Viking Thorsbjerg trousers

[Celtic Britain]

Hello,

does anyone know the Thorsbjerg trousers? Do you know how they should be worn? I mean, should they be a rather tight or a baggy model?

thanks in advance!

[the_power]

They were a tailored trousers, reasonably tight-fitted. Definitely pre-viking. From memory, people thought they might have been for someone of a horse-owning status.

John

[finnobreanan]

They look pretty tight to me, similar to treus:
http://www.historiclife.com/Essays/Thor ... ousers.htm

[Celtic Britain]

Thanks, but this looks like the legs are quite thight and the "sitting" (can't find the proper word, sorry ) is reasonably baggy. Could this be true?

[the_power]

I assume you mean "crotch" ? If you've made a few pairs of trousers, without a huge amount of tailoring expertise or lycra in your fabric, you'll realise how hard it is to make a crotch/arse in a trousers that *doesn't* split the first time.

John

[finnobreanan]

I assume you mean "crotch" ? If you've made a few pairs of trousers, without a huge amount of tailoring expertise or lycra in your fabric, you'll realise how hard it is to make a crotch/arse in a trousers that *doesn't* split the first time.

John

John,

Or as my tailor friend's call it...the SEAT. After working on my set of trues, I made sure I could "bend over" without splitting every seam (my arse it looks like a sack!). My wife made fun of me when I made them (She said I looked like I was packing a load of Shite!), but, at least I can bend over! John, you are right, it does not require a tailor's work to make them...very simple construction.

[Andrea L Redden]

Skjoldehamn are a way simpler trouser pattern and they're carbon dated to the Viking period. Don't have a scan of it at work, but I'll post it from home tonight if I can remember.

Andrea

[Andrea L Redden]

The trousers from the Skjoldehamn find, 995-1029AD

Skjoldehamn-pants.JPG (115.11 KiB) Viewed 2715 times

Here we go. A lot of the garment is missing, including the crotch. You need to add an approximately 20cm square gore here so you can squat or bend over without the pants splitting.

Andrea

[Dave Mooney]

It's a bit down to terminology isn't it? The Thorsbjerg trousers are 'Iron Age' and the 'Viking Age' overlaps it or is it still considered the IA? Depends how much you're going to permit the skew.

Just because a pair of IA trousers is found in a Norse country dosn't necessarily make them 'Viking'. (Same way just cause a Viking broach is found in a Ring Fort doesn't mean the Danes built them all.)

At what point do the Norse go 'a Vik-ing' anyway? (IA is the last technology term for an era until what, the Steam Age and everything else is Socio-political named) It's a sticky one.

I half made these buggers and aborted. They are tight legged big seated numbers but you feel like you have one of those flying squirrel costumes on with the span between your upper thighs. Attractive they ain't!

Dave.

[Andrea L Redden]

It's a bit down to terminology isn't it? The Thorsbjerg trousers are 'Iron Age' and the 'Viking Age' overlaps it or is it still considered the IA? Depends how much you're going to permit the skew.

Hello Dave!
Have they been carbon dated? They're not listed here yet. http://ctr.hum.ku.dk/upload/application ... 20web2.pdf Opinions seem to vary on their date from 1stC to 600AD.

Just because a pair of IA trousers is found in a Norse country dosn't necessarily make them 'Viking'. (Same way just cause a Viking broach is found in a Ring Fort doesn't mean the Danes built them all.)

I said "Viking period", not Viking.

At what point do the Norse go 'a Vik-ing' anyway? (IA is the last technology term for an era until what, the Steam Age and everything else is Socio-political named) It's a sticky one.

Somewhat, but the Viking period is usually considered to start in the late 8th century, which is a couple of centuries later than the latest estimate for the date of the Thorsbjerg trousers, and they may even be Roman in date.

The Skjoldehamn ones were at least buried on someone in a Scandinavian country during the period of the Scandinavian raids & settlement of Ireland. So I'd call them a closer bet that Thorsbjerg. There's debate as to whether the body they were buried on was Norwegian or Sami but they've never, to my knowledge, done a DNA test.

Bye for now,
Andrea