914.2
Rose-Beers, Kristine. (2023). The Threads that Bind: Evidence of the Early Codex Structure in Chester Beattyās Papyri. DOI 10.1515/9783110781304-009.
Photographs: There are two additional views of the sock available on the National Museum of Ireland’s website. The view that obscures the split toe can be seen on The Global Egyptian Museum.org site.
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Fresh off the presses, we’ve got a new article that includes quite a few nalbound examples; including one I hadn’t seen before!
“Icelandic mittens from archaeological contexts” by Charlotte Rimstad, Ulla Mannering, Joe W. Walser III, Freyja H. Ć. SesseljudĆ³ttir and Susanne Mueller includes some very nice photographs of several nalbound mittens; the one found in Iceland and several comparables from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
When they say click on the image, they mean click on the orange cover image with the pair of mittens on it. That is the only place where the download link is located. I have heard there are some issues with the image loading on some mobile devices.
The shape of the cuff of this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week never really fit with the 10th century dating assigned to it when it was found in the late 19th century. Recent radiocarbon dating reveals that the mitten from Iceland is dated to between the late 15th to early 17th centuries CE which makes much more sense given its shaping. As more research is conducted on nalbinding, we begin to get a clearer picture of its usage, distribution, and dating.
ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 3405 back on display after I examined it. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 1 Sept 2022
Object: Iceland Mitten
Description: The mitten is densely nalbound of a two ply yarn made of wool fibers of two colors and crimps. Overall the mitten is currently a lovely reddish brown, but close examination shows that there are some darker smoother fibers intermittently mixed with lighter brown crimpier fibers bringing to mind the two coated sheep of Iceland. There is some damage to the cuff and a bit near the base of the pinky finger, but overall the mitten is in good condition. The thumb is rather large in comparison to the size of the fingers and lays flat with an extremely neatly worked connection. It is worked from the tip to the cuff. The direction of work spirals in an S slant fashion which gives the appearance of a right to left working direction when observing the current exterior. However, the stitch itself belies the thought that it might have been worked left handed and more likely it has been turned inside out leaving the technical front currently inside.
Dated to: Recently radiocarbon dated to 1480-1640 CE.1 The original dating of the 10th century had been estimated when the mitten was found in the late 19th century and was based on jewelry found nearby.2
Material: Wool4 Two-ply with a diameter of just under 1/8th inch (3mm).5
Stitch(es) used: Oslo F1, F1 UO/UOO6 (Stitch determination by Margrethe Hald. Confirmed by Anne Marie Decker during her examination of the mitten on 1 September 2022)
Gauge: 6 stitches to the inch. 1 and 3/4 rows to the inch.7
Rimstad, Charlotte, Ulla Mannering, Joe Wallace Walser III, and Susanne Mueller. “ICELANDIC MITTENS” Oral Presentation at the European Association of Archaeologists 29th EAA Annual Meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 30 August – 2 September 2023 https://www.e-a-a.org/EAA2023/Programme.aspx?Program=3 click on the Abstract Book (30 Aug) link to find the abstract.
Photographs:
ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 3405 Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019Display including the ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 3405 Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019 Anne Marie Decker’s hand comparing size with the ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 3405 Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019Tip of ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 3405 and thumb. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 3405 taken from above to better show the damage to the outer edge. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019Photos taken when I first saw the mitten on display in January 2019.
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One of the best things about researching any topic is that continued research will always bring further insights; be that greater clarity on a particular detail, proof of a particular theory, proof that a particular hypothesis was wrong, correcting a technique misidentification, new design details, new stitches, new dating, and more artifacts to examine. Hypotheses get developed and sometimes they are supported and possibly proven. Sometimes they are disproved and new hypotheses are born.
Add to that, things that are true of our modern esthetics in the craft may prove to be constant throughout the historical record, or they may prove to be recent inventions. Care should always be taken to ensure that we are not making assumptions, even based on our prior knowledge, and allowing our biases to hide the new data. Insights may come from the most unexpected sources and even experts can be proven wrong. I have had thousands of theories that have been made or dashed with arrival of new data. It’s exciting!
