Textiles and textile production in dark age Britain

The aim of this thesis is to bring together all the information relating to textiles and textiles production in Dark Age Britain. Accumulating and ordering the material has permitted generalizations to be made about certain aspects and, in order to put it into perspective, the British Dark Age material has been compared and contrasted with evidence from other periods and/or areas. In contrast to the Roman period before, and the medieval after, for the Dark Ages almost total reliance has had to be placed on archaeologically derived information. In this respect the work is analagous to that done on prehistoric textiles and textile production in Britain by the writer (Hedges 1973 ; M.A. Sheffield). Comparison with the proto- historic and historic periods shows the partial nature of the evidence preserved and the level of reliance that can be attributed to generaliz- ations base on such a sample. It is nevertheless true that the information derived archaeologically throws light on almost every aspect of textiles and their production during the period. It is particularly significant that more than half the factual material presented is new, being the unpublished work of Miss Elisabeth Crowfoot and the writer. The layout of the thesis follows the order of production - that is, from the fibres and their processing, through the spinning and the yarns produced, to the looms and the textiles found. Such an approach necessitates an interleaving of information derived from the textiles and equipment preserved together with parallels, a n c i e nt and modern. It has been preferred, however, since all the information is immediately placed in a context within which it can be understood and which relates it to the total process. For this reason the 'conclusion' is of a more general than particular nature.