Jewel on a man’s head – a felt hat from an archaeological excavation at 1 Sadowa Street in Gdańsk

Abstract

In 2009–2010, an archaeological excavation was carried out at 1 Sadowa Street in the so-called Lower City of Gdańsk/Poland (former Danzig), during which a considerable number of artefacts of organic materials were discovered, including a well-preserved felt hat from a 17th/18th century layer of a building. The aim of the activities undertaken by the Authors of this paper was to establish the chronology of the hat, determine how it was made, identify the material, and perform an in-depth analysis of its form compared with other finds of thiskind using basic research methods. The employed methods included the typological method, a case study as well as organoleptic and microscopic methods for identifying the item and determining the degree of material biodegradation. The following research techniques wereadopted: technological textile, felt, etc. analysis including observation of the surface with a stereoscopic microscope, material analysis with an optical microscope, and XRF spectrometry.