I’ve discussed several examples of this process on this blog previously,1 but today, I’d like to add a few additional examples.
Direction of work:
Nalbinding is predominately worked left to right, regardless of whether the work is dependent from the working row or hung above. Both of which leave telltale, but different, signs in the resultant fabric. Obviously, there are exceptions: lefthanded people often work in the opposite direction, and of course, there is the option of an esthetic choice to work in the non-dominant direction for a variety of reasons; including opposing spirals or flat work for example.
So the question becomes, how often do we see nalbinding worked in the non-dominant direction, when, where, and can we tell why? This is not an easy question to answer as so little research published has included this important detail about the artifacts.
Several of the artifacts that initially appeared to be worked in the non-dominant direction have turned out to be more likely found with the technical back to the outside. For example the Egyptian sock now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.2 This could be accomplished by working in the non-dominant direction, but is more likely simply a case of the creator or wearer deciding that they preferred the texture of the technical back to the outside. In the case of the sock in Edinburgh, it seems a common trait of socks made in that particular stitch. In the case of the pair of socks from Sudan,3 only one is “inside out.” This could be a case of the wearer not noticing, the person dressing the dead not noticing, or some cultural reason of which I am not aware.
In both cases, and in fact in all of the 115 or so known Egyptian socks, the socks are worked from the toe up to the ankle. The hats from the tip down. Up until very recently, all of the pre-17th century handcoverings I’ve examined have been worked from the tip of the fingers to the wrist. And yet, last year I had the opportunity to examine a beautiful glove from medieval Kalmar that surprised me in several ways. One was the particular stitch used as I had never seen its like before. And the other, was that it was clearly worked from the wrist towards the fingers. More research as to the direction of work of thumbs (and fingers on gloves), especially in relation to the associated handcovering, is desperately needed.
Wrist Bumps:
17th century mitten with a tar stain from Copenhagen . National Museum of Denmark Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerCloseup of the wrist bump on the 17th century mitten from Copenhagen. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker
I once had a idea that wrists that showed a prominent bump in the spiral might have been started at the wrist. Examinations of artifacts has consistently proven me wrong so far on that hypothesis. It was my modern esthetics that had given the the incorrect impression that the maker would always smooth out the final spiral.
Now, we do have examples where the final spiral ending is rather smooth. The Oslo mitten gives the appearance of a smooth ending. However, looking at the rows above it, one can see that it has been pulled and distorted such that the result is the edge currently looks like it was smoothly finished, but in fact it was a rather short transition that now significantly distorts the row to which it connects.
Oslo Mitten C28155 on display at the Historical Museum in Oslo Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerDetail of the Oslo Mitten C28155 showing the short transition of the final row. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker
Lace:
Another example. In 2004, I was approached by someone with a lace shawl they had that they wanted to know if it could be nalbound or not. The pictures they sent showed that an individual row had a structure we know can be produced by a particular nalbinding stitch, but the connections between rows were unclear, so we were missing important secondary construction details that can be vital to understand which particular technique produced the particular structure fabric.
I allowed as how it was possible that it might be nalbound, but that if it was that brought up many additional questions that would have to be answered. Such as, how would the connections be made in such an openwork structure without falling apart? In 2005, another was brought to my attention. My friend, Virginia Miller, became quite interested in the lace shawls and set about trying to find their source.
Around this time, many other examples of this particular type of shawl were apparently being examined at a variety of locations. Others were recognizing the structure of the chain as being a possible nalbound structure, but the specifics of the secondary constructions details that would reveal their true construction technique would not be recognized until the details of a related structural cross-over were discussed.4 These details show that there are a significant number of miss-identified examples in museums around the world.
