Bj735 Silk Band

It has been some time since my last weaving project. A week or two ago, I decided to try a new pattern to get reacquainted with the tablets!

This is a reconstruction of a silk band from grave 735 of Birka, dated 9th-10th century. This is not a commonly reproduced piece; my work here is based upon the research of Susanna Broome, who reconstructed this pattern in 2016 after study of the original. To my knowledge, she is the only person to have recreated a pattern from this find.

This band was originally composed of a vegetable thread (probably linen) and silk, but we have no information regarding colors-- only that the inside border was made of vegetable thread and one of the middle tablets is turned in the opposite direction, thus making it reasonable to assume that these thread might have been colored differently than the rest. It is also possible that the band was all one color and the card threaded backwards was an accident... who knows?

The original appears to run perpendicular to several other tablet weaves which were heavily brocaded, passing beneath them down the body of a garment, most likely a tunic, sewn onto a piece of silk.

Here I have reproduced it in worsted wool, approximately 1 yard long. I had never seen or heard of this find prior to reading Ms. Broome's work, and admittedly it was a little exciting to reproduce something rather rare!