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CHAPTER X. PREHISTORIC COSTUME IN DENMARK 313 CHAPTER X PREHISTORIC COSTUME IN DENMARK Unlike the early Bronze Age oak coffin burials which yielded several complete costumes due to preserving properties in the oak and soil, none of the fragments excavated from Iron Age graves are identifiable as garments. Our primary source ofIron Age material, therefore, is bog finds although we dare not assume that they are complete costumes. Indeed, they are more likely to be isolated garments because such special conditions have evidently prevailed. A number of items have been alone, and even when a garment is recovered together with a body it is not always clear whether it represents man's or woman's clothing. CAPES Capes, long and short. One item of clothing is very predominant among bog finds, namely a short skin cape I), which seems to occur equally frequently together with bodies of either sex, and curiously enough several capes can be found with the same body. In Bauns~ Mose, for example, the body of a young man was recovered together with three capes, and in Karlby Mose four were found with one skeleton. Although accounts of the circumstances in which the body was found often lack important details, it is clear from several of them that the body in question was not clad in a cape but that the cape was wrapped round it, presumably to cover it. In 1942 a body was found in Daugbjerg Mose with pieces of skin cape, the collar with laces was at the feet of the corpse. In 1922 in Kayhausen2), Germany, a body was recovered from a bog with feet tied together by the laces of the collar. Unfortunately, reports rarely mention which side of the skin faced outwards, whether the hair side or the reverse. However, the capes from Torsted, Eistrup, and one from R~nbjerg (retrieved in 1886) are all reported to have been found with the hair side inwards, and likewise a piece from Daugbjerg I (Find 14). To judge from photographs of the Roum cape in situ, the same seems to apply here too. The question, then, is whether this is coincidental or whether ancient customs have played a role; in the present context it should be remembered that in Bronze Age burials3) the deceased usually rested on cow's hide with the hair side upwards, and that when the skin was wrapped round the body this side was innermost4). The shapes of Danish skin capes vary, Figs. 359-371 give the patterns of capes which are sufficiently well preserved for drawings to be made. In Group A (Figs. 359-362) all the pieces are symmetrical. There is either a kind of collar or yoke which runs in a straight line along the top edge of the cape, regardless of whether it is made from one or several skins. The other pieces of skin more or less match each other in size and shape. 314 MARGRETHE HALD: ANCIENT DANISH TEXTILES FROM BOGS AND BURIALS Fig. 360 Fig. 359 Fig. 362 Fig. 361 ) \0 Fig. 363 Fig. 364 Figs. 359-364. Skin capes from bogs. Skindslag fra mosefund. Fig. 359. Roum Mose, Fig. 360. True Mose, Fig. 361. Daugbjerg Mose, Fig. 362. Karlby Mose (D 4854), Fig. 363. Auning Mose, Fig. 364. Bauns(ll Mose (D 11103b). CHAPTER X. PREH1STORIC COSTUME IN DENMARK 315 Fig. 365 Fig. 366b Fig. 367 Fig. 368 Fig. 369 Fig. 370 Fig. 371 Figs. 365-371. Skin capes from bogs. Skindslag fra mosefund. Fig. 365. Borremose (Find no. 4), Fig. 366a. Borremose (Find no. 4). Fig. 366b. Aardestrup Mose. Fig. 367. Bauns~ Mose (D 11103a), Fig. 368. Huldremose (C 3472), Fig. 369. Huldremose (C 3471), Fig. 370. Refstrup Mose (D 7994), Fig. 371. Haraldskjrer Mose. 316 MARGRETHE HALD: ANCIENT DANISH TEXTILES FROM BOGS AND BURIALS Fig. 372. Detail of skin cape closed at the neck. Borremose (Fig. 366a). Detalje af skindslag med lukket krave. Borremose (Fig. 366a). In Group B (Figs. 363-368) the capes are asymmetrical with a yoke or collar. Group C (Figs. 369-371) differs in that the capes have neither collar nor yoke, but like Group B they are asymmetricaP). The capes in Group A have undoubtedly been worn symmetrically over the shoulders with the fastening in front. The garment found in Roum Mose (Fig. 359) has a neck opening of only c. 60 cm with intact lacing (Fig. 373). It is more difficult to decide the way the capes of the last two groups were worn. The diagrams, drawn as if the bare side of the skin faces outwards, show that the capes are not only asymmetrical but that the deepest slit for the neck opening if often to the right. In Group Bone of the best preserved examples, the cape from Bauns¢ Mose (D 11103, Fig. 367) is