Knitting in Old Elbląg. Archaeological and historical evidence
[ 1 ] Ośrodek Badań nad Dawnymi Technologiami w Łodzi, Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk | [ P ] pracownik
2017
rozdział w monografii naukowej
angielski
- cap
- archaeology
- Elblag
- Elbing
- stockings
- written sources
- knitting
EN Elbląg (Elbing) – a city in northern Poland – was founded in the 13th century by the Knights of the TeutonicOrder and populated with settlers from Germany. The town grew dynamically and quickly became one of mostimportant Hanseatic ports. Elbląg is very interesting because it is probably the best archeologically explored cityin Poland. Excavations in Elbląg started in 1980 and have continued over the past 30 years. A large part of theElbląg textile collection has already been examined by J. Maik, and the results of his work have been presented innumerous papers. The rest of the finds from Elbląg are still being examined. Knitted items form part of the Elblągtextile collection, which has been neglected until now. The set of Elbląg knitted pieces is not numerous but it isinteresting. It consists of wool and silk artefacts in different states of preservation – including small unidentifiablepieces, as well as an almost complete cap. These finds represent a wide chronological range from the Middle Agesto the 18th century. The provenance of knitted items discovered in Elbląg is problematic. Very interesting data areprovided by old port customs books which recorded goods imported to the port of Elbląg by sea. Several placesof origin may be listed from which knitted products were transported to Elbląg. These were mostly from Englandand the Netherlands. Unfortunately, no sources could provide information about the origins of local knittingproduction. Hard data on Elbląg knitting production can only be found for later periods. These show that by themid-18th century, knitting production in Elbląg had reached a very advanced level.
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