Medieval Slavic headband from Novoselki
What's the story behind this unusual Slavic headband dated to the 12th century? This ancient artifact, found in Novoselki, provides a valuable proof of the use of tablet weaving amongst Slavs during the Middle Ages. The headband was unearthed in a woman's grave, accompanied by a pair of distinctive 7-bladed temple rings of Viatichi tribe.
Viatichi lived in a part of Kyivan Rus that is nowadays Ryazan region of Ru..ia. The nowadays site of Novoselki lies southeast of Moscow. In 2008, the archeological research started, and soon 19 burial mounds gave up their secrets.
Mound number 11
This mound contained remains of a woman, her bronze jewellery and three pieces of textile. Researcher Olga Orfinskaya summed the contents up in her 2012 article, alongside a detailed photograph.
Translated description: 1. reconstruction of the headdress 2. fragment of a woven band 3-4. half-circle temple rings 5-7 ring temple rings (3-7 copper alloy).
What the author mentioned multiple times, grave finds included multiple textiles that were woven of mixed fibres. Because plant-based fibres decay more easily in this environment, these textiles appear ''hollow'', like certain threads are missing.
This fact is not mentioned in the case of this band, however I believe it is safe to believe that ''empty'' spaces on its surface once were filled with linen, hemp or nettle threads.
She describes the band as the following:
''There were used 32 warp threads: in the central section 13 red threads and 13 blue threads, and 4 red threads for each border. (...) All threads are woollen. Warp threads (both red and blue) are Z-twisted, approximately 0.5 mm thick. Weft threads are only red, 0.8 to 1.0 mm thick. All threads are of uneven thickness and twist.“
To be honest, I am not very satisfied with this description. Firstly, 13 + 13 + 4 +4 = 34, not 32. Secondly, the picture is in greyscale and the description does not say anything about how were blue and red warp threads arranged. Moreover, there is no scale or measurements included.
Finally, the more I look at the photograph, the more tempted am I to believe there were actually 2 border tablets on each side, and 12 pattern tablets. Despite the undisputable amount of work and research done by the author and her team, the description is inaccurate, just like descriptions and reconstructions of tablet woven bands from Gaigovo area she published in a different paper earlier.
To be continued
source:
Olga Orfinskaya. Новосёлки-2. Результаты исследования текстиля XII века//Археология Подмосковья: Материалы научного семинара. Выпуск 8. М.: ИА РАН, 2012. pages 127-137 (link)