Archeological Sketch of the Hedeby Kaftan Jacket
The Hedeby Kaftan Jacket
- Also know as the Haithabu Kaftan
Date of the Extant Garment : 10th century
Location: Hedeby / Haithabu Denmark. ( Now in Germany, near the Danish border)
Catalog no: Hedeby 19B
Found at Hedeby is late tenth- or early eleventh-century evidence for a short bathrobe-style jacket with overlapping front panels. The remains of one jacket from Hedeby had a trimming made of madder-dyed fake fur, which was a strip of woven wool with tufts of unspun wool inserted into the weave.
A so far unique use of pile weave is also represented by the tenth-century Fragment 19B from Hedeby, Denmark.
It was dyed with madder and sewn to a man’s jacket garment perhaps the only medieval instance of pink fake fur trim (Hägg 1984, 77)!Hedeby 19B—madder-dyed (?) pile trimming; 2/2 twill, 6/Z/1.0-1.2 x 3-3.5/S/2.0-2.7, weft more loosely spun; pile woven in, height about 2-3cm; definitely unfulled; Hafen 76ff
Another Sketch of the Hedeby kaftan Jacket
Similar garments of this cross over wrap style are known from earlier Saxon graves on the Continent and believed by some to have had some military or ritual significance (Owen-Crocker 1986, 114-115);
a 7th century grave of a minstrel from Cologne that contained the remains of a brocaded tablet woven trim which would be consistent with a garment of similar design. (Owen-Crocker. 1986).
Some have also been found in the Birka Graves finds - birkagrav 832
The Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Castledyke South, Barton-on Humber – gave 126
Migration Era artwork
Sutton Hoo helmet plate showing cross over jackets
Vendel type helmet plates showing cross over jackets
Depictions of 7th century helmet plaques show the cross over wrap style of jacket
- such as on the Sutton Hoo helmet and the Vendel and Valsgarde helmets plates.
7th century ivory carving (the Halberstadt, diptych) that clearly shows an individual wearing a similar garment
The method I used was to do the trim as a separate piece of fabric
1. On which I poked holes with an awl
2. then with a hook pulled thru the goat wool as you would doing a hook rug
3. I then stitched the goat wool to secure it
4. once the piece was tufted then it was sewn on to the jacket
Jacket is completely hand sewn
Web references:
Complex Weavers’ Medieval Textiles Issue 28 June 2001
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/webdocs/mnm_mt28.pdf
Live Journeal – Men’s cloaks
http://community.livejournal.com/viking_research/12744.html
How to make an authentic Víking Era tunic
http://gersey.tripod.com/history/tunic.html
Clothing of a Wealthy 7 Century Northern European Warrior
horvathdp.googlepages.com/CLOTHING.pdf
Vikingatida herreman – Kaftan
http://histvarld.historiska.se/histvarld/draekter/vherreman/kaftan.html
The Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Castledyke South, Barton-on Humber - Google Books Result –Page 279
books.google.com.au/books?isbn=1850756430...
Book Referneces:
Hägg, Inga. Die Textilfunde aus dem Hafen von Haithabu. Berichte über die Ausgrabungen in Haithabu, Bericht 20. Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz Verlag, 1984. Careful catalogue includes analysis of Hedeby fragment 19B from 10th century Denmark.
Owen-Crocker, G. (1986). Dress in Anglo-Saxon England. Manchester University
Press, Oxford Rd., Manchester, M13 9PL UK.