Ellisenhof Brocade

Humans have always been silly! Ellisenhof (8th c Northern Germany) had a wealth of textile finds, but a favorite of mine is a wool on wool brocade card woven band that's all critters!

Historical Basis:

Elisenhof was an 8th century settlement in northern Germany. There are 254 textile finds from the area, mostly poor to medium quality. The record of these finds was published in 1957 in Die Textil-Und Schnurreste Aus Der Frühgeschichtlichen Wurt Elisenhof by Hans-Jurgen Hündt. To the right is a section of the photograph of the band. Sadly, the band itself seems lost to history.

When examining these photos and drawings in the book it is apparent that a lighter warp was used with a darker weft. The weft is thicker than the warp, and brocaded to create stylized animal shapes. The band is about 14.5” long and varies between .5 to .7 inches wide.

The band has 20 pattern cards and no border cards. The cards were threaded with tightly spun S threads. The threads were incredibly fine, only .2mm thick (most sewing thread is about .3mm). The band and brocade threads are wool in several shades of brown.

Of note, the band was attached to an interesting arrangement of tighter and looser packed threads along with a braid. Also of interest is that there does not seem to be a supplementary or main weft, but the back of the band shows the brocade weft jumping back and forth across the band rather than always entering neatly from one side and using a second thread to hold the band together.

Bibliography

Hansen, Egon. Tablet Weaving: History, Techniques, Colours, Patterns. Hovedland Publ, 1990.

Hundt, Hans-Jurgen. Volume 4 of Elisenhof: The Results of the Excavation of the Early-Historical Marsh Settlement at the Elisenhof in Eiderstedt 1957/58 and 1961 / 64. Long, 1980.