Category: Foot covering

NOW: Linen child’s sock with blue-green and yellow wool stripes III 15476

This week’s Nalbound Object features a unique child’s sock made primarily of linen, with small amounts of blue/green and yellow wool incorporated in decorative elements. The surviving parts include the toe, midfoot, and heel. It reflects Coptic culture and is housed at the Museum der Kulturen Basel, Switzerland.

Generally, we think of the Egyptian nalbound socks as being wool. Today’s Nalbound Object of the Week, however, is a linen sock. It does have a bit of wool incorporated. Tiny amounts of dark blue/green and yellow wool are both incorporated in the nalbinding and used in apparent remnants of some decorative stitching. The image provided by the museum shows the sole of the sock, giving a clear view of the wedge heel.

©Museum der Kulturen Basel CC BY 4.0

Object: Linen child’s sock with blue/green and yellow wool stripes -III 15476

Description: Only the toe, mid-foot, and heel are remaining on this child’s sock. However, there are several very interesting aspects to this sock. The body is worked in linen. There is a row near the toe tip in a blue/green wool and there are remnants of the ankle being worked in yellow wool. Additionally, there is a full row of each color being used as an embroidery element around the mid-foot. L 15.5 cm, W 8 cm1

Dated to: none provided

Culture: Coptic2

Find location: Egypt3

Material: Linen.4 Museum’s online record does not note, but the blue/green and yellow stripes are wool5 (as confirmed by examination by Anne Marie Decker)

Stitch(es) used: F2 UOO/UUOO,6 Mammen

Gauge: 12 stitches to the inch and 3.5 rows to the inch (as determine by examination by Anne Marie Decker)

Inventory number: III 154767

Current location: Museum der Kulturen Basel, Switzerland

Link to museum catalog or other data: The Museum der Kulturen database does not have permalinks. Search for the Inventory number in https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Böttcher, Gudrun. “Koptische Nadelbindungstextilien im Museum der Kulturen Basel” in Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa: Bilanz 2004 Heft 3. edited by Corinna Endlich. Oldenburg: Isensee Verlag, 2004: 211-214. ISBN 3-89995-204-9.

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be Accessed 3 November 2026 ↩︎
  2. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be Accessed 3 November 2026 ↩︎
  3. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be Accessed 3 November 2026 ↩︎
  4. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be Accessed 3 November 2026. Böttcher mentions that it is plant based. ↩︎
  5. The remnants of dark green and beige wool are noted on the catalog card at the museum. ↩︎
  6. Böttcher writes it as Stitch Type: III and Stitch Variant: F(L) 2 UOO/UUOO. Böttcher, Gudrun. “Koptische Nadelbindungstextilien im Museum der Kulturen Basel” in Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa: Bilanz 2004 Heft 3. edited by Corinna Endlich. Oldenburg: Isensee Verlag, 2004: 211-214. ISBN 3-89995-204-9. pg 213. ↩︎
  7. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be Accessed 3 November 2026 ↩︎

NOW: Child’s sock with orange, blue and yellow stripes – III 15474

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.

©Museum der Kulturen Basel CC BY 4.0

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.)

Culture: Coptic4

Find location: Egypt5

Material: Wool6

Stitch(es) used: F2 UOO/UUOO,7 Mammen

Inventory number: III 154748

Current location: Museum der Kulturen Basel, Switzerland

Link to museum catalog or other data: The Museum der Kulturen database does not have permalinks. Search for the Inventory number in https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Böttcher, Gudrun. “Koptische Nadelbindungstextilien im Museum der Kulturen Basel” in Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa: Bilanz 2004 Heft 3. edited by Corinna Endlich. Oldenburg: Isensee Verlag, 2004: 211-214. ISBN 3-89995-204-9.

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. That we know of so far because I am certain there are more socks out there in boxes and the backs of drawers that haven’t been opened in a century. ↩︎
  2. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be ↩︎
  3. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be ↩︎
  4. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be ↩︎
  5. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be ↩︎
  6. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be ↩︎
  7. Böttcher writes it as Stitch Type: III and Stitch Variant: F(L) 2 UOO/UUOO. Böttcher, Gudrun. “Koptische Nadelbindungstextilien im Museum der Kulturen Basel” in Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa: Bilanz 2004 Heft 3. edited by Corinna Endlich. Oldenburg: Isensee Verlag, 2004: 211-214. ISBN 3-89995-204-9. pg 213. ↩︎
  8. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be ↩︎

NOW: Fragment from St. Audoen’s church, Dublin – E497:2428.325

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

Dated to: 12th century6 CE

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

1263

Photographs:

There are two photos by Peter Maloney © The Estate of Elizabeth Wincott Heckett included in Textiles of Ireland: Archaeology, Craft, Art: Fig. 15.1 on page 228 and Fig. 15.2 on page 231.