Crocheted chain lace shawl from Turkey gifted to me by Virginia Miller in 2012. Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerDetail of the chain lace shawl from Turkey showing the crocheted connection. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker
Virginia, having tracked down the origin of at least some of the shawls, kindly managed to procure one for me. Being able to examine one in detail up close has led to an understanding that allows me to understand details that while I had seen them before, had not revealed their relevance. Now, given sufficiently clear photos, it is easy to determine that these shawls are a form of crocheted chain lace. Rather similar in structure to the earliest forms of crochet that been identified.5
Another example of this structure’s construction technique being misidentified is a lovely pair of baby booties in the V&A Collection. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O136095/pair-of-bootees-unknown/ The Simple Looping in cream on the ball at the top of the tassel at the ankles is a form of nalbinding (and also a form of needlelace), but the green lace are these open worked crocheted chains. Once again, it’s the connections between the chains that reveal the technique used.
Hypotheses come and go, but that is in many ways the fun part of research. We are always learning new things. Theories become proven. Hypotheses are dashed and formed again. All of which leads to a better understanding of the entire corpus of both nalbound textiles and related looped textiles, their origins, transmission, development, traditional uses, and influences on the modern craft.
Speaking of exciting new opportunities and artifacts to examine, I have recently learned of new excavated socks to add to the corpus of nalbinding that have never been examined before. Unfortunately, my travel budget to go see them is rather dry. If you’ve enjoyed my research and would like to be a part of my support team, I sincerely appreciate any assistance you are willing to send my way. You can use the one time donation link in the menu or become a monthly Patron. Patrons on Patreon receive priority requests, early access previews, and occasional extra details.
I’ve been hoping to find SĆ”mi nalbinding as there is so much nalbinding in the region, but finding SĆ”mi specific nalbinding has been a bit of a challenge. Today’s Nalbound Object of the Week is a Skolt SĆ”mi hat collected in 1933 that was brought to my attention by Ingela Lindberg Anderson after her trip to the National Museum of Denmark. As she was trying to find more information about some of the objects she had seen on display, she ran across this hat in the online catalog.
Skolt SĆ”mi hat ObjectId 19278 Item number K.782 Photo credit: Mads Kildegaard Nielsen – Nationalmuseet, Danmark CC-BY-SA
Object: Skolt SƔmi hat
Description: A light brown, natural colored, nalbound hat. The National Museum of Denmark provides the following measurements: Largest measurement 22 cm, Diameter 18 cm, Height 18 cm.1
Dated to: collected in 1933
Find location: The museum lists the location as “Samer – SuonikylƤ. Petsamo Lapps, Finland.”2 This reflects the terminology of 1933 when the hat was collected. This region of the larger SĆ”pmi is no longer within the borders of Finland as it was ceded to Russia in the Second World War.3
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In 2019, my mother and I were able to travel to Leicester for a chance to see this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week; a small child’s sock from 3rd-5th century CE AntinoĆ«/Antinoupolis. It was one of nearly a dozen found during John de Monins Johnson‘s excavations for the Egypt Exploration Fund1 in the 1913-14 season.
Leicester sock L.A63.1914.0.0 Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker 2019
Object: Leicester child’s sock
Description: Small child’s left split toed sock in many colors: green, red, purple, yellow, and blue. Comparables can be seen in my Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile presentation from 2019. At 9:39 in the recording linked in https://nalbound.com/2019/04/06/charting-the-nalbinding-of-the-nile /
Note: At the time of the excavations, the socks were presumed to be knitted as the differences between the crossed knitting and cross-knit nalbinding techniques had not yet been described.
Dated to: 300-500 CE2 (possibly earlier around the 3rd-4th centuries based on the radiocarbon dating of other socks found during the same excavation3)
Find location: Excavated from a rubbish pit at Sheikh Abada (ancient Antinoopolis), Egypt4
Leicester Museum and Art Gallery does not have an online catalog. The sock is noted in their Collections Development Policy 2019-2024, section 3.5.2. “Although intended to be a representative selection, it includes at least one rarity, a Coptic knitted sock from Antinoe, the only example in this country outside of London.” This unfortunately reflects out of date information; the technique having been recognized as nalbinding, not knitting, in the last quarter of the last century and several examples from the same excavation are located in Britain, but outside of London. This does not, however, in any way negate its rarity and importance.
