Scraps of cloth tell stories

The pieces of armour discovered in the mass graves are unique in several ways. Not least the textile remains. Plenty of textiles from the Middle Ages have been discovered in other places. But they lack context, we do not know what they were used for.

In this case the material is not only dated – we know when it was last used – but can also be linked to specific places on the body. Consequently, we know where it was used.

There are textile remains on both the inside and outside of pieces of armour, chain-mail and chain-mail hoods. Organic material is not usually well-preserved when buried in soil. However, when the textiles are in direct contact with metal, metal salts leach into the cloth, which helps preserve the material. A fossil of sorts, no longer a textile, but which still contains information about the material, its quality, weave, density and function.