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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  1. 300 x 80mm. 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 page 74 and republished in Wincott Heckett, Elizabeth. Textiles of Ireland: Archaeology, Craft, Art. Edited by Mary Ann Williams. Cork: Cork University Press, 2025. ISBN 9781782055716. pg. 230 ↩︎
  2. 60 x 50mm. 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 page 74 and republished in Wincott Heckett, Elizabeth. Textiles of Ireland: Archaeology, Craft, Art. Edited by Mary Ann Williams. Cork: Cork University Press, 2025. ISBN 9781782055716. pg. 230 ↩︎
  3. 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 page 75 and republished in Wincott Heckett, Elizabeth. Textiles of Ireland: Archaeology, Craft, Art. Edited by Mary Ann Williams. Cork: Cork University Press, 2025. ISBN 9781782055716. pg. 232 ↩︎
  4. Ibid. pg. 75, and republished in Ibid. pg. 233 ↩︎
  5. Ibid. pg. 75, and republished in Ibid. pg. 231 ↩︎
  6. Ibid. pg. 74, and republished in Ibid. pg. 229 ↩︎
  7. Ibid. pg. 74, and republished in Ibid. pg. 229 ↩︎
  8. Ibid. pg. 75, and republished in Ibid. pg. 232 ↩︎
  9. Ibid. pg. 75, and republished in Ibid. pg. 232 ↩︎

NOW: Omani Sand Socks زرابيل TRC 2018.2807a-b

Peru and Egypt have both excellent preservation characteristics and extensive excavation histories, so I often return to these locations for nalbound artifacts. However, for this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week, I’d like to explore an item that reflects a different tradition. While we don’t know much about archeological examples, the Arabian Peninsula has evidence of a very strong traditional usage of nalbinding. زرابيل zarbool,1 or sand socks and camel muzzles2 seem to be the predominant items made with nalbinding there. This particular pair of Omani Sand Socks, I had the pleasure of seeing while they were on display in the Socks & Stockings exhibition at the Textile Research Centre in Leiden, Netherlands in 2019.

Omani Sand Socks as on display in the Socks & Stockings exhibition at the Textile Research Centre, Leiden in October 2019. Photo: Anne Marie Decker

Object: Sand socks زرابيل

Description: The socks are worked from the toe up in alternating stripes of white and black. The stripes are two rows deep and the color is carried from one row up to the next color change. The heel is a wedge heel. There is a slit in the ankle with ties at the top to close it. The bottom showing in this image shows the pads that are worked onto the sock starting from the mid-foot and sewn down on three sides. The socks are 12.6 inches long by 5.5 inches wide (32 cm long by 14 cm wide3).

Dated to: late 20th century CE4

Find location: Oman5

Material: goat hair6

Stitch(es) used: Mammen, F2 UOO/UUOO (Stitch determination based on examination by Anne Marie Decker on 28 October 2019)

Gauge: 8-9 stitches to the inch and 2-2.5 rows to the inch. 4 stitches per cm and 0.75-1 row per cm.7

Inventory number: TRC 2018.2807a-b

Current location: Textile Research Centre, Leiden

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://trc-leiden.nl/collection/?trc=&zoek=sock&cat=&subcat=&g=&s=24&f=0&id=32565

Some sources in which more information can be found:

If you scroll down, there is one of the few images of sand socks being worn at http://turathalarab.blogfa.com/post/405

Another image of sand socks being worn.

Photographs (if permissions allow):

Heel and toe pads sewn on TRC 2018.2807a-b
Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker 2019
Close up of the slit reversals
TRC 2018.2807a-b
Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker 2019
The black yarn being carried across the white rows to the next black row
TRC 2018.2807a-b
Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker 2019
Gauge is 2 – 2.5 rows to the inch depending on where it was measured.
TRC 2018.2807a-b
Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker 2019

Acknowledgements: My thanks to Diana Lankhof and Lies van de Wege for making it possible for me to visit the Socks & Stockings exhibition at TRC. My timing was soo very tight and they graciously arranged to open an hour early so that I could have time to examine the nalbound sand socks and see the displays.

