About my garb, part 2

This post is really about one lady, and one lady only, and no she isn’t me! Have a seat, you will enjoy this if you appreciate archaeology and early garb. Make a cup of coffee!

In 1995-96 a small settlement from the Roman era was excavated near Castricum. There aren’t many settlements unearthed from this era, and so the find was quite unique. The archaeologists found several human remains, neatly buried on a small grave field. One skeleton was closeby, but in a different spot and hastily buried in a shallow grave.

Lab tests showed this was a woman between 25 and 30 years old. The archaeologists named her Hilde. Hilde lived in Castricum around 400 C.E. Around her neck they discovered glass beads filled with gold leaf, as part of a necklace. It isn’t clear whether she was buried with her clothes on, as there were no textiles found in the grave.

DNA testing showed she was not related to the others found neatly buried inthe grave field. The chemical composition of her bones indicated she was born and raised in modern day Eastern Germany. It is unclear how her life ended.

Because the skeleton and head were mostly intact, it was fairly easy to do a facial reconstruction. I love the fact they turned the lady into a strawberry blonde, although there isn’t much proof of that.

Here again, the clothing is based on finds from other parts of The Netherlands and Germany. And my copy of the underdress and peplos-style overgown.

I don’t have a large weaving loom, so the cloak you see here that Hilde is wearing isn’t something I can make yet. I do have another cloak of coarse wool, with a tablet woven trim. The same goes for the beads from Hilde’s necklace, I haven’t found them so I am wearing amber instead.