PosamentPretty knots from Birka

Handout by Meisterinne Katheryn Hebenstreitz (© Annika Madejska)Barony of Aarnimetsäamadejska@gmail.comtextiletimetravels.org

Annika Madejska

What is posament? Posament is a technique where metal wires or threads are braided and knotted into ornaments and then sewn onto textiles. Braiding and knotting can be used together or separately.

It is important to note that this kind of posament is not what today is known as passement (French).

However, they do share some characteristics, which is why Agnes Geijer chose to use the word posament in her work on the textile finds from Birka (Geijer, Birka III, Die Textilfunde aus den Gräber, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 1938). Ho-wever, let us start from the materials used to make the braids and knotwork.

Metal threadsBirka finds contain a significant number of gold and silver threads. The threads are made from solid gold or silver – not gold-coated silver or coated cheaper metals, which was more common in the Middle Ages. The gold used is redder in color due to its copper percentage. Its color is close to what we today call rose gold. The silver is harder to define precisely, and there is one piece that could even be white gold instead of silver.

The thread types can be divided into three groups (Geijer, Birka III, Die Textilfunde aus den Gräber, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 1938):

1. Gold or silver wire. This is a solid wire and can vary in thickness.

2. Spiral gold or spiral silver. This has a textile core with the above-mentioned metal wire wrapped around it. The textile core has pretty much disintegrated over time but when ana-lyzing the finds, traces of silk have been found.

3. Spun gold or spun silver. This thread has a textile core with sheet metal wrapped around it. This is the kind of metal th-read that later was very popular in embroidery and weaving. The core of these threads has not been analyzed since there are hardly any traces left. However, it is safe to assume that similar core was used as in spiral metal thread. This kind of thread is the rarest among the finds. Only three such pieces have been identified.

The metal wire has without a doubt been made by pulling the th-reads to the desired thickness. This was done by applying heat and pulling by hand through a ‘draw board’ that has holes that gradu-ally get smaller to acquire the desired thread thickness. The threads are surprisingly well proportioned.The finished objects made from this kind of thread also show signs that they were beaten with a hard tool or a hammer after finishing to acquire the metal shine.

Different threads have been used for different purposes, which can be seen in the finds.

The embroideries have been made using smooth and durable wire, the silver posament pieces using spiral threads except most of the gold pieces that were made from a thicker gold wire.

The brocade bands have a weft of thin and smooth gold wire of the type 1.

Spun thread is only present in a couple of embroideries; one wo-ven band and a small unidentified fragment (Geijer, Birka III, Die Textilfunde aus den Gräber.).

It is difficult to prove how the type 2 and 3 threads were made during this period. There are finds from numerous cultures and many different eras. Egyptians had these kinds of metal threads. Byzantium with their famous silk fabric production and Syria have also produced numerous finds from the Antique period and on-

3 to 6 strand braids

Knots found in posament

Annika Madejska

Annika Madejska

wards. However, written sources are scarce, and even though there are some sources that mention tools for making metal thread, none describe the exact technique (Geijer, Birka III, Die Textilfunde aus den Gräber).

PosamentOnly 45 of the 1,160 Birka graves contained any kind of posament. All these pieces are dated to the 9–10th century.

The braids are made with a varying number of threads –simple ones with three threads and more elaborate ones with 4, 5 or 6 threads.

Primarily smooth, solid gold thread has been used in posament finds that feature gold thread; spiral gold and especially spun gold are rarer. One reason for the popularity of solid gold thread could be that you get a much nicer shine on gold when you can hammer the finished piece – which you cannot do with spiral thread wit-hout ruining it. The silver pieces are, however, only made from spi-ral silver and the threads are remarkably even.

The knots can be made using single or doubled thread. The pie-ces are, however, mostly made from two threads that run parallel in the knots.

Some knots require two separate threads (or doubled threads) that entwine, whilst others can be made with one thread as in one continuous piece, than can, however, be doubled.

All knots and braids useful for making posament are depicted below.

Sources• Agnes Geijer, Birka III, Die Textilfunde aus den Gräber, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 1938• http://www.medeltida-hantverk.se/v• www.silberknoten.de

Materials• www.slojd-detaljer.se/ – this website might only ship within Sweden• http://www.slojd-detaljer.fi/ – this website might only ship within Finland• www.tnkreativt.com/

Food for thoughtThe knotwork used in posament resembles the knotwork art created by sailors of today. Therefore it might not be too far-fetched to suggest that their art could have originated from Viking period tradesmen and sailors. Birka was a trade center and many of its inhabitants must have been sailors.

Renaissance knotsSimilar knots can be seen in Renaissance jewelry and pouch decorations. Below you can see a few examples of this kind of knotwork in Renaissance art and textiles.

Pictures from wiki commons

Annika Madejska

It is especially tricky to create a nice ending on pieces made with spiral thread.

However, the finds show that people tried to finish the pieces in an esthetically pleasing way – but at the same time as easily as pos-sible.

The finds from Birka can be divided into five groups.1. Continuous bands or strings mounted on fabric2. Border bands mounted on the hemline of clothing3. Decorative knots stitched onto fabric pretty much like se-

quins4. Ornaments at the end of narrow silk straps5. Sliding knots (Turk’s head knots) most likely put on straps

or bands as decorations

The thicker/coarser gold wire pieces are usually simpler braids and cross-shaped knots whilst the complicated braids and knotwork are made from spiral silver.

The assumption seems to be that different pieces had different origins – some might have been locally produced and some ‘im-ported’ in Birka.

When studying the quality of these two groups and looking at other finds (there are a few finds from Adelsö in Uppland and a few from Norway), it has been confirmed that the thicker gold orna-ments are of a more general domestic production.

There is a single known find from Russia but it does not eliminate this conclusion.

The second kind has no counterpart – not in the Nordic countri-es nor anywhere else. Therefore it looks like all the more complica-ted silver spiral thread work originated from Birka and was a local art form only found there.

According to the medeltida-hantverk.se website, there are also some posament finds from Wales from the 7th century, but I have been unable to verify this.

The placement of posamentIt is hard to say exactly where and on what pieces of clothing or ac-cessories posament was mounted. However, the location where on the body it has been found gives us some hints.

Posament has mostly been found in male graves. Some were found at forehead height, which indicates that they were mounted on headwear or used as bands around the head. Others seem to have been used as pouch or bag decorations.

Posament has also been found on narrow ware and used as deco-rative pendants at the end of straps.

In the few female graves with posament finds, the decorations have also been found near the head and a few at waist height, which indicates that they were used as decorative elements on a pouch.

The excavated examples are usually rather tiny in size and seem to vary from 2 mm wide to 2 cm wide, although some cross-shaped ones are wider.

Grave 944

Grave 524

Grave 644 Grave 542

Some of the extant pieces of Posament from Birka

All pictures except the black and white one come from the online picture archive of Historiska museet in Stockholm.http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/start.asp

The black and white picture is a photo of a page in Agnes Geijer, Birka III, Die Tex-tilfunde aus den Gräber, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 1938

Grave 561

Grave 854 – drawing by Hjalmar Stolpe showing the position of the finds in the grave

Grave 642

Some of the extant pieces of Posament from Birka