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Melting Snow Reveals Iron Age Sweater
Discovery News ^ | August 30, 2013 | Rossella Lorenzi

Posted on 08/31/2013 7:14:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

A boat neck sweater made of warm wool and woven in diamond twill was a dominating fashion trend among reindeer hunters 1,700 years ago, according to researchers who have investigated an extremely well preserved Iron Age tunic found two years ago under melting snow in Norway...

Found in an hunting area on the Norwegian Lendbreen glacier at 6,560 feet above the sea level, the well-preserved tunic was made between 230 and 390 A.D., according to radiocarbon dating...

Examinations with a scanning electron microscope and light microscopy revealed that two different fabrics, made of lamb's wool or wool from adult sheep, are present in the tunic.

...the fabric was deliberately and evenly mottled, the effect obtained using two light and two dark brown alternating wool threads.

Relatively short and constructed from a simple cut, the greenish-brown tunic would have fitted a slender man about 5 feet, 9 inches tall. It featured a boat neck, had no buttons or fastenings, but was simply drawn over the head like a sweater.

The cut and size of the tunic closely resembles that of a garment excavated more than 150 years ago in a bog at Thorsbjerg, Schleswig-Holsten. Now in the Archaeological Museum in Schleswig, Germany, it was found in an early first millennium weapon deposit offering, and presumably had belonged to an officer...

The sweater-like tunic showed hard wear and tear and had been mended with two patches...

According to the researchers, it is quite possible that the tunic was originally sleeveless, and that the sleeves were added at the time of the second repair...

The tunic is not the only textile item recovered from the Norwegian ice patches.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; norway
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To: SunkenCiv
Wow... it's in remarkable shape... but...


21 posted on 08/31/2013 7:55:23 PM PDT by Rodamala
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To: posterchild
Oh come on now. We’re the only humans to experience history.

Well, more than anybody else so far!

22 posted on 08/31/2013 8:06:22 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: SunkenCiv

They don’t make things the way they used to.. My daughter bought a poncho in Mexico last year, and it didn’t make it through winter.. :)


23 posted on 08/31/2013 8:09:42 PM PDT by carlo3b (Speechless in Sugar Land)
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To: dfwgator

Perfect.


24 posted on 08/31/2013 8:18:08 PM PDT by ExpatGator (I hate Illinois Nazis!)
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To: SunkenCiv

one has to stay warm up there in the cold northern regions


25 posted on 08/31/2013 8:18:50 PM PDT by Nifster
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To: SunkenCiv

WOW!! Too bad most of today’s clothes aren’t made as well as that sweater - I’d order a couple of dozen from the maker!!


26 posted on 08/31/2013 8:19:41 PM PDT by DustyMoment (Congress - another name for the American politburo!!)
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To: dfwgator

That was so beautiful that it made me cry.


27 posted on 08/31/2013 8:31:17 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SunkenCiv

I think my son has ten or twelve of these.


28 posted on 08/31/2013 8:33:26 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SunkenCiv

At least they didn’t say 230 and 390 CE.


29 posted on 08/31/2013 8:38:47 PM PDT by slouper (LWRC M6A2)
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To: Rocky

First you have to float your own boat since it has a boat neck.


30 posted on 08/31/2013 8:51:08 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (IÂ’m not a Republican, I'm a Conservative! Pubbies haven't been conservative since before T.R.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I think I saw that sweater in Duck Dynasty Season 1.


31 posted on 08/31/2013 9:00:37 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( ==> sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: SunkenCiv

Oh there it is. Misplaced my knitting. Did a great job, didn’t I?


32 posted on 08/31/2013 9:02:25 PM PDT by Veto! (Opinions freely expressed as advice)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Does it have a tag that says, “Made in Thailand”?


33 posted on 08/31/2013 9:09:21 PM PDT by Rocky (Obama is pure evil.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Reindeer hunters? I guess in Norway, Santa’s sleigh is pulled by herring.

“Rudolph the red nosed herring
Had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw it
You were underwater.....”


34 posted on 08/31/2013 9:11:02 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SunkenCiv

some of my sweaters are that old.

Damn, I need a job.


35 posted on 08/31/2013 9:11:58 PM PDT by School of Rational Thought
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To: SunkenCiv

Uh honey, I don’t think Woolite is going to cut it today.


36 posted on 08/31/2013 9:20:25 PM PDT by vetvetdoug
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To: SunkenCiv
..the fabric was deliberately and evenly mottled, the effect obtained using two light and two dark brown alternating wool threads.

Have to wonder, since the article is a little ambiguous, whether either or both of the yarns were originally browns; or if one or both were vegetable dyed a different color that has since oxidized to brown. For a hunter, I would think an alternating twill of brown & green would be better suited, especially if I didn't want my buddies to mistake me for a reindeer.

They don't mention chemical testing; would the electron scanning pick up a primitive veggie dye?

And, since they incessantly harped on it in the article, two pregnant questions: IF Global Warming is now bringing these artifacts from hunters to light, as the ice patches "rapidly melt", A) why would reindeer hunters be hunting reindeer on an ice field, which is not their natural habitat; and B) if that tunic was (as in the photo of it in situ) designed to blend into a rocky terrain, then where did this now melting ice come from, and when? I know; I'm a heretic.

37 posted on 08/31/2013 9:51:48 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!©)
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To: ClearCase_guy

First thing I noticed, too.

Curious, also, that there would be a “hunting area” at 6500 feet in Norway.

The only thing that makes sense is that this is a mountain pass or plateau through which animals migrate in the summer time.

That means this migration path had to be snow free for decades, or even centuries, before the sweater was left there.


38 posted on 08/31/2013 10:36:53 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: ApplegateRanch

I might can help on at least one of the questions are both. I’ve hunted Caribou several times and they have a tendency to go to the snow or ice when the mosquitos and biting flies are bad. Looking like a rock on the edge of the snow or sticking out of the snow might be pretty good cover. My last one I took with a bow at about 30 yards. My camo was a rather drab brown.


39 posted on 09/01/2013 4:03:03 AM PDT by Dusty Road
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To: zeestephen

Going to higher ground to get away from mosquito’s. I’ve seen several hundred caribou scattered across a mountain side. They were all bedded down in patches of snow.


40 posted on 09/01/2013 4:06:23 AM PDT by Dusty Road
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