FranOnTheEdge opened this issue on Feb 26, 2008 ยท 7 posts
FranOnTheEdge posted Tue, 26 February 2008 at 9:41 AM
Can anyone show what the viking dress as described in this article would look like?
http://www.physorg.com/news123162390.html
This is the main part of the article:
"The grave plans from excavations at Birka outside Stockholm in the 19th century show that this is incorrect. The clasps were probably worn in the middle of each breast. Traditionally this has been explained by the clasps having fallen down as the corpse rotted. That sounds like a prudish interpretation," says Annika Larsson.
She maintains instead that the Birka women's skirts consisted of a single piece of fabric and were open in front. The suspenders held up the train and functioned as a harness that was fastened to the breasts with the clasps. Annika Larsson's theory is strengthened by that fact that a number of female figures have been preserved whose outfits both have trains and are open in front. But if we are to believe the archeological finds, this style of clothing disappeared with the advent of Christianity.
"It's easy to imagine that the Christian church had certain reservations about clothing that accentuated the breasts in this way and, what's more, exposed the under shift in front. It's also possible that this clothing was associated with pre-Christian rituals and was therefore forbidden," she believes.
There is another article showing the previously believed representation of the dress, but I can't visualise what the new idea of it would look like, here is a link to the older idea of it:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/sarafan/sarafan.htm
I just wondered if anyone here could show me what it is now believed to have looked like???
Measure
your mind's height
by the shade it casts.
Robert Browning (Paracelsus)