ARCHAEOLOGICAL LEATHER GROUP NEWSLETTER

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Editor’s note:

Hello again and welcome to the latest Newslet-ter. Many of you have been in touch with news items and reports of articles, exhibitions and research projects that you wanted to share with other members. This is exactly what the News-letter is here for, so please do keep them com-ing in. Following our visit to the Deutsches Ledermuseum in March the senior conservator and her assistant have sent us a wonderfully clear account of how they made a replica of a late medieval purse from the collection, which you can read on the following pages - and then make your own!

Stephanie Rátkai has written about her investiga-tions into the use of elderberries for dyeing leather and invites others to comment on their knowledge of, or ideas about, this. André Veld-meijer bravely tries to answer the question that always confronts those looking at ancient leath-erwork: how was this stitching actually done? In dealing with some remarkably intact Egyptian finds he faces the added difficulty that looking for definitive answers would risk destroying them.

Thanks to all who replied to the email about possible changes to the Newsletter‘s format. You can see what responses we had on p.15 and what this will mean in future.

Sue Winterbottom

visit the ALG website at www.archleathgrp.org.uk

No. 34 September 2011

ARCHAEOLOGICAL LEATHER GROUP NEWSLETTER

Forthcoming events

ALG Spring Meeting 2012

A visit to the newly rehoused Museum of Leath-ercraft is planned for April next year. Exhibits from this important collection are now displayed at the Abington Park Museum in Northampton

(NN1 5LW). The Museum of Leathercraft now has a new website at:

http://www.museumofleathercraft.org/

Autumn Meeting 2012

We are hoping to visit Eastern Counties Leather PLC, a tannery and manufactory founded in 1879 at Sawston in Cambridgeshire (CB2 4EG). The firm currently specialises in producing chamois leathers and sheepskin rugs.

More details about these visits will be available in the next Newsletter or, between now and then, on the ALG website

Committee Business

The AGM this year was held at the Deutsches Ledermuseum, Offenbach. Jutta Göpfrich, Senior Conservator at the museum, was elected Ordinary Member of the committee. There were no other changes to the committee.

ALG Spring Meeting 2011 - a report by Jackie Keily and Quita Mould

This spring a small group of ALG members headed to Germany to visit the German Leather Museum at Offenbach-am-Main. Offenbach has a long association with the production of leather goods and still hosts an annual leather fair. While most of us stayed in Frankfurt, a short train journey away, our wise Gallic contingent based themselves just over the road, thus allowing them to arrive at the museum more easily with a selection of wonderful French cheeses and meats for us to sample at lunchtime. Our hosts Jutta Göpfrich, Nina Frankenhauser and their colleagues made us wonderfully welcome during

2 Sunny and warm in March? Someone up there

must love us! (more photos, p.11)

our two day visit. The Museum was founded in 1917 and has recently re-opened following a ma-jor re-design. It comprises three museums: the Shoe Museum, telling the story of the history and development of footwear through its collec-tion of 15,000 artefacts, the Museum for Applied Art, which contains artefacts relating to leather craft and design from the Middle Ages to the present, and the Ethnological Museum, with col-lections pertaining to Africa, America and Asia. The latter includes a huge collection of Asian shadow puppets that is displayed to magical ef-fect in a suite of rooms high up in the museum. Indeed, it was in a room just off this gallery that we were lucky enough to hold our AGM!

We all set to with a will to take in every display but, as you can imagine, there was much linger-ing and discussion over particular items and cases. The collections are extensive, fascinating and wide ranging so that, what with the wel-come coffee and cake breaks, I think most of us would say that we still haven‘t seen everything! During our visit we were shown the conserva-tion labs and stores. One of the most fascinating sights was the enormous medieval tournament saddle which was being treated in the lab. It is one of only about eight known examples and dates to the 15th/16th century. Beneath the painted surface were layers of sinew and parch-ment on a wooden frame. Dr Rosita Nenno, Curator of European Collections, gave us a tour of the Masterpieces Gallery, where 65 of the most important pieces from the Middle Ages to the Baroque period are on display.

This really is a fantastic museum with amazing collections. It is hard to think of a leather object, or indeed type of leather, that they don‘t have –from the leather carrying case for a narwhale tusk to Napoleon‘s briefcase, to 21st century fetish clothing. The Museum cannot be recom-mended highly enough and if you haven‘t been, then you should! It is very easy to reach from Frankfurt and is a paradise for those interested in all things leather.

On Friday evening we crossed the river Main and headed to the Sachsenhausen area which is famous for its Apfelwein (apple wine) pubs. Here we sampled a number of the local culinary de-lights and also partook of some traditional Frankfurt apple wine: a German cider, served in blue and grey stoneware jugs.