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  1. Also transliterated Zarbul ↩︎
  2. The Arabic term for camel muzzles or mouth coverings is possibly transliterated as lisama or lasama according to this video brought to my attention by Susan Elizabeth Aiken: https://youtu.be/YcKxQ0sGpr4?si=G5uO28Y9AR1lD9RY Accessed 7 June 2024 ↩︎
  3. https://trc-leiden.nl/collection/?trc=&zoek=sock&cat=&subcat=&g=&s=24&f=0&id=32565 Accessed 9 June 2024 ↩︎
  4. https://trc-leiden.nl/collection/?trc=&zoek=sock&cat=&subcat=&g=&s=24&f=0&id=32565 Accessed 9 June 2024 ↩︎
  5. https://trc-leiden.nl/collection/?trc=&zoek=sock&cat=&subcat=&g=&s=24&f=0&id=32565 Accessed 9 June 2024 ↩︎
  6. https://trc-leiden.nl/collection/?trc=&zoek=sock&cat=&subcat=&g=&s=24&f=0&id=32565 Accessed 9 June 2024 ↩︎
  7. Gauge determination based on examination by Anne Marie Decker on 28 October 2019 ↩︎

NOW: Leicester sock L.A63.1914.0.0

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 Antinoë/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

Material: wool5

Stitch(es) used: S-crossed Cross-knit Looping6

Inventory number: L.A63.1914.0.0

Current location: Leicester Museum and Art Gallery (formerly New Walk)

Link to museum catalog or other data:

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:

Köstner, 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, Cäcilia Fluck, and Petra Linscheid. Tielt, Belgium: Lannoo Publishers, 2017. ISBN 978 94 014 4399 9.

O’Connell, Elisabeth R. “John de Monins Johnson’s 1913/14 Egypt Exploration Fund expedition to Antinoupolis (Antinoë)” In Antinoupolis II: Scavi e materiali III, ed. R. Pintaudi, 415–66. Florence: Istituto Papirologico G. Vitelli, 2014.

Pritchard, Frances. “A survey of textiles in the UK from the 1913-14 Egypt Exploration Fund season at Antinoupolis” in Drawing the Threads Together: Textiles and Footwear of the 1st Millenium AD from Egypt. Proceedings of the 7th Meeting of the Study Group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley”, Antwerp, 7-9 October 2011, edited by Antoine De Moor, Cäcilia 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

Photographs (if permissions allow):

A photo of the bottom of the sock was published illustrating everyday life of The Nile Valley AD 395-642 Coptic when The British Museum partnered with other British museums to share Worldtimelines.org.uk which placed 2,000 artifacts from museums around the British Isles in their geographical and chronological context. Unfortunately, Worldtimelines.org.uk is no longer active, but you can see it in the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20101228003015/http://worldtimelines.org.uk/world/africa/nile_valley/AD395-642/everyday

A similar photo can be seen in Richard Rutt’s A History of Hand Knitting Fig. 23 on page 32 in the 1987 edition.

The Leicester sock was one of 4 included in the original excavation photographs taken in 1914. I was granted permission by the Griffith Institute to share a modified version of that photo in https://nalbound.com/2019/06/21/have-you-seen-this-sock-part-2/. The Leicester sock is the one on the left, number 1.

The photo from the John de Monins Johnson’s excavation is also included in Elisabeth O’Connell’s article “John de Monins Johnson’s 1913/14 Egypt Exploration Fund expedition to Antinoupolis (Antinoë)” along with the photographs of other finds and a sketch of the dig sites.

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

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. Now the Egypt Exploration Society https://www.ees.ac.uk/ ↩︎
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20101228003015/http://worldtimelines.org.uk/world/africa/nile_valley/AD395-642/everyday ↩︎
  3. British Museum EA53913 was radiocarbon dated to between 100-350 CE. EA53913 was radiocarbon dated to 200-400 CE. ACO Tx2497 in the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels was dated to 240-400 CE. See De Moor, Antoine, Cäcilia Fluck, M. Van Strydonck, and M. Boudin. “Radiocarbon dating of Late Roman woolen socks from Egypt,” In Textiles, tools and techniques of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries. Proceedings of the 8th conference of the research group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley,’ Antwerp, 4-6 October 2013,] ed. Antoine De Moor, Cäcilia Fluck, and Petra Linscheid, p. 131-136. Tielt: Lannoo Publishers, 2015. ISBN 9789401432405. ↩︎
  4. https://web.archive.org/web/20101228003015/http://worldtimelines.org.uk/world/africa/nile_valley/AD395-642/everyday ↩︎
  5. Köstner, Table 1, Pgs. 190-191. ↩︎
  6. Köstner, Table 1, Pgs. 190-191. ↩︎

