2-Hole Pebble Weave: Reproduction of the Tablet Woven Band “Object I/7” from the Ladoga Burial Mound

The following was my entry into the Regional Art Sci Competition in the Barony of Wyvernwoode, for which I was awarded the title of Baronial Champion. I am making my documentation available here so that it is available to any who wishes to weave this band. Most of this information is freely available on the web, and the Bibliography section has links to the source material.

1.     Summary and Inspiration

In 2010, an excavation of burial mounds in Ladoga, Russia yielded a rich variety of textiles finds believed to originate from the people inhabiting a nearby Viking settlement.  Ladoga is a small town north of St. Petersburg in Leningrad Oblast, in the area historically known as Karelia. This area is in far northern Russia in the area bordering Finland. The area was inhabited in the period from the 10^th to 13^th centuries by Vikings, leading up to the Novgorod Rus era of the 13^th to 15^th centuries.

The finds at the Ladoga burial mounds have been dated from between the 10^th and 12^th centuries [1]. The finds consist mainly of small fragments at various degrees of preservation, ranging from small segments of tablet woven woolen bands, to small patched of woven textile in herringbone patterns. The quality of the fibers varies with some rich silk originating in Central Asia likely belonging to a wealthy elite. While some of the fibers were not of such high quality, their co-location with expensive silks in the same burial mounds indicated they probably were owned by the same wealthy person or persons [1, 2].

In the present work, a reproduction of a particularly interesting tablet woven band from the Ladoga burial mounds is attempted. Care was taken to make use of period materials and methods where possible, although there were a few differences from the tools used in period, as will be discussed.

Since the very beginning of my SCA career 2 years ago, I have been fascinated by fiber arts and specifically band weaving.  At my first SCA event, I learned to use the inkle loom, and was immediately hooked.  Within a month I had woven my first tablet woven band, and have since endeavored to attempt new historical reconstructions in a variety of techniques.  For my first entry into an Art-Sci project, I wished to attempt a technique new to me. My choice of this band to weave for my first Art-Sci project was inspired by the beautiful reconstructed band form this burial by Silvia Aisling [4] which showed the delicacy of this woven band. Aisling postulated [4] that the method for weaving this band should differ from that suggested by the original paper by Kochkurkina and Orfinskaya describing this find [1]. My attempt at reproduction confirms this hypothesis, as will be shown presently.

2.     Style of the Original Band

The original band consists of three small fragments with a red and yellow pattern, rangin in length from 4.5 to 6cm. The pattern is very striking, consisting of yellow figures on a red background which resemble an S symbol alternating facing direction. There is also a border of three tightly twilled warp threads on each side of the pattern, two red and one blue, with the blue being on the inside. This pattern is similar to other finds from a similar period in areas where culturally linked peoples lived. One example is the very similar band from the 10^th century found in the late 19^th century in what is now the town of Kakuola in Finland [Fig 4].

The width of the band varies between 1.6 and 1.8 cm, something which occurs as the weft threads are pulled with different strengths while weaving. The warp threads are woolen, which the original paper confirmed by microscopic analysis. However, the weft threads are long deteriorated, so they were likely made from a vegetable fiber or another less durable material [1, pg 35-36].

I have in the present work attempted to create a reconstruction which is as close to the original band as possible in style and structure. In order to do so, I had to use a two-hole pebble weave method rather than the 3/1 twill used by the original archaeologists in their reconstruction. It is my belief that their reconstruction is not faithful to the original and my reconstruction is a much closer match. I will prove this within the present work.

3.     Materials and Tools

In period, this type of table woven band was usually constructued with wool, with the occasional band made from linen fibers. The work of Kochkurkina and Orfinskaya showed by microscopy that the Ladoga bands were made from naturally dyed handspun wool.  The colors used are somewhat faded in the original, but can be seen to have originally been a deep red and dark blue wool for the edges.  The central pattern portion of the band was made from the same red wool plus yellow wool. The weight of all the warp threads was the same. The weft has completely deteriorated to the point where there is nothing left of the original fiber used, and so an approximation must be made.

For my reconstruction, I used commercially dyed 2/16wc worsted wool purchased from a shop in the UK. The warp consists of red and blue edges with a red and yellow central pattern. The weft was chosen as the same red wool as the background of the pattern. The reason for using this wool rather than a handspun wool is that I am s yet unable to produce hand spun wool with the necessary fineness of the original band. I purchased the wool in order to be able to create a faithful reproduction in look and style to the original.

In period, the original artisan would have used a Backstrap or Oseberg-style loom, wooden or bone tablets, and wooden shuttle. For my reproduction, I used inkle loom to maintain even tension in the warp, wooden tablets, scissors, and a wooden shuttle. Due to medical issues the use of a back-strap loom is difficult for me and I have no access to an Oseberg-type loom at this time. In all other aspects, I made the attempt to use period tools and practices.