On Saturday Jutta arranged for a minibus to take us to the Roman fort at Saalburg, part of the ‗Frontiers of the Roman Empire‘ UNESCO World Heritage site. As part of the German

Limes, Saalburg was occupied from the late 1st

century AD until the Limes was abandoned around AD260. As well as a fort for 500-600 infantry and cavalry, there was a thriving village of craftsmen and others catering for the needs of the military, it is estimated that some 2000 people may have occupied the site. Saalburg was excavated in the mid-19th century and attracted the interest of Kaiser Wilhelm II. With his en-couragement the fort and a number of its build-ings were re-constructed between 1897 and 1907. It is the most complete reconstruction of a Roman fort anywhere in Germany.

We were given a guided tour of the buildings and were then able to view displays of the fan-tastic collection of Roman artefacts recovered from the excavations. The preservation of most material types is excellent and particularly in the case of the organics, many of which were recov-ered from the bottom of wells. They have an extensive collection of leather shoes and we were privileged to see not only those on display but also the stored collections. This was made possible because one of our group, Marquita Volken, has herself been studying the assemblage over recent years and so was able to arrange this treat and lead the discussions concerning the material. This was all concluded with lunch in the reconstructed Roman taberna in the fort and then we reluctantly returned to Frankfurt.

Once again, the ALG spring meeting allowed us to meet up with colleagues and friends from other countries and to make contact with new ones but above all see a host of remarkable leather objects. To top it all off the weather was unseasonably warm and it felt like summer throughout our visit (see below!). Our grateful thanks go to all at the Deutsches Ledermuseum, the Museum Director Christian Rathke, Jutta, Nina and their colleagues for such a wonderful trip.

Newsletter 34 September 2011

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Making a replica belt purse[From an original in the Deutsches Leder-museum, Inv. Nr. 5238, dated to c.1500: see Figs.1, 2 and 3]

by Jutta Göpfrich and Nina Frankenhauser

Everyday fashion in the late middle ages didn‘t include pockets or pouches sewn into clothing, thus coins and small objects would commonly be carried in a belt purse. These were often made from a soft glacé or chamois leather. Due to the very light original colour of the leather, beautiful shades could be obtained using natural dyes. Madder was frequently used to produce a range of reds.

Stages in making a purse

First, dye is applied to the flesh side of half a chamois or alum tawed sheep leather using a brush, according to medieval recipes.1 The other half of the leather is left undyed.

Cutting out

To cut the leather, you need a cutting mat made of thick cardboard or wood. It simplifies the job if you first transfer the pattern onto thin card-board templates. These are placed on the grain

side of the leather. It must be noted that the flanks and side of the belly are looser in their fibre structure and very stretchable; these parts are better left out. The contours of the tem-plates are traced with a soft pencil and the seg-ments cut out using leather scissors or a knife (Figs.9, 10). You should now make the six hori-zontal cuts (see Fig.9 D-I) for the three openings of the purses‘s front pockets, as well as the short vertical cuts around the openings (but not the vertical cuts at the top of each segment: these have to be done later!)

You also need to cut one long leather strap (about 40cm) for the top opening and six shorter leather straps (each about 15cm) for the three front openings; also six short leather straps (about 10 cm) for the buttons (see Com-pletion of the purse).

Stitching the purse segments

You begin by stitching together the various parts of the front section (Fig.9 D-I). A pitched and waxed linen thread is used for the stitching2. There are two kinds of stitches: running stitch (Fig.3) and oversewing (Fig.4). The leather can be prepunctured with a straight awl. The three cen-tre seams of the three front pockets are sewn with running stitch and include a piping (Figs.5, 9).3


Fig.1: Drawing and photo of the front of the purse. It measures 215mm to the top of the belt loop and 135mm at its widest point.

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Fig.3: Running stitch

Fig.4: Oversewing

Fig.5: Running stitch with piping

Fig.2: Drawing and photo of the back of the purse

When all six segments (Fig.9 D-I) are connected, then the three inner segments (Fig.9 A-C) of the three front pockets are sewn to the six outer segments by oversewing the edges. You need to do the same with the segments forming the back of the purse (Fig.10 J and K+ L). Now, before front and back sections are sewn together, make vertical cuts for the purse opening at the top of all the segments (see Figs.1, 2, 9,10).

Front and back of the purse are stitched to-gether with running-stitch with the insertion of a piping (stitching material: pitched and waxed linen thread). For this purpose both parts are turned inside out and turned back again after stitching. Stitching all these pieces together is made a little easier if you first tack on the piping. When you have finished the stitching you take the 40cm long leather strap/tie and pull it through the vertical cuts at the top of the purse.

The front and back of the belt loop (Fig.10 M) are stitched together and also both parts of the separate purse closure (Fig. 10 N). Here again a piping is used. Only a small portion of the loop strap remains without piping. Now, the loop strap is stitched to the back of the upper edge of the main purse. The same stitching secures the leather tie, that was earlier threaded through the vertical cuts at the top of the purse. (see Fig.2).

Decoration

1. The pipings of the three front pockets are

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Fig.7a: Leather strip carrying the silver thread decoration

Fig.7b: Technique for applying the silver thread decoration

Fig.8: Knot diagram

Fig.6: Connection of belt loop to purse closure

decorated with a thin brown vegetable tanned leather thong (2mm) inserted by oversewing. Use a straight flat awl to make the slits.