NOW: Helgeandsholmen stocking

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

Material: likely wool

Stitch(es) used: unknown

Inventory number: UP0717-78 HELGEANDS 21539, 21542, & 22691

Current location: Stockholm Stadsmuseet collections shared with their sister museum Medeltidsmuseet, Stockholm

Link to museum catalog or other data: no specific entry in the online catalog yet https://digitalastadsmuseet.stockholm.se/fotoweb/

Some sources in which more information can be found:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ozfDLTBooGZrAwrv/?mibextid=oFDknk

Photographs:

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 permission
A close-up of the foot of UP0717-78 HELGEANDS 21539, 21542, & 22691
Stockholm stadsmuseet collections
Photo credit: Ingela Andersson Lindberg – used with permission

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. Translated from https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ozfDLTBooGZrAwrv/?mibextid=oFDknk 6 May 2024. ↩︎
  2. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ozfDLTBooGZrAwrv/?mibextid=oFDknk Accessed 6 May 2024. ↩︎
  3. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ozfDLTBooGZrAwrv/?mibextid=oFDknk Accessed 6 May 2024. ↩︎

NOW: Purple tongued sock 1936-1897

Since the purple fragment went over so well last week, I thought that I would share this purple Roman Era Egyptian sock as this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week. It was excavated from the Christian burial grounds of Oxyrhynchus, present-day al-Bahnasa, by the Egypt Exploration Fund in the 1896-71 excavation season.

Accession number 1936-1897. The purple sock from Oxyrhynchus. Left side, showing the increases along the multi-toe. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Non-commercial online use, up to 768 pixels, and for up to 5 years

Object: Purple tongued sock

Description: A piece dyed2 purple (red and blue) split-toed sock for the left foot with a tongue and lacing loops closure, currently sewn through the tongue, and knit/purl ribbed patterning on the upper ankle cuff. Measurements on the online catalog record, length approximately 21.5cm, width approximately 8.4cm, and height approximately 10cm,3 reflect a sock that would fit a US Children’s size 3, Women’s 4.5.

Dated to: 50 AD – 220 AD4

Find location: The Christian burial grounds of Late Roman Era Oxyrhynchus.5 The present-day city of al-Bahnasa in Egypt.

Material: S2Z plied wool.6 Originally a light natural color, the sock was piece dyed red and blue, resulting in a purple sock.

Stitch(es) used: S-crossed Cross-knit Looping variant of nalbinding.7 Gauge is reported as 9 stitches per inch by 12 rows per inch8 or 3-4 stitches by 5 rows to the centimeter.9

Inventory number:  ACCESSION NUMBER 1936-1897

Current location: V&A Museum

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O128867/textile-fragment-unknown/

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Burnham, Dorothy K. “Coptic Knitting: An Ancient Technique” in Textile History, Vol. 3 December 1972. edited by K. G. Ponting and Dr S. D. Chapman. The Pasold Research Fund LTD, England, 1972; pgs. 116-124. No ISBN/ISSN provided. DOI: 10.1179/004049672793692237

De Moor, Antoine, Cäcilia Fluck, M. Van Strydonck, and M. Boudin. “Radiocarbon dating of Late Roman woolen socks from Egypt,” In Textiles, tools and techniques of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries. Proceedings of the 8th conference of the research group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley,’ Antwerp, 4-6 October 2013, ed. Antoine De Moor, Cäcilia Fluck, and Petra Linscheid, p. 131-136. Tielt: Lannoo Publishers, 2015. ISBN 9789401432405.

Kendrick, A. F. Catalogue of Textiles From Burying-Grounds in Egypt: Vol. II. Period of Transition and of Christian Emblems. Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Textiles. London: Publ. under the Authority of His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1921. No ISBN.

Köstner, Barbara. “Roman and Late Roman nalbinding socks from Egypt: Bringing ‘Egyptian fashion’ to the North” in Excavating, analysing, reconstructing: Textiles of the first millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries. Proceedings of the 9th conference of the research group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley’, Antwerp, 27-29 November 2015. ed. by Antoine De Moor, Cäcilia Fluck, and Petra Linscheid. Tielt: Lannoo Publishers, 2017. ISBN 9789401443999.

Photographs:

There are a few additional photos in the museum’s online catalog entry.

