Thorsberg Tunic: Part 1

THORSBERG TUNICPART 1: Tablet Weaving the Starting Border

This is the beginning of a reproduction project, working from scholarly sources to make a 1:1 reproduction of the Thorsberg tunic as it looked nearly 2000 years ago, according to our best possible understanding. There will be a number of facets in this project that differ from common interpretations, so stay tuned!

The body of the tunic is cut into two pieces. At the bottom of the back panel is a very thin tablet woven band, the starting point of the fabric where the warp threads were used as the weft of the tablet weave.

Dye analysis performed in 1997 confirmed that the tunic, while faded, was originally madder-dyed; in fact, according to Möller-Wiering, the inside of the tunic is still deep red! For this reason, I selected some madder-dyed 2/2 diamond twill for this project, which is very close to the original.

The tablet weave uses the warp threads of the fabric as its weft, which secures the ends of the threads and functions like a hem. This was a relatively common way to start a piece of fabric before weaving on a warp-weighted loom, or sometimes just to finish the starting edge of a piece of fabric after removing it from the loom.

The tablet weave of the back panel was made using 4 tablets, which were S-threaded and Z-threaded opposing each other to make a repeating chevron pattern. While I'm not aware of any dye analysis performed on this tablet weave, photos show the same faded color as the fabric threads.

I used antique wool thread, the same color as the body of the tunic. Because my fabric had already been woven, I cut the fabric on the warp, and carefully removed sections of weft to free the individual warp threads. With each turn of the tablets, I wove a few of the warp threads downward into the shed, taking the threads from the previous pass and weaving them upward again, locking them in place.

At 4mm wide and about 55cm long, it is roughly the same size as the original.