2. The decoration down each side of the central front pocket was originally made with silver leaf threads. For this purpose a 5mm wide, brown leather strip is fastened to the seam by oversew-ing with waxed linen thread.

(Fig. 7a: 1. Seam 2. Brown leather strip 3. Oversewing) Then, silver thread is applied to the strip using the visible transverse stitches. (Fig. 7b: 4. Leather strip 5. Transverse stitches 6. Silver thread)

3. Next, the cross-stitches on the purse fasten-ing and the belt loop are done (Fig. 1,6), using a thin (3mm) brown vegetable tanned leather thong.

Completion of the purse

The six 15cm long leather ties are threaded through the cuts around the openings of the three small front pockets. Two go around each opening. Their ends are then knotted together, so that you have one knot on each side of the opening. Now two brass studs are glued to-gether to make one button. In doing this you also fix green and white silk pompons and one short leather strap (10 cm) between the two parts. Then you use this strap to knot one but-ton to each end of the three pocket openings, using the first cuts on each side of the openings. The ends of these straps are then cut off. You have to pull on both buttons to open the front pockets and you have pull the ends of the longer knotted straps to close the pockets.

The closure button of the purse itself (Fig. 1) is made by knotting a strip of leather (Fig.8) and sewing it to the upper edge of the purse. The purse closure (Fig.10 N) and the belt-loop (Fig.10 M) are held together by using a leather strap (Fig.10 O), that is fixed to the inside of the buttonhole (Figs.6, 1 and 2). Finally the upper part of the purse closure is attached by a few stitches to the middle of the belt-loop (you can see three small stitches in Fig.6).

Materials for the purse

One chamois or alum tawed sheep skin (with grain side); Linen thread; Pitch; Wax; Card-board for the patterns.


6

Fig.

9 C

uttin

g pa

tter

ns fo

r th

e fr

ont

of t

he p

urse


Materials for the decoration

Dark-brown vegetable tanned cattle-hide to make leather thongs; silver thread; linen thread green and white silk pompons; 12 brass uphol-stery studs (we glued two of them together with Epoxy resin to make the six buttons) - originally real brass buttons were used. The completed replica purse can be seen in Fig.11

Tools:

Leather scissors; knife; one straight round awl; one straight flat awl; needles

Notes:

1. Dyeing of leather with madder:

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Fig.

10

Cut

ting

patt

erns

for

the

back

of t

he p

urse

, th

e be

lt lo

op a

nd th

e pu

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clos

ure


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Correspondence

Medieval masks

Readers may remember the 13th century leather mask from Ghent that was featured in Newslet-ter 30 in 2009:

Well, Jan Moens from Oudenaarde has been in touch: he is researching the mask and has learnt of another (more cheerful) example from Cov-entry, in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum there. He asks if members of the ALG know of any publication about the Coventry find. On the museum's website:

http://www.theherbert.org/index.php/home

it was Object of the Month for November 2008 but they give little detail. The photo opposite is reproduced from there.

Leather mask © Archaeological Service, City of Ghent


―Take undyed leather, clean and white. Wash the flesh-side with a solution of alum. Put finely ground madder (rubia tinctorum) into a copper pot that is filled with old urine, warm the liquor up to a tem-perature your hand is able to stand. Then immerse the leather in this solution. Take it out from time to time, to have a look if it is red enough. When it is red enough, let it dry stretched out on a board. Then rub it with a boxwood-bar…. ―

Heraclius, De coloribus et Artibus Romanorum in H.Schweppe, Handbuch der Naturfarbstoffe, p.63

2. Shoemaker‘s thread

3. Piping is „Biese― in German.

Literature:

Schweppe, Helmut: Handbuch der Naturfarbstoffe, Landsberg/Lech 1993 Bartl, A., Krekel, C., Lautenschlager, M. and Oltrogge, D.: Der „Liber illuministarum“ aus Kloster Tegernsee, Stuttgart 2005 Trömmer, Michael: Behältnisse für Kostbares 1500-1700, Sonderausstellung der Kreissparkasse Verden/Aller, Verden 2005

—————————

Text and figures ©The authors and Deutsches Ledermuseum, Offenbach

Fig.11 Front and back of the completed replica purse

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Medieval mask, Coventry Museum

If you know of any more of these objects, or of any publication about them, please email Jan:

[email protected]

Mexican ‘Poulaines’

Anyone who has ever wondered why people in the middle ages would adopt such a peculiar footwear fashion as the poulaine - shoes whose toes were so long that French Crusaders at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, reputedly, had to cut them off in order to run away — may find some answers in a recent Daily Mail article:

Picture from the Mail article of 16/5/2011, enti-tled How Mexican men have embraced bizarre trend for pointed footwear.

