Tag: 11th century

NOW: Red hat with tassel – 9318

If you are in Berlin this week, you can catch the Nalbound Object of the Week on display in the Auf unbetretenen Wegen: Georg Schweinfurth und die Ägyptologie exhibition at the Neues Museum before it closes on the 8th of February 2026. Held in the collections of the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, this hat was one of the first nalbound artifacts that I learned about when starting my explorations of nalbinding throughout the world.

Inv. 9318. Photo Credit: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst /CC BY-SA 4.0

Object: Red Hat with tassel – 9318

Description: A lovely red nalbound hat with a point extending to a multi-stranded tassel. Two thirds of the point are covered with blue and yellow cross-knit looping worked in a graphic pattern and supported underneath with a linen/cotton cloth. The red hat section is worked in a very open density for the gauge. It is smooth on the outside, but on the inside there are loose strands of the yarn fibers leading to an almost thrummed or brushed interior appearance. There are two fine yellow threads loosely sewn around the opening of the hat. Length x Width: 63 x 24 cm1 Height of the crown is 18.5 cm.2

It is interesting to note that the tassel is no longer attached to the hat as evidenced by examining the various photographs taken over time showing the hat in a different orientation to the tassel. The hat is currently sewn to its conservation backing with the side that was under the head currently showing. The photograph published with Bush’s article shows the front.

Dated to: Originally thought to be 9th to 10th century CE,3 it has since been radiocarbon dated to between the 11th and early 13th century CE. The museum catalog entry states it was radiocarbon dated to 1036–1215 CE.4 Fluck and Mälck’s article indicates the radiocarbon dating dates it between 1040 and 1220 CE.5

Find location: Arsinoë (Krokodilopolis)6 now in the city of Faiyum7

Material: The cap is made of a red wool yarn S-plied of two unspun threads; possibly mohair wool as it is fine and hairy. The tube section is blue and yellow silk threads, both S-plied of two unspun threads. Inside the tube is a linen warp cotton weft woven fabric. The tassel is bundled linen threads (S-spun) and green or yellow silk threads.8

Stitch(es) used:
Hat: looped needle netting Type IIIa (which is Hald’s designation of Mammen stitch). Confirmed to be F2 UOO/UUOO, Mammen stitch, by Anne Marie Decker based on photographs provided by the museum on March 12, 2019.
Tube: Fluck and Mälck state single needle technique.9 Hald calls it mesh stitch,10 but diagrams it correctly. These days we call it Z-crossed Cross-knit Looping (F1B1 O) which has been confirmed by Anne Marie Decker based on photographs provided by the museum on March 12, 2019.

Inventory number: 9318

Current location: in the collections of the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst but on display in the Neues Museum during the Auf unbetretenen Wegen: Georg Schweinfurth und die Ägyptologie exhibition May 23, 2025 to February 8, 2026.

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://id.smb.museum/object/2016749/m%C3%BCtze

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Bush, Nancy; ‘Nålbinding – From the Iron Age to Today’ in Piecework Vol. IX N. 3, May / June 2001; Interweave Press, 2001; pgs. 28-32.

Claßen-Büttner, Ulrike. Nalbinding – What in the World Is That? History and Technique of an Almost Forgotten Handicraft. Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2015. ISBN 978-3-7347-7905-3.

Fluck, Cäcilia, and Kathrin Mälck. “Radiocarbon analysed textiles in the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin” in Methods of dating ancient textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries : proceedings of the 4th meeting of the study group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley’, Antwerp, 16-17 April 2005, edited by Antoine De Moor and Cäcilia Fluck, 150-165. Tielt (Belgium): Lannoo Publishers, 2007. ISBN 9789020970982.

Hald, Margrethe. Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs And Burials: A Comparative Study of Costume and Iron Age Textiles. Publications of The National Museum of Denmark; Archaeological Historical Series XXI. Translated by Jean Olsen. Copenhagen: Fyens Stiftsbogtrykkeri, Copenhagen, 1980. ISBN 87-480-0312-3. pg. 308, fig. 355 and pg. 309.

