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，在冰岛的重要性越来越大，以至于在整个中世纪时期，布都被用作货币。纺织品是根据严格的法律的标准和指导方针编织的，这些标准和指导方针规定了法律的布料的长度以及线数。了解纺织品生产随时间的变化，可以帮助我们了解人们如何使其物质文化适应不断变化的文化动态和不断变化的气候。此外，由于布料是由妇女生产的，纺织品的决定权在妇女的家庭中，这项研究不仅有助于我们了解挪威社会如何在寒冷的气候时期通过编织更厚，更温暖的布料来适应其技术，而且还可以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。这项研究可以成为一个窗口，了解社会，文化和经济系统将如何适应当代气候变化，并帮助我们为潜在的变化做好准备。该项目建立在PI？的以前的研究利用保存完好的考古纺织材料，以提供深入了解纺织品的社会背景，从北大西洋岛屿超过1000年（约。公元800 - 19世纪）。总体目标是更好地了解妇女的生活-在考古记录中往往是看不到的-以及她们在发展贸易和塑造北欧社会经济中的作用。 将编织指定为妇女的贸易植根于性别的宇宙观，在公元前的冰岛，这种宇宙观禁止男子进入编织小屋和从事纺织工作。 约公元1200年，纺织品作为货币商品出现，显示出持续的标准化趋势，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）和标准化的布料之间至少共存了三个世纪。 意识到冰岛和格陵兰编织方法的遗产差异，PI渴望探索法罗群岛和挪威苏格兰群岛之间的差异，并询问可以从区域身份表达，小冰河时代适应和女性角色中学到什么。 PI将对来自6个冰岛遗址、22个格陵兰斯堪的纳维亚遗址、10个中世纪法罗群岛遗址和21个苏格兰斯堪的纳维亚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。这一部分被定位为一个试点项目，将评估在羊毛上使用锶和碳同位素的可行性--这是一种正在开发的方法，可能有助于确定绵羊食用的草的地点。同位素分析的目的是将考古记录与历史资料联系起来，这表明在1100年代早期，冰岛纺织品是英格兰、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.