Jackie Keily, at the Museum of London, drew our attention to this and it is certainly food for thought. The trend has coincided with a craze for dance competitions between male teams wearing cowboy gear. Everyone agrees that add-ing the pointy boots (up to 90cm long in some

cases) makes the whole thing more daring and outlandish. Those who can‘t afford a bespoke pair have been adapting their own boots with the help of garden hoses, flashing lights, stars and glitter. It‘s a serious business, as the article re-ports:

University student Pascual Escobedo, 20, said: 'At the beginning I didn't like them very much, but the girls wouldn’t dance with you if you weren’t wearing pointy boots’

Red-rotted leather

Barbara Wills has passed on the following re-quest from the Leather Conservation Centre in Northampton:

―We are searching for examples of red-rotted leather to test a new conservation product upon. Can you help?

Red-rotted leather, as you will know, is reddish, fibrous, acidic, usually 19th - early 20th century, often torn, abraded and delaminating. If you have any such material, for example old suitcases, holdalls, bookbindings, etc. that you can sacrifice to the greater good, the Leather Conservation Centre would very gratefully receive them. If you know of others who may have such mate-rial, do let us know.

If you would like to know more about what the LCC is doing please visit the website (http://www.leatherconservation.org/research.php). You can there see details of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the University of Northampton that has led to this potentally very useful product.

Many thanks.‖

You can email the Conservation Centre directly at this address: [email protected] or con-Barbara using the address on the final page.

Purses in Pieces

Carol van-Driel Murray writes to say that Olaf Goubitz‘s book on late medieval and 16th cen-tury leather purses, pouches, bags and cases from the Netherlands is now available at a spe-cial price of € 17.50 , reduced from € 24.50. This is an essential work of reference on the subject and you will find the offer at this online bookshop: http://spa-uitgevers.securearea.eu/ The site specialises in archaeological reports and journals from the Netherlands but also stocks many works originating elsewhere. There are

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News items & Exhibitions

Body in bag

The BBC website reports a recent find of a pre-historic bog body near Portlaoise in Northern Ireland. The body is thought to have been that of a woman, who may have been the victim of a ritual sacrifice and was interred inside a leather bag. The same bog has produced leather shoes, axe heads and bog butter in recent years. Work is progressing on the find at the National Mu-seum of Ireland in Dublin:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14505730

Arctic Leather Tanning

Lotta Rahme‘s 2010 summer exhibition in Stock-holm "Arctic Leather Tanning - A Cultural Heri-tage" has received support from the Nordic Cul-ture Fund to convert it into a travelling exhibi-tion. Museums from Denmark, Norway, Greenland and Finland are all interested in showing it. The exhibition includes four rawhide sculptures of women who have taught Lotta as-pects of tanning, as a tribute to them and to the knowledge they are keeping alive. Pictures from the exhibition - including one of the remarkable sculptures - can be seen on Lotta's homepage:

http://www.lottastannery.se

Ötzi the Iceman - special exhibition

It is twenty years since two local officials began trying to remove a mummified body from frozen meltwater in the Otzal Alps using a pneumatic drill. In celebration of the spectacular find at Tis-enjoch the Museum of South Tyrol, at Bolzano, has been holding an exhibition focusing on the Iceman himself and the effect of the find on scholarship and the popular imagination. The exhibition opened on 1 March 2011 and lasts until 15 January 2012. The results of the most recent scientific studies are on display, together with the body itself and the clothing, tools and other equipment found with it. These include the following items made of leather/skin: a hide coat, loincloth, belt and pouch, bearskin cap, leggings, deerskin shoes and a decorated quiver. Photos of some of these items and the

The Iceman‘s belt and pouch, with contents

Skin clothing from the North

Abstracts from a seminar held at the National Museum of Denmark in November 2009 are now available to read or download online. The abstracts, edited by Anne Lisbeth Schmidt and Karen Brynjolf Pedersen, cover a wide range of subjects - from prehistoric clothing recovered from peat bogs through Living History museums to current designer creations in sealskin and furs. All the contributions are illustrated in col-our and provide a very good introduction for anyone new to the topic of Arctic clothing. Many of the authors also address the subject of the symbolism embodied in clothing styles, materials and seasonal rituals in a way that will also inter-est more experienced researchers in this field.

The easiest way to find these abstracts is to go to the Danish Museum website:

http://nordligeverdener.natmus.dk/language/uk/

and follow the top link to Research Initiatives, then ‗Descriptions of the Projects‘ in the drop-down menu. Skin Clothing is towards the bot-tom of the projects list.

