The Bernuthsfeld tunic is one of the best preserved textile finds from a bog and was found in 1907 in a bog near Tannenhausen in Germany. The tunic belonged to a man who lived around the year 700 AD. There were, however, more finds found in the bogs of Bernuthsfeld.
In total, a perfectly preserved near complete attire had been found. It consisted of a patchwork tunic, a hat, a cape, a cloak with fringes, two leg wraps, a leather belt and a knife sheath. Besides the attire, other finds were also found, like additional leather belts of unknown size, four woollen cords, two rag-like pieces of textile and a 120 cm long stick. Unfortunately, most of the additional latter pieces have been lost and most of their functions unknown. The original finds that remain can, however, still be admired at in the Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum Emden.
Since this incredibly rich bog body was found in the former part of East-Frisia, we decided to reconstruct the attire of the Bernuthsfeld man from the pieces found in the bog.
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Side note regarding the reconstruction: the original tunic consisted of 45 individual parts. We decided to make a one piece reconstruction of the Bernuthsfeld tunic, portraying the tunic in what could’ve been it’s original non-patched state. We decided to dye the tunic with birch leaves, since a dye analysis on one of the patches yielded a yellow-greenish colour from birch leaves. The original hat has been lost and is only known from pictures and descriptions. The frayed bottomed hat seems to be torn from something and could’ve originally been attached to the cape or perhaps the tunic. Since it’s unknown if this is the case, we decided to stick with the museum reconstruction of a standalone, one piece hat. Lastly, the original belt didn’t include a buckle. Because of this, we decided to portray our reconstruction with an organic belt buckle, similar to the many organic belt buckle finds from the terps in Fryslân in the Netherlands.
The moorland at Moordorf in Ostfriesland (Germany) seemed as a fitting backdrop for our reconstruction.
Sources and further reading:
- Heumüller, M., ‘Kleidung und ausstattung‘ in: W. Jahn (red.), Die Moorleiche von Bernuthsfeld (Emden 2019) 42-60, aldaar 44.
- https://farolfus.com/2022/03/03/9th-century-frisian-kit/
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