Fifteen archaeological Estonian leather bags

Abstract

This article provides an overview of medieval leather bags that have been found in archaeological excavations in Estonia and supplies information on their context and dating, as well as provides descriptions and typologies. This article analyses fifteen archaeological leather bags from Estonia, of which eight were found in Tallinn, six in Tartu and one in Pärnu.
 Archaeological leather bags in Estonia can be divided into two main typological groups: drawstring pouches and girdle bags. The first group includes also a coin pocket and ram pouches. Out of fifteen leather bags, two thirds belong to the first group, that of drawstring pouches. These are: one coin pocket (AI 6332: nr-ta), two ram bags (TM A 45: 4275/2-3), one round-based pouch (AI 4061: 3016) and six square-based pouches (AI 4061: 4546; AI 6332: 309; AI 6332: N-517; TM A 40: 4389; TM A 45: 4578/1; TLM 27426: 1A). The second group consists of five girdle bags (AI 6166: 368; AI 7032: 1430/1; TM A 45:nr-ta; TM A 115: 817; PäMu A 2662: 563). The archaeological leather bags have been dated as being between the early thirteenth century and the early seventeenth century. Although fifteen is a small number of archaeological leather bags, they still give us a brief overview of the abundant medieval fashion of Estonian leather bags, and there are more to be found.
 Keywords: archaeological leather, Middle Ages, leather bags, drawstring pouch, girdle bag