(see photo, next page)

some beautiful books there which you may not be aware of and it is well worth a visit.

other equipment can be seen in a website dedi-cated to the exibition from which the photo be-low is taken:

http://www.iceman.it/en/clothing-equipment

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Skin Clothing from the North: an Inuit woman's fur coat, collected in 1923 by Knud Rasmussen. © The National Museum of Denmark


One of the museum‘s scale models of leather processing machinery through the ages

Saalburg: a very famous shoe up close

The unique jousting saddle

16th century clothing

More photos from the Spring Meeting at Offenbach (see p.1 )

Inspecting the Saalburg leather not normally on display

Lunch a la romana

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Dyeing Leather with Elderberry a note by Stephanie Rátkai

Recent work in Birmingham at Carrs Lane in the city centre (Clapham et al 2010) has brought to my attention an aspect of leather production which I had not previously considered. Without going into too much archaeological detail, when the evidence from the evaluation and final exca-vation is viewed as one and when other evidence from Birmingham centre is considered, it seems most likely that the site was associated with tan-ning or a subsidiary process (not textiles, as sug-gested in the report) in the post-medieval pe-riod. This activity was not closely dated in the final report but it was evidently taking place on fairly open ground. From the historic map evi-dence this has to have been before c. 1750, since Bradford's map of this date shows the excavated area to have been completely built over. The most striking recovery from the site was a large quantity of elderberry seeds, which it was sug-gested had been used for dyeing cloth. There are several reasons for doubting this interpretation but could the seeds be evidence instead for the dyeing of leather?

A brief examination of the literature (via the internet) revealed that there were, indeed, 16th-century recipes for dyeing leather with elderber-ries, in combination with alum, to be found in The Secretes of the Reverende Maister Alexis of Piemount, Anno 1558 - see Medie-val Leather Dying ©1996 Ron Charlotte, coded by I. Marc Carlson at:

http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/leather/ld.html

The first recipe, to dye skins of 'a very blue or azure colour' involves the use of alum, elderber-ries and walwort (European dwarf elder). A sec-ond recipe, for dyeing skins green, involves the same ingredients together with sappe greene and ashes of sheep's dung. The first method involves soaking the skins in a liquid solution of ―seethed‖ elderberries, walwort berries and alum three

times and drying the skins between each soaking. The second recipe involves heating a mash of the vegetal components and alum and, firstly, rub-bing the skins with the berry pulp and then with the dung ash before soaking the skins in the mash liquid again. After soaking the excess liquid is removed with a currier's knife.

Evidence of elder is very common on archaeo-logical sites and it is usually dismissed as a plant of waste ground, although it seems to have had an number of important uses apart from as a dye. It also seems that the bark and roots of elder can be used in the tanning process, al-though I am uncertain whether this is just a practise of Native American peoples or was also known in Europe. Is it possible that there are further archaeological examples of elderberry tanning and dyeing of leather which have gone unnoticed or unremarked? Charlotte O'Brien, for example, has recently drawn my attention to a site in Hereford, Aubrey Street, which may also provide evidence that elderberries were used as a dye [see reference below]. Environ-mental evidence indicated that tanning had taken place there although the putative tan pits had subsequently been used for domestic rubbish and cess disposal. There was, therefore, a variety of other fruitstones and plant seeds besides el-derberry in the pit fills, making it difficult to as-certain whether the elderberries had been used for dyeing or as a foodstuff.

Perhaps one of the problems with many environ-mental reports for developer-funded archae-ology is that there is simply not time or re-sources to deviate from the accepted view of plants and their uses, nor for the full integration of the environmental results into the final publi-cation. There are, for example, many reports which list plants as waste ground species but which on further investigation are shown to have had medicinal, culinary or other uses in the past. Orache is another frequently encountered plant which was both a foodstuff and could also be used to obtain a blue dye. That is not to say, of course, that these plants need always have had such a significance, merely to highlight that they can. The purpose of this note is, therefore, to solicit any further evidence from ALG mem-bers for the use of elderberries, or other plants, in the dyeing of leather and to highlight, in gen-eral, a set of data which may be underused in the archaeological record.

email [email protected]

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Farmer with thong-fastened shoes on the west side of Amiens Cathedral (1120-1247) (photo J. Moens)

Recent publications on Medieval Leather from Belgium

Jan Moens has drawn our attention to articles and chapters in archaeological reports he has published between 2004 and the present on me-dieval leather finds from Belgium. These have been added to the Archaeological Leather Group‘s online bibliography at:

h t tp : / /www .ar ch l ea th grp .or g .u k /b i b l i o /RecentlyAdded.htm

Two articles, which appeared in the journal Relicta 7 (for 2011), can be downloaded from the journal‘s website:

http://www.vioe.be/aanbod/publicaties/relicta-7

(follow the ‗Download‘ link on the right)

They are very useful and well-illustrated articles and each contains an English summary which we have reproduced here:

Jan Moens, Middeleeuws leer voor het voetlicht. Schoenen en andere leervondsten uit archeologisch onderzoek op de Grote Markt in Dendermonde


References

Archaeological Services, Durham University, 2011 Aubrey Street, Hereford: Palaeoenvironmental Analysis Report 2637, May 2011

Clapham, A., Daffern, N. and Williams, D., 2010 Archaeological Excavation at 25-31, Carrs Lane, Bir-mingham Historic Environment and Archaeologi-cal Service Worcester County Council, Report 1740, April 2010.