Schrenk, Sabine, ed. Textiles in Situ: Their Find Spots in Egypt and Neighbouring Countries in the First Millenium CE. Riggisberg: Abegg-Stiftung, 2006. ISBN 3-905014-29-7

Photographs:

Inv. 9318.
Photo Credit: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst /CC BY-SA 4.0
Detail of the cross-knit looping tube on Inv. 9318.
Photo Credit: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst /CC BY-SA 4.0
This photo was taken before the most recent conservation and mounting and thus shows the side that would have been towards the front. Bush, Nancy; ‘Nålbinding – From the Iron Age to Today’ in Piecework Vol. IX N. 3, May / June 2001; Interweave Press, 2001; pg. 28. Photograph courtesy of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz,
Museum für Spätantike und Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin, Germany.
Photograph by A. Voigt.

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://id.smb.museum/object/2016749/m%C3%BCtze Accessed 2/2/2026. Hald states the circumference is 48 cm which corresponds to the width of the hat when flat as measured in the museum catalog entry. Petra Linscheid, 2018, Object Description in the museum catalog says the circumference is 47.5 cm. ↩︎
  2. Petra Linscheid, 2018, Object Description at https://id.smb.museum/object/2016749/m%C3%BCtze Accessed 2/2/2026. Hald states the crown is 17 cm. Her measurements would have been taken prior to the most recent conservation and mounting. ↩︎
  3. Hald, Margrethe. Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs And Burials: A Comparative Study of Costume and Iron Age Textiles. Publications of The National Museum of Denmark; Archaeological Historical Series XXI. Translated by Jean Olsen. Copenhagen: Fyens Stiftsbogtrykkeri, Copenhagen, 1980. ISBN 87-480-0312-3. pg. 308, fig. 355 and pg. 309. ↩︎
  4. https://id.smb.museum/object/2016749/m%C3%BCtze Accessed 2/2/2026 ↩︎
  5. Fluck, Cäcilia, and Kathrin Mälck. “Radiocarbon analysed textiles in the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin” in Methods of dating ancient textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries : proceedings of the 4th meeting of the study group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley’, Antwerp, 16-17 April 2005, edited by Antoine De Moor and Cäcilia Fluck, 150-165. Tielt (Belgium): Lannoo Publishers, 2007. ISBN 9789020970982. pg. 158. ↩︎
  6. https://id.smb.museum/object/2016749/m%C3%BCtze Accessed 2/2/2026. Hald had erroneously listed it as found in Antinoupolis and that was repeated in Bush’s article. This was corrected in Cäcilia Fluck and Kathrin Mälck’s article “Radiocarbon analysed textiles in the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin” ↩︎
  7. Pleiades is a gazetteer of ancient places that is very useful for locating find locations that may only be recorded under the ancient location name. R. Müller Wollermann, Brady Kiesling, Sean Gillies, Jen Thum, Jeffrey Becker, H. Kopp, Herbert Verreth, B. Siewert-Mayer, Mark Depauw, R. Talbert, Johan Åhlfeldt, Adam Prins, W. Röllig, Tom Elliott, DARMC, Francis Deblauwe, and Eric Kansa, ‘Krokodilopolis/Ptolemais Euergetis: a Pleiades place resource’, Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places, 2025 <https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/736948> [accessed: 03 February 2026] ↩︎
  8. Fluck, Cäcilia, and Kathrin Mälck. “Radiocarbon analysed textiles in the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin” in Methods of dating ancient textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries : proceedings of the 4th meeting of the study group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley’, Antwerp, 16-17 April 2005, edited by Antoine De Moor and Cäcilia Fluck, 150-165. Tielt (Belgium): Lannoo Publishers, 2007. ISBN 9789020970982. pg. 158. Hald, and thus Bush’s article, stated the hat itself was also silk, not just the tube. That has since been corrected in the more recent publications. ↩︎
  9. Fluck, Cäcilia, and Kathrin Mälck. “Radiocarbon analysed textiles in the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin” in Methods of dating ancient textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries : proceedings of the 4th meeting of the study group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley’, Antwerp, 16-17 April 2005, edited by Antoine De Moor and Cäcilia Fluck, 150-165. Tielt (Belgium): Lannoo Publishers, 2007. ISBN 9789020970982. ↩︎
  10. Hald, Margrethe. Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs And Burials: A Comparative Study of Costume and Iron Age Textiles. Publications of The National Museum of Denmark; Archaeological Historical Series XXI. Translated by Jean Olsen. Copenhagen: Fyens Stiftsbogtrykkeri, Copenhagen, 1980. ISBN 87-480-0312-3. pgs. 284 and 309. ↩︎

NOW: Peruvian Feathered Cap 1994.35.136

The Nalbound Object of the Week this week takes us back to Peru with another Simple Looping cap. However, this one is topped with feathers! With stripes reminiscent of the Omani Sand Socks and feathers like those seen on hats from Cameroon, this 10th-15th century CE Peruvian hat reminds me of both the similarities and differences of nalbinding around the world.

