SILK AS A LUXURY IN LATE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN TARTU (ESTONIA)

Abstract

Introduction Silk has always attracted human beings due to its aesthetic and exotic nature. In late medieval Europe, silk was probably the most expensive fabric and certainly a luxury item with high social value (e.g. Walton Rogers 2002, 2884; Muthesius 2003, 325; Munro 2009, 2). I believe that silk items belong to the most impressive and famous examples of textiles throughout history, because they have attracted attention for aesthetic reasons, complexity of production, and input of human effort. In late medieval Europe enormous varieties of silk fabrics were available, but only a small fraction were masterpieces worn by members of royal families or high status ecclesiastics. During field work much simpler scraps of silk have been found by archaeologists in deposits related to the everyday life of urban communities and 'ordinary' people. The present paper focuses on silk finds from medieval cesspits in Tartu, then a Hanseatic town in Livonia. The main aim is to give an overview of the nature of these 'simple' silks and how they were used by the inhabitants of a late medieval town. Questions regarding the affordability, social value and meaning of silk to the inhabitants of a medieval town will be addressed. The history of silk in Estonia begins with three brocaded bands and a fabric fragment found in a craft box at Lohavere hill fort that date to the beginning of the 13th century, i.e. the end of prehistoric times according to Estonian chronology (Peets 1985; Laul & Tamla 2014, 48 f.). Only during the Middle Ages (ca 12251558 AD) did an extensive cloth trade begin--mediated by Hanseatic merchants with imported fabrics from Western Europe becoming an important part of consumption habits in Livonian Hanseatic towns (e.g. Tartu, Tallinn and Parnu; Rammo 2010; 2015). Silk textiles were brought to Livonia along with many other traded goods. In written sources that relate to these Livonian towns, various sorts of silk have been mentioned: Syde, Floele, Damascken, Cammeloth, Zindeldort, Zendeling, Zindel (silberne oder goldene), Grobgrun, Grosgrain, Taft, Sammet, Atlassene, Stamete and Goldtborden Muzen (Pabst 1857, 202; Hansen 1894, 21 ff.; Mickwitz 1938, 58; Khoroshkevich 1958, 241; Poltsam 2002, 26). Among those listed here, cheaper silks woven on a treadle loom included tabbies such as taffeta (Taft) and cendal (Zindel), plain samite (Stamete), and satin (Atlassene) (Monnas 2008, 297). More complex and thus expensive weaves were made using a draw loom; these were damask (Damascken), lampas and figured silks, some of them with brocaded metal threads (ibid.). On the basis of archaeological evidence silk yarn was also traded. Until the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century, silk was mostly brought to Europe from the Byzantine Empire and Islamic countries of the Mediterranean area. During the 12th century the secret of silk production spread to Italy and from the 13th-16th centuries Italy and Spain (e.g. Lucca, Venice and Bologna) were the dominant suppliers in Western European markets (Spies 2000, 78; Muthesius 2003, 325; Monnas 2008, 5), from which silk reached Livonian towns. For example, Hanseatic merchants bought Lucchesian silk in the markets and cloth halls of London and Bruges (Muthesius 2003, 335; Monnas 2008, 8). During the Late Middle Ages silk was also occasionally traded via Novgorod, i.e. from East to West (Khoroshkevich 1958, 241). By the 14th century an enormous variety of silk fabrics were available in European markets, from plain taffetas to luxuriant velvets and glossy satins, as well as heavy fabrics brocaded with gold or silver (Monnas 2008, 4). Silk as a luxury The definition of 'luxury' depends on the temporal and spatial context. In a medieval town, luxury cannot be regarded simply in contrast to necessities, but it was something mostly used as an incarnated sign (Appadurai 1986, 38). Arjun Appadurai suggests regarding luxury as a special 'register' of consumption and not as a special class of things (ibid. …