(prov. Oost-Vlaanderen), Relicta 7, 37-66, Brussels

SummaryMedieval leather in the spotlight. Shoes and other leather finds from archaeological in-vestigations on the market square in Dendermoade (Prov. of East Flanders)

During excavations on the market square of the town of Dendermonde (Prov. of East Flanders), a collection of leather objects was recovered. The group of identifiable fragments (66%) consists of shoes (26%), belts (9%), sheaths (0.2%) and several other categories (0.5%). Of the shoes, the soles can be classified into two types: a nearly symmet-rical sole with round or oval toe and a more or less straight waist (Type I) and an asymmetrical kind with oval toe and distinct curved waist (Type II). Also, parts of composite soles, rands and patches could be identified.

The main part of the recovered shoes can be classified as thong-fastened shoes with thongs running around the ankle and leg. Within this group three subtypes could be distinguished. In the first group the thongs are held in place by keepers that are simply slots cut into the leather of the upper (Type A). The second subtype has keeper straps formed by small leather strips threaded vertically through the shoe (Type B). The third group is a model without keepers (Type C). Two ankle shoes are slip-on types without any fastening (Type D).

The bulk of the belt fragments consists of flat, plain straps of which a number have rows of grain-flesh stitches. A few belts can be classified as folded straps. The belts would probably have been

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the Graanmarkt in the town of Ninove in 2009. Ninove is located in the Dender valley in the south-east of the province of East Flanders; its Graanmarkt which occupied an entire market square, is situated on the western flank of the val-ley, enclosed on its southern side by a historic branch of the River Dender and on its northern and eastern sides by a tributary of the Dender, the Beverbeek, now vaulted-over.

Only the western half of the market square co-incides with that of the historic Graanmarkt. During the medieval period, the eastern side of the present-day market square was the Vark-ensmarkt [pork market]. A large part of the Graanmarkt was taken up by the corn hall itself, of which the oldest recorded mention dates back to 1534. While the corn hall was mainly used to store corn and trade cloth, these were by no means the only activities carried out in there: from 1367 onwards it also functioned as a court of law and in the 18th and 19th centuries it was used for billeting soldiers and storing hay and straw. By the middle of the 19th century the corn hall was no longer part of the streetscape.

During the investigations, 10 pits were identified containing leather finds; the total assemblage numbers 840 leather fragments, nearly 93% of which came from three pits on the Varkensmarkt. Here, contexts 09-NIN-GM-56/72 and O9-NIN-GM-57 displayed highly comparable propor-tions in terms of the different categories of leather finds (soles and parts thereof, uppers, belts, offcuts and other (indeterminate) frag-ments. Nearly half of the leather finds from both


used as dress accessories, but use in horse gear is also possible.

The collection also includes fragments of two sheaths: one for a knife and one sword sheath. Parts of handles and some objects of which the function cannot be defined, complete this as-semblage of leather objects.

A large amount of waste and off-cuts of leather-working was found. Together with a series of patches and re-cut soles and uppers, they are in-dicative of shoemaker and/or cobbler activity.

Most of the shoes can be dated to the late 12th -13th century. The type C and D shoes appear in stratigraphically older layers (12th century), com-pared to types A and B which were found in the younger fills of the moat (which disappeared in the late 13th century, during the creation of the present market square).

---------------------------------------------

J. Moens, S. Klinkenborg, W. De Maeyer, C. Clement & B. Cherretté, Afval van schoenlappers/oud-schoenmakers en versleten schoeisel uit Ninove (prov. Oost-Vlaanderen), Relicta 7, 101-120, Brus-sels

SummaryCobbling waste and worn-out footwear from Ninove (prov. of East Flanders)

The focus of this contribution is on the study of the remains of leather artefacts found during ar-chaeological investigations carried out as a result of large-scale infrastructural work at the site of

Recut soles from pit 09-NIN-GM-57 at Ninove, referred to in the article summarised above.

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The newsletter is changing! (...eventually)

Thanks to all of you who responded to my email about your preference for receiving either a print copy or a pdf file of the Newsletter in fu-ture. I contacted 75 current or recently lapsed members and received 39 replies. While 11 of you were clear that you preferred to continue to receive the Newsletter as it is, another 18 said they would find it just as convenient, or more so, to receive it electronically. 10 people had no strong preference either way.

In the light of those responses it is decided that we will move to an (essentially) electronic ver-sion starting with the March issue next year. Those who really like to receive it in printed form will continue to get their copies as usual. New members, those who said they would pre-fer it and those who had no strong feelings on the matter will be emailed a pdf file containing, for the first time, coloured illustrations where these are available. A pdf version will also be sent to those who did not respond to the sur-vey, unless you let us know between now and March that you would like to continue to re-

pits consists of soles and parts of soles, while less than 10% is from uppers. The four pits situated within the youngest corn hall extension yielded few leather remains; here too, most of the leather finds consist of soles or parts of soles, while uppers and offcuts are virtually absent.

