12-05-2007, 01:24 PM
As well as the letter about socks, there is also a sock itself from Vindolanda. The sock had an upper and a sole made from separate pieces of medium weight diamond twill. the two pieces were roughly tacked together. It was very worn on the upper edge and on the outer sole of the heel. It was however quite small so may have belonged to a child rather than a soldier.
A tunic from Mons Claudianus had been remade from an old cloak because it incorporated gamma motifs found at the edges of cloaks in the middle on one side and near the shoulder on the other. A gamma pattern was also found on a textile fragment made up of two pieces at Vindolanda too, again suggesting it was from part of a recycled garment. Whether soldiers were wearing these garments is open to question.
There is increasing evidence to suggest that forts were not just full of men. I have often thought the image I grew up with of the Roman Army owed much to archaeologists and historians with experiences of the British army in the 1940's -60's. So we had whitewashed barracks devoid of women and smart uniformly equipped soldiers. However look at the British army of the 1740's -60's and we have a completely different picture. There would be women living in the barracks doing the cooking and washing and mending clothes.
In the settlements outside the forts there would also be places to buy items of clothing, get them repaired or washed, because unlike today every community had someone who could make clothes and footwear.
Socks made from goats hair cloth are mentioned by Martial (Ep 14.140) while others are made by a technique called sprang-work. Knitted socks from the Roman period are well known from Egypt. There survival only there might just be an accident of archeology as the so called Coptic designs from Egypt can be seen on clothing in Romano-British mosaics. These knitted socks were produced with a single needle, hence the terminology single needle knitting. Whether this is the same as naalbinding I can not say. I will leave that one to the experts to fight out!
Certainly the socks would be brightly coloured and it has been suggested by C.van Driel-Murray that this would show up well with the cut outs on many shoe and boot designs.
Graham.
A tunic from Mons Claudianus had been remade from an old cloak because it incorporated gamma motifs found at the edges of cloaks in the middle on one side and near the shoulder on the other. A gamma pattern was also found on a textile fragment made up of two pieces at Vindolanda too, again suggesting it was from part of a recycled garment. Whether soldiers were wearing these garments is open to question.
There is increasing evidence to suggest that forts were not just full of men. I have often thought the image I grew up with of the Roman Army owed much to archaeologists and historians with experiences of the British army in the 1940's -60's. So we had whitewashed barracks devoid of women and smart uniformly equipped soldiers. However look at the British army of the 1740's -60's and we have a completely different picture. There would be women living in the barracks doing the cooking and washing and mending clothes.
In the settlements outside the forts there would also be places to buy items of clothing, get them repaired or washed, because unlike today every community had someone who could make clothes and footwear.
Socks made from goats hair cloth are mentioned by Martial (Ep 14.140) while others are made by a technique called sprang-work. Knitted socks from the Roman period are well known from Egypt. There survival only there might just be an accident of archeology as the so called Coptic designs from Egypt can be seen on clothing in Romano-British mosaics. These knitted socks were produced with a single needle, hence the terminology single needle knitting. Whether this is the same as naalbinding I can not say. I will leave that one to the experts to fight out!
Certainly the socks would be brightly coloured and it has been suggested by C.van Driel-Murray that this would show up well with the cut outs on many shoe and boot designs.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