Peruvian Feathered Cap, Accession number 1994.35.136
Photo credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Public Domain

Object: Feathered Cap

Description: A stunning cap worked from the top in alternating three rows of cream camelid yarn with three rows of dark brown yarn. Brown feathers have been attached to the top; splaying in a bouquet like fashion.

Dated to: 900–1470 CE1

Find location: Peru2

Material: Camelid hair and feathers3

Stitch(es) used: Z-crossed Simple Looping (stitch determination by Anne Marie Decker based on photographs)

Accession number: 1994.35.136

Current location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/50009628?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=%2A&what=Feathers&pos=4

Photographs:

Peruvian Feathered Cap, Accession number 1994.35.136
Photo credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Public Domain
Peruvian Feathered Cap, Accession number 1994.35.136
Photo credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Public Domain

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://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/50009628?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=%2A&what=Feathers&pos=4 Accessed 25 August 2024 ↩︎
  2. https://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/50009628?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=%2A&what=Feathers&pos=4 Accessed 25 August 2024 ↩︎
  3. https://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/50009628?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=%2A&what=Feathers&pos=4 Accessed 25 August 2024 ↩︎

NOW: Purple & White cap with Bird MAK/AS/P.70

Continuing the purple theme, this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week returns to Peru with another figural topped hat. This time we have a single bird topping a purple and white/natural striped child’s cap made of wool and cotton.

One of five photos, and an omnidirectional option, available on the Krzysztof Babraj (Archaeological Museum in Kraków‘s online catalog entry for this cap.
Photo: Małopolski Instytut Kultury w Krakowie – Public Domain

Object: Purple & White cap with Bird

Description: A small purple cap with two white/cream stripes of equal thickness that has a bird worked also in Simple Looping perched on top.

Dated to: 1000–1476 CE (Chancay culture)1

Find location: Necropolis of Ancon, Peru2

Material: wool and cotton3

Stitch(es) used: S-Crossed Simple Looping,4 B1 U, worked from the top to the brim (stitch determined from photograph by Anne Marie Decker)

Inventory number: MAK/AS/P.70 (received as a gift from the collection of Władysław Kluger from 1876.)

Current location: Krzysztof Babraj (Archaeological Museum in Kraków)

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://muzea.malopolska.pl/en/objects-list/661

Photographs (if permissions allow): There is an omnidirectional view on the museum’s website where you can rotate the hat.

ECHO Historical Textile posted some beautiful photos of the cap (conserved? reconstructed?) on display that is clearly visibly purple and has less damage to the bird.

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://muzea.malopolska.pl/en/objects-list/661 Accessed 27 May 2024 ↩︎
  2. https://muzea.malopolska.pl/en/objects-list/661 Accessed 27 May 2024 ↩︎
  3. https://muzea.malopolska.pl/en/objects-list/661 Accessed 27 May 2024. It says wool and cotton, but does not specify the animal from which the “wool” was obtained. ↩︎
  4. The museum catalog currently misidentifies the technique as “crochet, handsewing,” but the photos clearly show that it is S-crossed Simple Looping. ↩︎

NOW: Oslo mitten C28155

Last week I had the distinct pleasure to go visit a well known mitten that rather recently has been placed on display again in the NOREGR – Medieval Stories exhibition at the Historical Museum in Oslo. And thus, the Oslo mitten joins the Nalbound Object of the Week series.

Anne Marie Decker pointing to the Oslo mitten on display in the Historical Museum in Oslo. Photo Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024

Object: Oslo Mitten

Description: An adult sized mitten made of wool with damage at the base of the thumb and palm areas.

Dated to: 11th century,1 medieval. Ca. 1025-1125 CE2

The exhibition label for the Oslo mitten in the NOREGR – Medieval Stories exhibition at the Historical Museum in Oslo. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024.

Find location: The mitten was found during the 1926 excavation of the old town of Oslo on a layer of wood chips under the wooden flooring of a narrow passage between houses. This part of town was built in the 11th century.3

Material: wool4

Stitch(es) used: Nordland published the stitch used as 412 in his classification system5 which most likely translates to the stitch commonly known as Oslo and classified in Hansen’s notation as UO/UOO F1. However, further examination is warranted as the surface texture does not match. The surface texture more closely resembles the Mammen stitch, F2 UOO/UUOO.

