The Bryndum burial ground in Denmark: news on Viking Age women's clothing

n the village of Bryndum on the west coast of Denmark four kilometres north of the modern town of Esbjerg, a Viking Age cemetery dated to fi rst part of the ninth century CE was excavated in 2016. A block liŌ from grave G12 turned out to contain two oval brooches covered with organic remains and texƟ les. The subsequent lab-controlled excavaƟ on revealed that there were six diff erent texƟ les preserved in the grave. It is possible that the buried woman was cov-ered by a greyish wool duvet fi lled with threshed straw which originally may have been fi lled with down and feathers. The clothing most likely consisted of a blue or purplish wool overwear lined with a whiteish linen fabric. She was prob-ably clad in a blue wool dress with straps made of a tablet-woven wool band, held together with a pair of oval bronze brooches. This is the fi rst Ɵ me that the tablet weaving technique has been recorded for this specifi c use. Underneath the dress, remains of a pleated linen inner garment were found. The grave thus contains both well-known and new details relaƟ ng to Danish Viking Age female clothing. The fi ndings were uncovered during a careful excavaƟ on and regis-traƟ on process and are the results of a fruiƞ ul collaboraƟ on between conservators, archaeologists, and other scienƟ sts. Keywords: Viking Age, female grave, texƟ les, tablet weave, duvet