[Regia-NA] Hats and headgear

[Carolyn Priest-Dorman]

Pete quoted somebody from another list:

>On the other hand, there's the Coppergate cap. It was found, IIRC, with a
>woman's skeleton.

The Coppergate cap was not found in a grave; it was a stand-alone find (as 
pit fill).  Whether it belonged to a man or woman is, technically, 
unknown.  However, the working assumption has been that it is an item of 
female attire.

>But it is almost identical to the hat known throughout the
>rest of the Middle Ages as coif or biggens, which was unisex, and worn
>across class barriers.

The typical coif type of headwear is more shaped than the Coppergate 
cap.  Also, it covered more of the head.  Don't be fooled by the drawing in 
Owen-Crocker, which depicts the cap as a great deal larger and more 
voluminous than it actually is.  If you make a Coppergate cap to original 
size (easy since it survives more or less entire) you will see that it 
doesn't cover more than half the head of an adult.

>So can a A-S man wear the Coppergate cap?

I'm certainly not in any position to rule on that sort of question, but my 
expectation would be "no," at least, not if the question really being asked 
is "can an A-S man wear a coif because of the Coppergate cap?"


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