Textile resources in Viking Age landscapes (TriVaL)

This project will combine landscape analysis of textile resources with analysis of textiles, textile tools, and contexts investigations to determine the variation, organization and impact of textile production on the known Viking Age landscape. The project will demonstrate how textile research can be used to get a greater and more diverse understanding of the Viking Age Society and its actors. It will answer the research questions 1) How an increasing demand for textile raw materials affected the landscapes and settlements 2) How an increasing consumption of textiles affected the production of textiles as well as the organization of said production and 3) Whether only local raw materials were used or supplemented by an import of raw materials and/or textiles.

Objective one is to create an overarching framework and methodology that directly integrates the importance of textiles and textile resources in current debates on Viking Age economy, power and politics.

Objective two is to make the results of textile research on Viking Age materials and contexts accessible to the study of settlements and landscapes, at both local, regional and inter-regional levels.

To fulfil the overarching aim and objectives, an investigation of a few selected regions/landscapes, settlements, tools and textiles will be undertaken. In order to identify a possible increasing demand for textile resources the starting point will be the beginning of the Late Iron Age from c. 600 AD on to 1050. Two different types of landscapes are selected, East Zealand and the area around Limfjorden, Jutland. The landscapes represent central and important regions in Viking Age Denmark. They are well studied with numerous settlement and burial structures, finds of textiles and textiles tools (e.g. Bender Jørgensen 1986; Ulriksen 1998, 2018; Kastholm 2013; Sarauw 2019). The sites, with excellent contexts and large find materials, are carefully selected. In order to investigate if the textile production on the settlements represent different organization modes, various types of settlements are chosen (please see map above and statements of collaboration).

The landscape and settlement studies as well as the registration of tools and textiles will be accomplished in close collaboration with the different museums and the National Museum of Denmark. The project members will collect and record archaeological, osteological, geological, and geographical data in the field and at the museums, and further process the data at CTR and relevant institutes. At CTR we have facilities for different types of textile and tool analyses in our new TexLab, supported by the Danish Roadmap for Research Infrastructure project E-RIHS.dk. All material will be recorded in a database, designed for the project and mapped in a geographical information system (GIS). Furthermore, we will merge theoretical perspectives from science and humanities. We will use natural science as seen as objective, quantifying, descriptive, and fact aiming to discovery, explanation, and solutions to get new perspectives on cultivation, sheep management, types of textiles and tools etc. but with an important humanities perspective with clear subjective, interpretative, speculative, politicizing, aesthetic approaches aiming at an understanding of the influences of textiles and textile productions and its impact on Viking Age Society (Sørensen 2017).

All the collected research data will be curated and preserved by the individual participants at UCPH and shared with the museums during the project. At the end of the project all data will be made open access.

The project will attain synergy at different levels resting on three work packages (WPs), each structured to be shared and take advantage of the research-taking place in the other WPs.

Read more about the three work packages

An external advisory board, representing the projects different topics, themes, and relevant museums is appointed and includes national and international acknowledged scholars. The members are active participants contributing with their field of expertise and will co-author publications. The board will meet annually with the research team where the ongoing research will be presented, evaluated and discussed.

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