Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Woven Into the Earth: Textiles from Norse Greenland

Woven Into the Earth: Textiles from Norse Greenland

ØStergård, Else

Hardcover

Arctic HistoryArchaeologyScandinavian History

ISBN10: 8772889357
ISBN13: 9788772889351
Publisher: Aarhus University Press
Published: Aug 31 2026
Pages: 296
Weight: 3.21
Height: 1.15 Width: 8.44 Depth: 11.78
Language: English
One of the century's most spectacular archaeological finds occurred in 1921 when Poul N rlund recovered dozens of garments from a graveyard in the Norse settlement of Herjolfsn s, Greenland. Preserved intact for centuries by the permafrost, these medi-aeval garments display remarkable similarities to western European costumes of the time. Previously, such costumes were known only from contemporary illustrations, and the Greenland finds provided the world with a close look at how ordinary Europeans dressed in the Middle Ages. Fortunately for N rlund's team, wood has always been extremely scarce in Greenland, and instead of caskets, many of the bodies were found swaddled in multiple layers of cast-off clothing. Eighty years of technical advances and subsequent excavations have greatly added to our understanding of the Herjolfsn s discoveries. In Woven into the Earth Else stergård recounts the dramatic story of N rlund's excavation in the context of other Norse textile finds in Greenland. She describes what the finds tell us about the materials and methods used in making the clothes. The weaving and sewing techniques detailed here are surprisingly sophisticated, and one can only admire the talent of the women who employed them, especially considering the harsh conditions they worked under.

Also from

ØStergård, Else

View All

Also in

Archaeology

View All