Some sources in which more information can be found:
Kƶstner, Barbara. “Roman and Late Roman nalbinding socks from Egypt: Bringing ‘Egyptian fashion’ to the North” in Excavating, analysing, reconstructing Textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries: Proceeding of the 9th conference of the research group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley’ Antwerp, 27-29 November 2015, edited by Antoine De Moor, CƤcilia Fluck, and Petra Linscheid. Tielt, Belgium: Lannoo Publishers, 2017. ISBN 978 94 014 4399 9.
Pritchard, Frances. āA survey of textiles in the UK from the 1913-14 Egypt Exploration Fund season at Antinoupolisā in Drawing the Threads Together: Textiles and Footwear of the 1st Millenium AD from Egypt. Proceedings of the 7th Meeting of the Study Group āTextiles from the Nile Valley”, Antwerp, 7-9 October 2011, edited by Antoine De Moor, CƤcilia Fluck, and Petra Linscheid, 34-55. Tielt: Lannoo, 2013. ISBN 9789401410830.
Rutt, Richard. A History of Hand Knitting. London: B T Batsford Ltd, 1987 ISBN 0713451181
Anne Marie Decker taking pictures of the Leicester sock. Photo credit: Ruth Decker 2019 The display misidentifies it as a knit sock, likely due to old catalog data. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker 2019
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For today’s Nalbound Object of the Week I must tell you of the surprise I got the day I was examining the medieval Nidaros Stocking. That same day, Niina-Hannele Nuutinen brought my attention to a mid-15th century knee-length stocking from Helgeandsholmen in Stockholm, Sweden. Excavated between 1978-1980, it was recently sent to Stockholm’s Archaeological Collection from the Statens Historiska Museet. While ankle length socks are well represented, knee-length nalbound stockings are rare in the archaeological record.
Mid-15th century CE nalbound knee-length stocking. UP0717-78 HELGEANDS 21539, 21542, & 22691 Stockholm stadsmuseet collection Photo credit: Medeltidsmuseet – used with permission
Object: Helgeandsholmen stocking
Description: “The thickness suggests that it was used as a lining inside a boot. On closer inspection, it can be seen that the stocking consists of three parts and that it has been folded together several times before being pierced by something – hence the light spots and the many holes and depressions. The lower end of the sock also has tar on it, indicating that it has probably been reused as a tar swab.”1
Dated to: mid-15th century CE, “mitten av 1400-talet.”2
Find location: At the turn of 2024, Stockholm’s archaeological collections received textiles from the excavation on Helgeandsholmen (1978-1980) from the Statens Historiska Museet. This previously unknown nalbound sock was among the textiles.3
Ingela Andersson Lindberg had the opportunity to examine the stocking on May 21st this year and has graciously coordinated with the museum to allow me to share these photos with you.
The other side of UP0717-78 HELGEANDS 21539, 21542, & 22691 Stockholm stadsmuseet collections Photo credit: Ingela Andersson Lindberg – used with permissionA close-up of the foot of UP0717-78 HELGEANDS 21539, 21542, & 22691 Stockholm stadsmuseet collections Photo credit: Ingela Andersson Lindberg – used with permission
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Today’s Nalbound Object of the Week is from the islands off Estonia. It’s a lovely white mitten with a large extended cuff decorated with both embroidery and fringe. It was collected in 1912, but was made in 1762 CE.
Description: A white wool mitten with a rounded oval tip that increases smoothly to an extended cuff. At the wrist there is red, blue, and yellow alternating fringe sewn into the underside of the mitten. There is also embroidery at the wrist consisting of a wavy blue line forming rough triangles between two lines of red running stitches with blue lacing around the red. According to the online catalog, the mitten is 36 cm long,1 which is just over 14 inches.
Find location: The mitten was collected in the summer of 1912 by Richard Willems and Paul Ruus from Timofei TƤnav, called TƤhve, (1837-1914) at the Marti farm in the village of KĆ¼lasema in Muhu Parish, Estonia, but was noted as being manufactured at Jaagu farm in SƵrve parish on Saaremaa, Estonia.3
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