4.     Methods

A period weaver would have begun by spinning wool into fine threads, followed by plying, and then dyeing with natural dyes into the desired colors. Once the threads were thus fully prepared, she would have threaded the tablets as necessary and attached to a backstrap or Oseberg-style loom. The next step would be weaving the actual band. Kochkurkina and Orfinskaya assumed the presently discussed band was woven in 3/1 broken twill [1], but images of the band do not match this weave structure and furthermore, their 3/1 broken twill reconstruction does not at all match the weave structure of the band.  Aisling, on the other hand, postulated that the band was woven using a 2-hole double faced pebble weave and her reconstruction much more closely matches the images of the extant piece [4]. This is most likely the method used by the original weaver to create the band, as I confirm with this project. The reconstruction by Kochkurkina and Orfinskaya more closely match the find a Kakuola which is known to have been made using the 3/1 twill technique [5, 6]. See the figures attached at the end of this report for supporting evidence.

For the present reproduction, I purchased the fibers I used on this project from a handweaving studio in the UK.  The 2/16wc worsted wool is two-ply, and of similar weight as would have been used in period.  I then threaded the tablets individually for the selvedges and as a continuous warp for the pattern tablets. Threading was done in conjunction to warping onto an inkle-style loom. I chose to use a 2-hole double faced pebble weave with plain twill for the edges based on Silvia Aisling’s reconstruction, the images of the extant fragments, and from comparison to the structure of bands known to have been woven using this method, such as Hochdorf IV.  The three edge tablets on either side of the band are threaded on all four holes and continuously turned forward to create the plain twill weave structure. There are two edge tablets threaded in all red and one in all blue with orientation being S-Z-S.  The central pattern tablets are threaded on two holes, with one red and one yellow thread opposite to each other. The tablets are paired in groups of 2-1-2-2 and each group is turned as a unit.  The pattern tablets are oriented ZZ-S-ZZ-SS.  In total, there are 13 tablets, 7 pattern and 6 edge, for a total of 38 threads used. For weaving this band I began with the pattern created by Silvia Aisling, but as it only includes groups of tablets and not individual tables and also does not include turning direction,  I found it difficult to follow. I thus created my own pattern which is easier to read [Fig 6], since it includes all 7 tables rather than just 4 groups of tablets, and also includes turning directions for each set of two picks.

Bibliography

1. S. I. Kochkurkina, O. V. Orfinskaya. 2014. ПРИЛАДОЖСКАЯ КУРГАННАЯ КУЛЬТУРА: ТЕХНОЛОГИЧЕСКОЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ ТЕКСТИЛЯ (Ladoga Kurgan Culture: Technological Research and Textiles). Institute of Language, Literature and History of Karelia, Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved from academia.edu.
2. S. I. Kochkurkina, O. V. Orfinskaya.  2014. ТЕКСТИЛЬ ИЗ ПОГРЕБЕНИЙ ПРИЛАДОЖСКОЙ КУРГАННОЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ, ТЕХНОЛОГИЧЕСКОЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ (Textiles from Ladoga Burial Mound, a Research in Technology). Transactions of Karelian Research Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved from academia.edu.
3. Aisling, Silvia. 2015. Ein Brettchengewebtes Band aus Ladoga/Russland. Aislings Welt. Retrieved Oct 20, 2015. http://aislingde.blogspot.de/2015/01/ein-brettchengewebtes-band-aus.html
4. Aisling, Silvia. 2015. Ein Bretchengewebtes Band aus dem Gräberfeld Ladoga. Aislings Welt. Retrieved Oct 20, 2015. http://aisling.biz/index.php/galerie/historisch/fruehmittelalter/257-ladoga-objekt-nr-i-7
5. Karisto, M. and Pasanen, M. (2013). Omenaisia ja Revonneniä Suomalaisia Laulanauhoja (Applesies and Fox Noses, Finnish Tabletwoven Bands). Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn Raamatutrükikoda.
6. Schwindt, T. (1892). Tietoja Karjalan Reitakaudesta (About the Karelian Iron Age). Helsinki, Finland. Google books.

Figures 

Figure 1: Micrograph of the original band from source [1] showing the weave structure, annotations added by me.

A.      The three warp threads at the selvedges are tightly twilled (note the angle) over a single pick in a continuous direction, indicating a plain twill weave structure.

B.       The seven pattern threads are straight floats over two picks, indicating a pebble weave structure.  This clearly disproves Kochkurkina and Orfinskaya’s hypothesis that the original band was woven in 3/1 twill, and rather supports Aisling’s view that the weave structure is a 2-hole pebble weave.

Figure 2: Photograph of the three fragments of the band found at the Ladoga burial mound.

Figure 3: Beginning portion of my reproduction of the band. Note the two-pick, non-twilled floats in the pattern portion of the band compared to the twilled single-pick selvedge portions of the band. This weave structure matches the original band.

Figure 4: The reproduction of the Ladoga band by Kochkurkina and Orfinskaya (right) more closely resembles the Kakuola band (left, reproduction by me). Both of the bands above were made using the 3/1 twill method. Notice the tight twill in all warp threads rather than just the borders as in the original band from Ladoga.

Figure 5: The only existing image of the band found at Kakuola [6].

       

         

Figure 6: The pattern created by Silvia Aisling (left) and my own pattern (right) including all tablets (7 vs 4 for Silvia’s pattern) and turning directions.