The various contexts containing leather re-mains yielded little in the way of dating infor-mation. The two largest contests (09-NIN-GM-56/72 and 57) can only be dated broadly to the I4th-15th centuries, on the basis of the techni-cal and morphological aspects of the shoe re-mains they contained. The specific nature of the waste in both pits, mostly soles, parts of soles, re-cut soles and a relatively large amount of offcuts, points to shoe repair/shoe making activities. More specifically, we are dealing here with waste gen-erated by the mending of worn-out shoes brought in by customers and/or from shoe making from recycled leather. This waste was then dumped in a pit on the square itself. By contrast, the leather from the series of pits on the Graan-markt should be interpreted as the remains of discarded, threadbare footwear, dated predomi-nantly to the I7th and 18th centuries.

ceive a copy in the post. The intention for the moment is to stick to the same, or a very simi-lar, layout although this too may change as we explore the digital format further.

When the committee last met there was also support for the idea of making past copies of the newsletter, i.e. from the first issue in 1986(?) up to the changeover to digital format, available on a DVD at no more than cost to members but also which could be sold for £5 or so to any in-terested non-members. Committtee members are asked, from time to time, if they can supply copies of articles in previous issues and having these scanned and available on disk would be very convenient—it could also make a welcome (if small!) contribution towards funding the Group‘s activities.

Sue Winterbottom

The ALG online bibliography and newsletter archive

A reminder that the group maintains an exten-sive bibliography of leather-related publications, which can be viewed online at:

http://www.archleathgrp.org.uk/biblio/algbibliog.htm

Members are encouraged to add to it any rele-vant new (or, for that matter, old) publications they may come across, either by using the space provided on the subscription form when renew-ing their membership or by emailing details di-rectly to the Editor or Treasurer. If you visit the web page you will find that there is a section dedicated to recent additions to the bibliogra-phy. It is worth checking this from time to time for any works you may not have come across.

Newsletters from March 2002 onwards are available online as pdf files in the Members‘ sec-tion of the ALG website. The password to ac-cess the Members‘ section is scabbard (upper or lower case) but due to added levels of security in recent browsers the process of entering the password can be quite laborious. If you book-mark the link below you can then use it to ac-cess the newsletters directly, without needing to enter a password:

http://www.archleathgrp.org.uk/members/scabbard.htm

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What's in a stitch? by André J. Veldmeijer

Introduction

The study of leatherwork from ancient Egypt, and in particular the decorated leatherwork that is associated with chariotry, has shown that seemingly minor details are potentially of great importance for mapping technological develop-ment over time and possibly in space/location. Interpretation of the differences, however, is often less straightforward: should the use of different types of stitching (or of a different ma-terial for this stitching) be seen, for example, as the result of different traditions that evolved elsewhere? And if so, where is this 'elsewhere': foreigners that brought their tradition with them to Egypt? Or is it simply that the entire object was imported, rather than that craftsmen them-selves came from abroad? Perhaps the differ-ences are on a more regional scale, i.e. between various workshops. Another possibility is a learning process: things that break easily are be-ing made in a different way or with different ma-terials. Alternatively, the availability of certain materials changes, and thus alternatives are sought for by the leatherworker. In this work, I will present one such problem and discuss possi-ble solutions. I hope, however, that a discussion arises from it that will shed more light on the questions at hand.

The Egyptian Museum Chariot Project (EMCP) is part of a bigger project on ancient Egyptian leatherwork (see www.leatherandshoes.nl for more information). The focus of the EMCP is on finds housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, dating to the reigns of Thutmosis IV (Carter & Newberry, 1904), Amenhotep II (Daressy, 1902) & III (Littauer & Crouwel, 1985: 68, 87). Since they are of similar date, finds from Amarna (predominantly housed in the Ägyptisches Mu-seum und Papyrussammlung, Berlin: Veldmeijer, 2010) are also included.

Stitching

The problem

By far the most common type of stitching in Pharaonic leatherwork is the so-called running stitch: a thread is inserted through the leather in a serpentine fashion (Fig.1a and b). Conse-quently, the stitch hole is used only once. This stitch is used constructionally and also to secure

decoration. Sinew, either slightly 'spun' or, more often in the chariot leather, 'spun-and-twisted' into a two-level string, is used rather than linen thread. Usually, but not exclusively, the stitching is very regular in stitch-length as well as inter-stitch spacing. This type of stitch results in oppo-site features one each side of the layer: where there is a stitch on the recto, there is a space on the verso and vice versa (arrows in Fig.1a).

Fig.1

a.

b. Example of the stitching of an object from a chariot assemblage of Thutmosis IV.

Fig.2

a.

b. Detail of the stitching on an object from a chariot assemblage that is thought to have

belonged to Amenhotep III.

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Fig.3

the thin leather where it is found. A comparable method of stitching is the so-called "closely-spaced running stitch" found at Amarna (Veldmeijer, 2010: 21), although in this case the stitching would be equally spaced on both sides of the leather.

However, as noted above, continuous stitching is only used where several layers needed to be secured. During stitching the layers are separate, which makes diagonal stitching easier (Fig.4) and suggests that even in thin leather this might be possible. Nevertheless, it is not the most con-venient way of securing applied decoration.