Accession number 1936-1897. The purple sock from Oxyrhynchus. Right side. This gives a clearer view of the lacing loops. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Non-commercial online use, up to 768 pixels, and for up to 5 years

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  1. Kendrick, Catalogue of Textiles From Burying-Grounds in Egypt: Vol. II. Period of Transition and of Christian Emblems. 1921. pg. 88. ↩︎
  2. The sock appears to have been dyed after it was created instead of dying the wool and then nalbinding the sock. The interior of the yarn is still a light natural color and the red and blue appear to be on the surface only. ↩︎
  3. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O128867/textile-fragment-unknown/Accessed 14 May 2024. ↩︎
  4. De Moor, et. al.”Radiocarbon dating of Late Roman woolen socks from Egypt,” 2013 and https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O128867/textile-fragment-unknown/ Accessed 14 May 2024. ↩︎
  5. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O128867/textile-fragment-unknown/ Accessed 14 May 2024. ↩︎
  6. Spin and Ply determined by personal examination on 15 October 2019. Material https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O128867/textile-fragment-unknown/ Accessed 14 May 2024. ↩︎
  7. Stitch determined by personal examination on 15 October 2019. ↩︎
  8. Gauge https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O128867/textile-fragment-unknown/ Accessed 14 May 2024. ↩︎
  9. Köstner, “Roman and Late Roman nalbinding socks from Egypt: Bringing ‘Egyptian fashion’ to the North” 2015. Pg. 190. ↩︎

NOW: Nidaros Stocking N11979

Having had an excuse to go to Norway, I had to go to Trondheim to see our next Nalbound Object of the Week. Found in a pre-1300 CE context, the Nidaros stocking is one of the earliest knee length nalbound stockings found.

The stocking is laid out horizontally with the upper portion of the foot to the left of the photograph, toe up. The leg still has folds, but likely reached the knee. A high resolution photo is available via the link in the online catalog. Photo: Ole-Aleksander Ulvik, NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet CC BY-SA 4.0

Object: Nidaros Stocking

Description: A nearly complete full stocking from toes to the knee. The sock shows heavy fulling, though if that was intentional or from wear or find circumstances is unknown. There are 4 holes that show evidence of compression near them. The areas away from the holes are a significantly darker color, have a layer of fibers obscuring the nalbinding, and are noticeably stiffer and not flexible.

Dated to: medieval,1 pre-13002

Find location: Field S of the Søndre Gate 4 dig in medieval Nidaros, modernly Trondheim, Norway. More specifically it was found under the floorboards of a pre-1300 house in the wealthy blocks of the city.3

Material: wool4

Stitch(es) used: Further examination is necessary given the condition of the textile. However, the surface texture most closely resembles the stitch known as Dalby, F1 UOU/OUOO.

Inventory number: N11979

Current location: NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/c72c7d23-f49f-4c0b-9bf8-dd67f4fb111e

Some sources in which more information can be found:

In 2020, there was a Facebook post by the Nidaros Archaeological Archive (NIDARK) project with a photograph of the stocking and some information regarding its excavation. I’d share it with you, but within this last year, that post has since disappeared along with all of the rest of the NIDARK Facebook page posts. Nonetheless, that project and its posts led me to this fabulous artifact.

Photographs:

Detail of the cuff of the Nidaros Stocking showing one of the holes.
Photo: Anne Marie Decker 2024
Examination day is always so exciting!
Photo: Anne Marie Decker 2024
The Nidaros Stocking was found in excavations under this street.
Photo: Anne Marie Decker 2024

Acknowledgements: My sincerest thanks to the NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet and especially to Torkel Johansen, Curator, and Frances Lucas Lukezic, Conservator for their assistance during my study visit.

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. The museum catalog states Medieval, Modern Era https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/c72c7d23-f49f-4c0b-9bf8-dd67f4fb111e Accessed 30 March 2024. ↩︎
  2. Per discussions with Torkel Johansen, curator at the Institutt for arkeologi og kulturhistorie, NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet during my study visit on 16 April 2024. ↩︎
  3. Per discussions with Torkel Johansen, curator at the Institutt for arkeologi og kulturhistorie, NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet during my study visit on 16 April 2024. ↩︎
  4. Gjenstandsbeskrivelse https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/c72c7d23-f49f-4c0b-9bf8-dd67f4fb111e Accessed 6 May 2024. ↩︎

NOW: Saqqâra sock T 564

For this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week we get to get to see what is thought to be the earliest archaeological artifact to have its stitch analyzed, a sock from Egypt. Photos of nalbinding from the late 1800’s are rather rare. In this case, we also have the opportunity to see a more recent photo in the online catalog of the MAK in Vienna.

