Cross-Post: Book on Early Germanic Clothing Fundraising

Thirty years ago, Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood gave us a book of Patterns for Ancient Egyptian Clothing. Now a researcher in the UK wants to do the same for clothing from prehistoric Denmark. This new book will be lavishly illustrated with colour photos of reconstructions. If that is of interest, check it out on Kickstarter.

Much of this clothing is different than we expect. Clothes before contact with Romans are mostly wrapped not cut and sewn, and even Tacitus says that only a few Germani wear trousers. That raises the possibility that some of the later clothing may be borrowed from the Roman army and Roman Gaul and Belgium, just like northerners adopted Roman swords and Roman bows in the third century CE. Some of the bog bodies wear fur capes which were taboo to Greeks and Romans, but the construction of clothing from rectangles of woven cloth was similar among the city-builders of the south and the people buried in log coffins and staked in bogs in the cold wet north. I look forward to seeing what Nicole DeRushie has to teach us!

(scheduled 31 August 2024)