[MR] Archaeological Textiles Newsletter No. 47

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The latest issue of ATN has just arrived and, for those of you who receive  
it, I would like to make a quick observation concerning the 10th-century,  
brocaded, tabletwoven bands in the article by Kirill Mikhailov, "New Finds of  
Viking Age Textiles in Ukraine and Russia".  Two bands are shown and  discussed.  
The author says that they used drawn silver thread for the  brocade weft.  
The two excellent photographs of the bands make close study  possible, and I can 
tell you that these threads, unless the photographs are  wrong, are not drawn 
silver.  First, there is no tarnishing; the color of  the metal is still 
bright gold.  Second, the threads appear to be S-spun  "spun" (a narrow band of 
metal is wound around a silk or linen core  thread).  Therefore, I conclude that 
the brocade weft thread used on these  bands is S-spun "spun gold" thread and 
not drawn silver thread.
 
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Nancy / Ingvild
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