SCA: New Viking Stuff! (ATR Article)

 In 2016, a burial site in Bryndum, Denmark began excavation and study, which among other things contained the grave (G12) of a woman with several layers of textiles buried with her.  The December 2025 issue of the Archeological Textile Review journal contains an article ("The Bryndum Burial Ground in Denmark: News on Viking Age Women's Clothing") which details these textiles.  

The outfit the woman was wearing is unique in several ways.  Firstly, she was covered by a "duvet" of dark gray (undyed) wool stuffed with straw and possibly down - which is not unique, but beneath this layer, she was dressed in: 

• a pleated, undyed linen serk (pleated serks are so cool and I've always wanted to make one) 
• a smokkr/apron dress made of wool which was dyed a deep, dark blue with purple stripes (stripes!)
• a dark gray jacket- or coat-like garment made of wool and lined with linen, which shows cutting and seaming which indicates that the garment may have been cut and tailored to the body

All of that is super cool, but the thing that blew my mind was this:  the smokkr had straps. Most of the smokkr fragments we've found have been in the form of loops and little sections of the top of the garment which were preserved by the metal in the brooches the loops were attached to.  But THIS dress not only HAS straps - the straps are TABLET WOVEN BANDS.  This is the first instance that's been discovered of tablet weaving being used in this way in the Viking age, according to the journal article.  

Tablet woven straps! Stripes! Pleated serk!  I'm so excited about this - and I think now I need to make a new outfit for myself after this grave find.  I want to know more about how this coat/jacket thing was constructed, too.  

Anyway, I just thought this was cool and wanted to share it with you.  

For the time being, I'm hard at work on my current A&S project, and I need to finish that before I get into a new outfit based on this find.  More news on that as I progress (I know, I know, I haven't talked about it at all yet, but it's coming!)