Extant 6th century gore in a wool garment
Original website here.
6th century wool, colored with blue indigo. sewn-in gore.
The fragment found in a belt buckle was studied by Mr. H. Masurel and Mrs. S. Desrosiers. It has triangular pieces sewn together, giving expand gradually to the garment. The very fine fabric is woven in a clever cross 2/2 forming Argyle. The fiber analysis kindly performed by Mr. Witold Nowik, Laboratory of Historic Monuments Research shows that it was colored with indigo blue, or perhaps in another color obtained by hand-dyed (green?, Purple ?). Natural indigo was in antiquity from the leaves of a crucifer with yellow flowers, pastel. According to Caesar, “the Britons dye themselves with woad, which gives them a blue color, and renders, in battle, they look particularly terrifying.” Charlemagne recommends its culture in its fields. From the seventeenth century, was used to obtain indigo, indigo dye tropical whose power is higher than that of pastel
© musée des Antiquités nationales, © Direction des musées de France, 2004
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