Fig. 28 from Antike Handarbeiten published in 1895.

Object: Sock from Saqqâra, Egypt

Description: A white wool sock with a black/dark brown toe and over the arch worked in a finer black/dark brown wool and a row of red wool at the cuff. The sock has a single wedge style heel and stops at the ankle. Current photos show that it has taken some damage since 1895 as the dark toe is nearly entirely missing and several rows near the cuff also show damage. Otherwise, it is in apparently the same position as it was when the first photograph was taken.

Dated to: 6th century

Find location: Saqqâra, Egypt

Earliest diagrams of nalbinding as analyzed from an artifact. Figs. 30-32 from Antike Handarbeiten published in 1895. Highlights by Anne Marie Decker

Material: Wool

Stitch(es) used: Mammen, F2 UOO/UUOO. Luise Schinnerer diagrammed the stitch found in this sock, but did so in a manner that while it produces the correct final structure, is opposite the direction in which we work this stitch today.

Inventory number: T 564

Current location: Museum für angewandte Kunst MAK (Museum of Applied Arts)

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://sammlung.mak.at/sammlung_online?id=collect-107622

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Schinnerer, Luise. Antike Handarbeiten. Mit einer histor. Einleitung von Alois Riegl. Wien: Waldheim, 1895. [No ISBN]

Collin, Maria; ‘Sydda vantar’ in Fataburen; 1917; pgs. 71-78.

Noever, Peter ed. Verletzliche Beute: spätantike und frühislamische Textilien aus Ägypten = Fragile remnants : Egyptian textiles of late antiquity and early Islam. on the occasion of the “Verletzliche Beute/Fragile remnants exhibition” MAK Vienna, 07.12.2005-05.06.2006 Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2005. ISBN 3-7757-1699-8.

Gagneux-Granade, Marguerite, and Anastasia Ozoline. “Quelques objets surprenants en textile non tissé dans les réserves du musée Bénaki” in ΜΟΥΣΕΙΟ ΜΠΕΝΑΚΗ 9, 2009 (Athens 2010): 99-111. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/benaki.13

Photographs: You can see a much more recent photo of the sock in the MAK’s online catalog: https://sammlung.mak.at/sammlung_online?id=collect-107622

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NOW: Kransen sock fragments 34821

The famous sock from Uppsala is not the only nalbinding found in Uppsala. This week’s Nalbound Object of the Week are the fragments of what is believed to be another sock. This one found in the Kransen quarter of Uppsala. I was graciously allowed access to examine these fragments at the Statens Historiska Museet in May of 2023. Some of what you see in the box is moss.

Image of the fragments of 34821, cropped to remove excess background.
Upphov: Rosengren, Helena, Historiska museet/SHM (CC BY 4.0)

Object: Kransen sock fragments

Description: Nine fragments of what is believed to be a sock.1

Dated to: end of the 1300’s2 (late 14th century)

Find location: Kransen quarter, Uppsala, in the block between Svartbacksgatan, St Persgatan, Dragarbrunnsgatan, and Vaksalagatan3 https://www.uppsala.se/contentassets/97d6ed912b5047a0aed22a7ceea06de0/plankarta.pdf (Thank you Ingela Andersson Lindberg for finding the plans)

Material: Wool4

Stitch(es) used: unknown

Inventory number: 34821

Current location: Historiska Museet, Stockholm

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://samlingar.shm.se/object/7216C35F-20E1-45BC-89FC-392CD84EBB34

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Gustafsson, Jan Helmer, and Ola Ehn. Kransen: ett medeltida kvarter i Uppsala. Uppsala: Upplands fornminnesfören, 1984. ISBN 91-85618-21-7.

Photographs (if permissions allow):

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. https://samlingar.shm.se/object/7216C35F-20E1-45BC-89FC-392CD84EBB34 ↩︎
  2. Gustafsson, Jan Helmer, and Ola Ehn. Kransen: ett medeltida kvarter i Uppsala. Uppsala: Upplands fornminnesfören, 1984. Pg. 76. ISBN 91-85618-21-7. ↩︎
  3. Gustafsson, Jan Helmer, and Ola Ehn. Kransen: ett medeltida kvarter i Uppsala. Uppsala: Upplands fornminnesfören, 1984. Pg. 8. ISBN 91-85618-21-7. ↩︎
  4. https://samlingar.shm.se/object/7216C35F-20E1-45BC-89FC-392CD84EBB34 ↩︎