[Regia-NA] Ingstad on Gokstad and Oseberg ship textiles

[Carolyn Priest-Dorman]

I'm cross-posting this because it's currently relevant on two lists.

This is the section on the Gokstad tent-or-sail textile from pages 135-136 
of Anne Stine Ingstad's paper "Textiles from Oseberg, Gokstad and Kaupang," 
in the second NESAT proceedings.  The subject is the texile Nicolaysen 
thought was the ship tent.

         "The Gokstad find also included fragments of 2/2 twill, 63 of 
them.  They all have z-spun threads in both systems, and the threads are 
somewhat more firmly spun and a little thinner in one system than in the 
other.  It seems most likely that they come from the sail of the ship, as 
they were found entangled with a number of ropes of vegetable fibre, some 
as thick as a finger, others still thicker.  Several of these fragments 
show traces of red, and some had been reinforced with narrow strips of the 
same kind of cloth, which had been stitched on.  The fragments presumably 
derive from several pieces of fabric, whose thread count can vary slightly, 
but the difference is insignificant."

Here's what she had to say about the Oseberg wool 2/2 twill tent-or-sail 
textile on pages 87-88 of her "The Functional Textiles of the Oseberg Ship" 
in the first NESAT proceedings.

         "_Basic_ twill is the most common type of weave in our 
material.  It covers seven groups, and amounts to 42.3 per cent of the 
total....

         "Let me now consider a group which apparently represents the sails 
of the ship.

         "All we have now are large lumps and compact masses, with bits of 
rope sticking out here and there.

         "The closer system of threads has a count of 12-16 per cm, the 
more open a count of about 9-13.  The wool of which these fabrics are woven 
is fine and it looks as though the threads of the two systems were of about 
the same thickness, and they were both z spun, particularly firmly.

         "Gabriel Gustafson was of the opinion that these fragments must 
represent the ship's tent, because everything else in any way connected 
with transport was found in the prows.  In my opinion this can hardly be 
correct, however, for it would really be rather strange if such important 
equipment as the ship's sails had not been included in the burial.  There 
would seem to be a sound enough reason for placing the sails in the burial 
chamber--here they were protected by a roof.  The presence of the great 
number of ropes, the thickness of a finger, would also be difficult to 
explain unless they were the cordage used with the sails.  These textiles 
still show traces of red, and this must have been their original color."


Carolyn Priest-Dorman              Þóra Sharptooth
  http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html