Looking for sources for Merovingian soft kit and bling

[Eirikr the Eager]

Hi All, I haven’t posted here in a while

I’m looking for any pointers to good sources for Merovingian clothing (men’s and women’s) as well as a source for what jewellery/adornments were worn by both men and women.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Sean M]

The closest thing to the Museum of London "Textiles and Clothing" volume for that place and time is:

Chrystel R. Brandenburgh, Clothes Make the Man: Early Medieval Textiles from the Netherlands. Leiden University Press: Leiden, 2016

Also look into some of the latest bog deposits from Denmark, and the Germanic-style clothing from Roman Egypt. Its early enough that there might be cemeteries with textiles and grave goods from the kingdom of the Franks.

Hallsall's "Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West" lists site reports in the endnotes, although many of them will be only available in French or German.

[Eirikr the Eager]

Thanks Sean, much appreciated.

[gaukler]

Is this blingy enough? It’s a Merovingian garnet cloisonné disk brooch, made by my .5 apprentice equivalent, as her first piece of jewellery, based on ne in the British Museum.
The garnets were heat-shattered (Arrhenius theory), and then ground and polished by hand using the methods suggested by Mavis Bimson in Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 4. The sheets were than cut to shape using a bow powered mud saw. The gold foils were hammered out by hand, and then embossed with a grid using a pantograph engraved die as per Meeks and Holmes (same journal volume).
The silver brooch was soldered up, and the garnets and foils were given a backing paste, followed by burnishing the cell tops. A modern garnet was set in the centre, and the whole thing was gilded. There is a steel coiled spring pin.
It’s available for purchase.

[Eirikr the Eager]

That certainly is a beautiful piece, though I’m looking more for sources that describe what bothgenders wore, where they wore it, and how much of it was worn.

[gaukler]

I misunderstood your post. I didn’t realize that you wanted research sources, rather than stuff sources:)
I’d start with Gale Owen-Crocker’s “Dress in Anglo-Saxon England”. It references quite a bit of continental material.
I think you’re going to have to look at a fair amount of dig reports. There is a some clothing info from the excavation of Aregunde’s grave- I’ve seen some reconstructions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aregund
Depending on how late you can go, check out Rosie Weeth’s thesis. It, too has lots of continental material. https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/3 ... GGSLRBV4ZA