A while ago, our friends from Sköll reenactment wrote a post on Facebook about different kind of hats from the Viking age. Most of the hats they wrote about came from Frisia. We, as a group who reenact early medieval Frisians, couldn't, therefore, not write about this subject too! Be sure to check their original post and page as well!
In the course of the nineteenth century, several early medieval hats from the modern provinces of Friesland and Groningen in the Netherlands have been unearthed. These are the ones from Oostrum, Rasquert, Aalsum and the two hats from Leens. A characteristic feature of these hats is that most of them cover the neck with a flap. This feature is probably related to the maritime nature of the Frisians. The flap would serve as protection from the sun and wind, depending on how the wearer would wear the headdress. Besides the hats mentioned earlier, a hat was found in Dokkum, another hat is known from Bernuthsfeld in Ost-Friesland in Germany, and there is evidence of the use of veils in Frisia.
Oostrum
The hat from Oostrum is characterized by a long flap which would cover the hair and neck of the wearer. It was made with a good quality diamond twill fabric. Dye analysis showed it was dyed to a pale red, salmon or peach shade with madder. The decorative stitching also yielded signs of being dyed, namely a deep red colour. This stitching probably made an attractive and contrasting decoration. The hat was heavily used and repaired. The repairs were of the same technique and same type of stitching, which suggests the hat was repaired in one action. The hat is dated to the period 700 to 900 AD.
Rasquert
The hat from Rasquert also has a flap. Unlike the flap on the hat from Oostrum, the flap on the Rasquert hat is attached to it as a separate piece of fabric. It is furthermore made of a diamond twill fabric and has red decorative stitching. The original colour of the hat, however, could not be ascertained by the dye analysis. The back of the hat had signs of wear that had been repaired contemporaneously. The Rasquert hat is dated to the period 800 to 900 AD.
Aalsum
The Aalsum hat, dated to the period 700 to 900 AD, is essentially a pillbox hat with a longer side and back that covers the wearers ears and neck. The hat is made of four different fabrics of natural brown wool in diamond twill weave. The hat underwent high-quality repairs and is generally well-preserved. Interestingly, as also mentioned in the post from Sköll re-enactment, a woodcut has been found in Dublin that seems to depict a hat similar to the one from Aalsum. Could this have been a depiction of a contemporaneous Frisian in Dublin? Or perhaps an indication that the so-called ‘Frisian’ hats were also used by other early medieval seafaring cultures?
Leens – pillbox
The first hat from Leens is a so-called pillbox hat. Such types of hats are known since Late Antiquity, in which they were known as Pannonian hats. Other finds of pillbox hats are known from Hedeby (10th century), Greenland (12th to 15th century) and from the ‘Spong Man’, a lid of an urn in the figure of a seated man found at Spong Hill in England (5th century), among others. The pillbox hat from Leens, however, is dated to the period 600 to 900 AD. It was made of a broken diamond twill and consisted of an oval crown and a more or less rectangular side panel. The hat was decorated with a similar decorative stitch that was also found on the hats from Oostrum and Dokkum. Unfortunately, no dye analysis has been conducted on the fabric or sewing thread. The hat is damaged, but shows no signs of contemporary repairs.
Leens – second hat
The second hat from Leens shows signs of heavy wear. The crown is made out of three pieces of fabric sewn together – of which the middle is of herringbone twill – and is attached to the two sides of diamond twill with whipstitches. However, the back side of the hat is missing. It is assumed that the hat probably had a flap, like the ones from Oostrum and Rasquert. How long the flap was, however, is not clear. As with the pillbox hat from Leens, the original colour of the hat is unknown as no dye analysis was conducted. The second hat from Leens is also dated to the period 600 to 900 AD.
Dokkum
The Dokkum-Berg Sion headdress, dated to 568 to 651 AD, is one of the few hats for which it is fairly certain that it was worn by a woman. The original find is poorly preserved, with large parts of the hat gone. It probably consisted of three parts of diamond twill fabric; one main panel and two side panels. The two side panels were attached together to the main panel with a similar decorative stitch that was also found on the pillbox hat from Leens. The hat was made of a natural brown wool and had interestingly been dyed with tannin-based brown or black dye, most likely attained from bark or nuts. This is quite rare, as it is assumed that most fabrics made of natural brown wool were probably not dyed. The thread shows no traces of dyes. It is therefore likely that the thread was not dyed to create a contrasting effect with the dark-coloured wool.