Various fragments that the EMCP has studied, however, show different types of stitching. Whereas on the verso spaced stitching is still visi-ble, on the recto the stitching seems continuous - the stitch hole is used twice (arrows in Fig.2b). This would not occur with ordinary running stitch, as Fig.2a demonstrates. A few fragments show this kind of stitching nearly everywhere, but most fragments have it only on one or two rows. No clear pattern has been observed thus far, although one thing stands out: if this stitching is used, it always includes several layers of leather that have been secured together. Thus far, it has been identified in the leatherwork from Thutmosis IV (ca. 1400-1390 BC) and Amenhotep III (ca. 1390-1352 BC).

Explanations

There are several possibilities that might explain these features. Fig.3 shows stitching that, theo-retically, is executed diagonally through the leather in order to return through the same stitch hole after emerging on the verso. The stitch on the verso is shorter than on the recto, although the more slanting the stitching, the longer the stitches on the verso will be. This stitch might work well with thick leather, as there is enough space in its thickness to cross, but it is very unlikely it would have worked on

Fig.4

Fig.5

Another way of explaining this feature is that the stitch holes on the applied decoration might have been pre-pricked. The large slits could eas-ily accommodate two stitches (Fig.5). However, stitch holes have not been pre-pricked in sur-faces to which decoration was attached and one can see two stitch holes (as in running stitching proper). It seems strange that only the applied leather was pre-pricked and not the surface to which it was attached; at the moment I am not able to explain this way of working, if indeed the pre-pricked hypothesis is true.

A better explanation is perhaps shown in Fig.6. It has been suggested that several elements of the decoration were pre-fabricated (Veldmeijer, 2010: 31). Suppose this was indeed the case,1

then it would have been secured using running stitch. If, in the next stage, the assembly were attached to another object, again a running stitch might be used, but now applied in such a way that the inter-stitch space of the applied decora-tion was used to attach it to the object (gray line in figure 6). In this way, the stitch hole of the applied decoration is used twice (and might have been pre-pricked in order to better accommo-date the stitching). The verso of the surface to which it was applied was not pre-pricked, as only one thread goes through it. The problem with this theory is that it cannot be verified without seeing the verso of the applied decora-tion, and this would mean destroying it. Hence it has not been done.

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Caire. The tomb of Thoutmôsis IV, Westminster, Archibald Constable and Co.

Daressy, M.G. (1902) Catologue Général des Antiq-uités Égyptiennes du Musée du Caire. Fouilles de la Vallée des Rois, Le Caire, Institut Francais d'archégologie orientale

Littauer, M.A. & Crouwel, J.H. (1985) Chariots and Related Equipment from the Tomb of Tutankha-mun, Oxford, Griffith Institute (Tutankhamun's Tomb Series VIII)

Veldmeijer, A.J. (2010) Amarna's Leatherwork. Part I. Preliminary Analysis and Catalogue, Norg, Druk-ware.


Fig.6

Conclusion

The painstaking, systematic mapping of even the smallest of details provides the archaeologist with much extra information that potentially provides strong indicators of manufacturing technology and its development. The lack of finds and/or research, both from Egypt and else-where, is a problem and does seriously hinder comparisons and therefore interpretation. But this may well be temporary, since scientific inter-est in leather is clearly increasing. The intention of this contribution to the Archaeological Leather Group Newsletter is to see if there is any experience with comparable problems as well as to show the potential of such research. Any suggestions, remarks or questions are therefore very welcome.

I thank Martin Moser and Salima Ikram for the inspiring discussions; Salima also checked the English. Erno Endenburg is thanked for turning working drawings into proper publishing format and Ibrahim el Gawaad is thanked for his won-derful collaboration. The Supreme Council of Antiquities as well as the Egyptian Museum Au-thorities are acknowledged for allowing the study of the material. I am grateful to the Metro-politan Museum of Art, New York for allowing me to publish Fig.2b; the Supreme Council of Antiquities is thanked for permission to publish Fig.1b. Both photographs are by the author.

Note

1. The isolated strips of decoration from the tomb of Amenhotep III might be such a pre-fabricated element for application onto another piece of leather. Note that this type of strip might also have been applied independently as decoration (i.e. without being at-tached to a larger piece of leather first), as seen on the chariot from Yuya and Tuiu.

Literature

Carter, H. & Newberry, P.E. (1904) Catalogue Général des Antiquités Égyptiennes du Musée du

Chariot conference

In 2012, a two-day conference on ancient Egyp-tian chariotry will be held at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC). The first an-nouncement was made in August and exact dates in November will be announced later this year, together with detailed information on the objectives of the meeting.

The conference is a direct consequence of the Egyptian Museum Chariot Project, which is a detailed study of chariot leatherwork (see http://www.leatherandshoes.nl/ancient-egyptian-leatherwork-project-aelp/).

Key-note speaker: Prof. Dr. J.H. Crouwel (University of Amsterdam)

Organisation:

Dr. André J. Veldmeijer (Netherlands-Flemish

Documents

ARCHAEOLOGICAL LEATHER GROUP NEWSLETTER