best worn with the deepe t part of the neck opening beneath the chin, and the straps and toggles of the fastening a little forward on the right shoulder; the right arm is kept free. The maximum height of the cape is at the back of the neck, and this compensates in some measure for the cape's uneven length which is less pronounced than in the diagram. The two Borremose capes (Figs. 365, 366a) are very similar but a mirror-image of each other - one hangs lower to the right, and the other to the left. It is also evident that one cape is best worn when fastened on the right shoulder, while the other seems to have its fastening on the left. An arrangement which does not leave the right arm free would be impracticable. Perhaps the answer is simply that the capes were intended to be worn one on top of the other, in cold weather for example. An experiment has demonstrated that if the "woolly" cape, presumably lamb- or sheepskin is worn with the wool innermost, and the other cape (Fig. 365) of smoother, short haired skin is CHAPTER X. PREHlSTORJC COSTUME IN DENMARK 317 , f ' Fig. 373. Detail of skin cape with original lacing in position. Roum Mose (Fig. 359). Detalje af skindslag. Krave med bindebAnd i den oprindelige stilling. Roum Mose (Fig. 359). worn on top with the hair side outwards, the result is a harmonious combination with the fastening of both capes at the right shoulder. Arctic costumes are known with this combination of over and under furs6). Tn Group C the Refstrup cape (Fig. 370) and the Haraldskjrer cape (Fig. 371) are asymme- trical and very similar in pattern. Each could well be one half of a double arrangement. The way they were worn seems to be similar to that in Group B, viz. fastened on the right shoulder with the deepest part of the neck opening beneath the chin. The flaps at the edge below (e.g. to the left in Fig. 371) may have been an extra overlap. On the other hand, it is difficult to explain entirely satisfactorily how the Huldremose cape (Fig. 368) was worn. It fits best when fastened on the right shoulder and worn with the hair side inwards, but a paler piece of skin, inset in the upper part of the cape, is evidently a decoration, and therefore unlikely to be hidden. Fig. 438 shows another way in which it may have been worn with the pale skin showing. The capes vary individually, and it is not surprising that the way they were worn should differ. Capes of smooth, short haired skins are cut so that the hair smoothes downwards from the neck, as on the animal, thus making the capes as water-repellent as possible. The large amount of small pieces of skin is not presumably simply a sign of thrift but also of sensible and practical utilisation of material to hand. The skins must have been cut according to certain rules and then pieced together in the most suitable manner. For these Iron Age capes from bogs are by no means primitive, we can see by their details that they are extremely well made, for example the finely oversewn edges. (Figs. 289-291). The manner in which the capes were fastened varies, those from Daugbjerg and Roum 318 MARGRETHE HALO: ANCIENT DANISH TEXTILES FROM BOGS AND BURIALS Fig. 374. Toggle and strap on cape from Fig. 375. Leather thong and ring Fig. 376. Strap with Bauns~ Mose (Fig. 367). 1ft. on cape from Huldremose (Fig. toggle from one of the Rulleknap og strop pAslag fra Bauns¢ Mose 369). Karlby capes (D 4854). (Fig. 367). 1/•. BindebAnd og lrederring pA slag fra Rem med rulleknap pA et Huldremose (Fig. 369). af slagene fra Karlby (0 4854). ,-------------T---------------, t A [.: e I I : I I , I I 1 I \ 0' l ) \ ; / \', iii //1 ".... "'/' ( '.... ,., ",,"'/ ••••.••.,-------~-------~Co I D ••"''; \ Fig. 377. Pattern of Roman cloak, with dotted line denoting the earliest toga shape. The unbroken line gives the shape of a laena (after Wilson). Fig. 378. Man's cape. Trindh~j. Early Bronze Romerske kappesnit. Den ydre stiplede linie viser Age. Length 243 cm, width 126 cm. den reldste togas form; den trette linie formen pAen Mandskappe fra Trindh¢j, lrengde 243 em, bredde laena (e. Wilson). 126 em. fEldre bronzealder. CHAPTER X. PREHISTORIC COSTUME IN DENMARK 319 (Figs. 359, 361, 373) have lacing at the neck opening. The Hu1dremose cape (Fig. 375) has two finely worked leather rings with a thin thong through them for tying. A cape from BaunsjZl Mose has straps and toggles (Fig. 374), the latter made by rolling up a leather thong. The cape from Karlby Mose (Fig. 376) has a similar toggle.

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