Bernuthsfeld
The hat from Bernuthsfeld, dated to 700 AD, was one of the pieces of attire found on the bog body of Bernuthsfeld (see our earlier post ‘Het veenlijk van Bernuthsfeld’). Not much is known from this hat, since it has been lost. From pictures and descriptions is known that it consisted of nine pieces of different fabric sewn together. The hat had an eyelet on its lower right edge, which is thought to have been used to close it. Pictures of the hat show it was worn. The bottom appears to be frayed, suggesting it was torn of from another fabric. It could have originally been attached to the tunic or cape, but it could just as easily have been worn as a standalone piece. The original colour of the hat could not be ascertained due to its long time in the bog.
Veils
There is evidence of veils in the terpen area. Veils are a type of headgear for women used to cover their hair. It became especially common for girls and women to cover their heads with veils after conversion to Christianity. The appearance of veils varied greatly over time. They could be made out of different fibres (wool, linen, silk) and could vary in colour from the natural colour of the raw fibre to bright colours from various dyes. The length of the veil could also vary from reaching to the shoulders, chest or even to the knees. Veils could be held together by fibulae or headbands (known as a choif or fillet). In the terpen area at Leens, remains of a very fine and open woven fabric – known as Schleiergewebe – in tabby twill have been found. This fabric was woven out of a naturally white wool. According to C. Brandenburgh, this textile may have been used as a veil. Comparable weaves have been found in Anglo-Saxon England, Germany and Denmark.
Notes regarding our reconstructions
Our reconstructions are based as much as possible on the original finds with the supplies at our disposal at this moment. The reconstruction of the second hat from Leens presented a challenge, since the hat is heavily worn and the original length of the flap is unknown. The length of the flap - and our reconstruction in general - of the second hat from Leens is therefore speculative. Moreover, the flap on our reconstruction of the hat from Rasquert is slightly longer than on the photograph. We based this on the information on the online collection page of the Groninger Museum, which states that the flap of the original hat has been folded over several times and is therefore slightly shorter on the photo than it might have been originally. Based on this information, we decided to reconstruct our hat from Rasquert with a longer flap.
Most of the original finds can be thoroughly inspected at the online collection page of the Fries Museum, Groninger Museum and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. The Bernuthsfeld hat is part of the collection of the Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum Emden.
Hat found in Oostrum (Fries Museum Collection).
Hat found in Rasquert (Groninger Museum collection).
Hat found in Aalsum (Fries Museum collection).
Depiction of a woodcut from Dublin.
Pillbox hat found in Leens (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden collection).
Second hat found in Leens
(Groninger Museum collection).
Cap found in Dokkum (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden collection).
Hat found in Bernuthsfeld as part of the bog body found there (Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum Emden collection).
Schleiergewebe found in Leens (Groninger Museum collection).
Sources and further reading:
- Brandenburgh, C.R., Clothes make the man. Early medieval textiles from the Netherlands (Leiden 2016) 113, 122-126, 133-143.
- Heumüller, M., ‘Kleidung und Ausstattung’ in: W. Jahn, Die Moorleiche von Bernuthsfeld (2019) 42-61, aldaar 58.
- https://eoforwicproject.wordpress.com/.../an-11th.../...
Groninger Museum online collection:
- https://grm-collections.adlibhosting.com/.../museum/35801
- https://grm-collections.adlibhosting.com/.../museum/35823
Fries Museum online collection:
Facebook page of Sköll re-enactment. Don’t forget to check out their original post ‘FROM SCRAP TO HAT!’; https://www.facebook.com/skollreenactment
To Sköll reenactment; we'll hopefully see you again in Haithabu soon! --- Na Sköll reenactment; doufejme, že se brzy opět uvidíme v Haithabu!
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