Inventory number: C28155

Current location: Historical Museum

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/fbbd3006-2407-498e-a527-a18f62fadb2a

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Claßen-Büttner, Ulrike. Nadelbinden – Was ist denn das? Geschichte und Technik einer fast vergessenen Handarbeit. Norderstedt: Books on Demand GmbH, 2012. ISBN 978-3-8482-0124-2.

Claßen-Büttner, Ulrike. Nalbinding – What in the World Is That? History and Technique of an Almost Forgotten Handicraft. Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2015. ISBN 978-3-7347-7905-3.

Nordland, Odd. Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting. Studia Norvegica no. 10. Oslo: Oslo University Press, 1961. No ISBN listed in Book.

Photographs:

The museum catalog has 3 very nice zoomable photos. The two color photos are of one side and the black and white of the other.

Oslo Mitten. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024
Detail of the thumb of the Oslo Mitten. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024
The display case in which the Oslo mitten is currently located in the NOREGR – Medieval Stories exhibition. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024
Detail of the cuff of the Oslo Mitten. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024

Photo taken during previous exhibition: https://images.app.goo.gl/jji31ErrTx8A1o739

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. Nordland 1961, pg 43. ↩︎
  2. Dating listed on the item description for the mitten as on display in the NOREGR exhibition in the Historical Museum. ↩︎
  3. Nordland 1961, pg 43 and https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/fbbd3006-2407-498e-a527-a18f62fadb2a Accessed 29 April 2024. ↩︎
  4. Nordland 1961, pg. 43. ↩︎
  5. Nordland 1961, pgs 42 & 43. ↩︎

NOW: Cap with Puppies 1964.52.1

The collection of Peruvian nalbinding is full of beautiful figural work. This week’s Nalbound Object of the Week is one of my favorites: a small cap with a dog nursing her puppies.1

A small dark brown cap/fascinator with a light brown edge and a striped mother dog nursing her three striped puppies.
Photo: The Textile Museum – Public Domain

Object: Peruvian cap with puppies

Description: The cap is a slightly ovaloid shape just under 6 inches in diameter (5.5 x 5.75 inches) and 1.5 inches high (3.81 H x 14.60 W x 13.97 D cm).2 On top of the cap is a striped “dog” nursing three striped “puppies” worked in 3 dimensional figural nalbinding.

We know of several other caps from Peru in this time frame with figural work on them. One in purple and white stripes with a chicken head. Another in red and yellows with two birds on top.

Dated to: 1000-15003

Find location: Peru, probably coastal4

Material: camelid5 (meaning unspecified fiber off the alpaca or llama or other variety of camelid animals6)

Stitch(es) used: S-crossed Simple Looping, B1 U, (museum record says Cross-knit Looping,7 but image shows a surface texture of Simple Looping or possibly Pierced Looping)

Inventory number: Accession Number: 1964.52.1

Current location: The Textile Museum

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Rogers, George (Author). “Calendar” in The Textile Museum Bulletin, The Textile Museum Bulletin, Washington, D.C., 1990, vol. Spring, p. 8.

The Textile Museum. An Introduction to Textile Terms, Washington DC: The Textile Museum, 1997.

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. Looping in An Introduction to Textile Terms, Washington DC: The Textile Museum, 1997. ↩︎
  2. Dimensions: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/ ↩︎
  3. Date: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/ ↩︎
  4. Geography: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/ ↩︎
  5. Materials: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/ ↩︎
  6. An interesting article regarding the difficulties in identifying between the 4 types of camelids in South America in the archeological record can be found in Paloma Diaz-Maroto, Alba Rey-Iglesia, Isabel Cartajena, Lautaro Núñez, Michael V Westbury, Valeria Varas, Mauricio Moraga, Paula F Campos, Pablo OrozcoterWengel, Juan Carlos Marin, Anders J Hansen (2021) Ancient DNA reveals the lost domestication history of South American camelids in Northern Chile and across the Andes eLife 10:e63390 at https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.63390/ ↩︎
  7. Structure: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/, but the diagram in An Introduction to Textile Terms, Washington DC: The Textile Museum, 1997 for Looping, which is illustrated with this cap, shows alternating rows of S- and Z-crossed Simple Looping, not Cross-knit Looping. ↩︎