Textile Dyes from Gokstad Viking Ship’s Grave

Bibliographic Data

ID13125177
AuthorsJeannette Jacqueline Lucejko (0000-0002-7717-4039, University of Pisa), Marianne Vedeler (0000-0002-9358-9162, University of Oslo), Ilaria Degano (0000-0002-3585-8555, University of Pisa, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume4
Issue3
Pages2278-2286
Publication date2021-09-08
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHeritage (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2571-9408 • E-ISSN: 2571-9408
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/heritage4030129
OpenAlexW3197444960
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

The grave from Gokstad in Norway, dating to ca 900 AD, is one of the best-preserved Viking Age ship graves in the world. The grave mound contained a variety of goods along with human remains, buried in a Viking ship. Several textiles, including embroideries and shreds of what might have been the ship’s tent, were also found. The colors of the textile fragments are now severely faded, but the high quality of the embroidery made of gold and silk threads is still apparent. The style of the embroidery is exceptional, having no equivalents in other Scandinavian graves. The analyses by HPLC coupled with both diode array and mass spectrometric detectors revealed that the striped “tent” cloth as well as the silk thread used for the embroidery were originally dyed with anthraquinones of plant origin (alizarin, purpurin, pseudopurpurin, and anthragallol), markers of madder-type dyestuffs

Alizarin · Archaeology · Art · Geography · SILK · Telecommunications · Textile · Visual arts · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis · Engineering · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

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