Weaving Islands of Cloth: Gender, Textiles, and Trade Across the North Atlantic from the Viking Age to the Early Modern Period.

纺织品是北大西洋北欧殖民地物质文化的基本要素，在冰岛变得如此重要，以至于在整个中世纪时期，布料都被用作货币。纺织品是根据严格的法律标准和指导方针编织的，这些标准和指导方针规定了合法布料的长度和纱线的数量。了解纺织品生产随时间的变化，有助于揭示人们如何使他们的物质文化适应不断变化的文化动态和气候变化。此外，由于布料是由女性生产的，而关于纺织品的决定取决于女性的家庭，这项研究不仅有助于我们了解挪威社会如何在气候变冷的时期通过编织更厚、更温暖的布料来适应其技术，而且还有助于我们了解这种环境变化如何影响基本的社会结构，如家庭决策过程。这项研究可以成为了解社会、文化和经济体系如何适应当代气候变化的窗口，并帮助我们为潜在的变化做好准备。项目建立在PI的基础上？他之前的研究利用了保存非常完好的考古纺织品材料，为了解北大西洋岛屿1000年来（约公元800 -1800年）纺织品的社会背景提供了见解。总的目标是更好地了解妇女的生活——在考古记录中往往是看不见的——以及她们在发展贸易和塑造北欧社会经济中的作用。在前基督教时代的冰岛，将编织定义为女性的职业根植于性别宇宙观，即禁止男性进入编织小屋从事纺织工作。大约公元1200年，纺织品作为货币商品出现，呈现出一致的标准化趋势，这种趋势一直持续到16世纪，这表明标准化的鱼（鳕鱼，挪威和世界经济的关键组成部分，包括第一个商品市场）和标准化的布之间至少共存了三个世纪。意识到冰岛和格陵兰岛编织方法遗产的差异，PI渴望探索这些岛屿，法罗群岛和挪威苏格兰群岛之间的差异，并询问可以从地区身份的表达，小冰河时期的适应和女性的角色中学到什么。调查团将对6个冰岛遗址、22个格陵兰挪威遗址、1个中世纪法罗遗址和21个苏格兰挪威遗址的博物馆藏品进行现场分析；分析包括广泛的类型学，AMS日期和染料鉴定。这项工作的一部分包括同位素分析，试图追踪纺织品和羊毛的流动以及该地区可能的贸易网络。这一组成部分是作为一个试点项目，将评估在羊毛上使用锶和碳同位素的可行性——这是一种正在发展的方法，可能有助于确定绵羊消耗的草的地点。同位素分析的目的是将考古记录与历史资料联系起来，这些资料表明，在1100年代早期，冰岛纺织品是英国、挪威和德国穷人的服装材料。

Textiles were fundamental elements of material culture in the Norse colonies of the North Atlantic, gaining such importance in Iceland that cloth was used as currency throughout the medieval period. Textiles were woven according to strict legal standards and guidelines that regulated the length of legal cloth as well as thread counts. Understanding the changes in textile production through time can help shed light on how people adapted their material culture to a changing cultural dynamic as well as changing climates. In addition, because cloth was produce by women and decisions about textiles resided in the household with women, this research helps us to understand not only how Norse society adapted its technology during a cooling climatic period by weaving thicker, warmer cloth, but also how such environmental change might impact basic social structures such as household decision making processes. This research can be a window into how social, cultural and economic systems will adapt to contemporary climate shifts and assist in preparing us for potential changes. The project builds upon the PI?s former research taking advantage of the exceptionally well-preserved archaeological textile material to provide insights into the social contexts of textiles from the North Atlantic islands over a course 1000 years (ca. 800s-1800s AD). The overall aim is to gain a better understanding of the lives of women- frequently invisible in the archaeological record- and their role in developing trade and shaping the economies of the Norse societies. The designation of weaving as women's trade is rooted in the gendered cosmologies that prohibited men to enter weaving huts and engage in textile work in pre-Christian era Iceland. Ca. 1200 AD textiles emerge as currency commodity, showing consistent trend toward standardization, which continues through the 16th century, suggesting at least three centuries of co-existence between standardized fish (Cod, a key component of the Norse and world economy, including the first commodities market) and standardized cloth. Aware of the differences in the legacies of the approaches to weaving in Iceland and Greenland, the PI aspires to explore the variation between those, Faroes, and Norse Scottish Isles and asks what can be learned about expression of regional identities, Little Ice Age adaptations, and roles of women. The PI will conduct on-site analyses of museum collections of materials from 6 Icelandic sites, 22 Greenlandic Norse sites, 1medieval Faroese site, and 21 Norse sites of Scotland; analysis includes extensive typologies, AMS dates, and dye identification. Part of the effort includes isotopic analysis that will attempt to trace movements of textiles and wool and possible trade networks across the region. This component is pitched as a pilot project that will assess the feasibility of using strontium and carbon isotopes on wool - a developing methodology that may help define the locale of the grasses consumed by sheep. Isotope analysis aims to connect the archeological record to the historical sources, which suggests that in early 1100s Icelandic textiles served as clothing material for the poor in England, Norway, and Germany.