Ava's Corner

On Pretty Towns

Somewhere back in 2020 I wrote my first Compleat Anachronist (C.A.) on the unique garments of orphaned children in the Netherlands in the late middle ages, you can find more information here.

Not too long ago I decided to put pen to paper again and I am in the process of writing a second C.A.. I have discovered that there is so much information out there on this particular topic, that I have decided to devote a few blog posts on this because these won’t be featured in the C.A. – there just isn’t enough room.

So, what is going on? I am writing what is slowly becoming a rather large document on the Hanseatic League, one of the first multinationals that was active for almost 300 years. It is a very interesting topic but the Compleat Anachronist cannot be more than 60 pages. I would like to include *everything* I find, but simply can’t.

Wouldn’t a blog come in handy here? Certainly! Because the Hansa League had at least 200 city members in 16 different countries. So many pretty towns! In The Netherlands alone, for ever the focus of this blog, 22 cities were part of the Hansa League!

Between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, a number of Dutch cities, most of them situated in the eastern part of the country, develop into important and prospering trade centres due to their Hansa membership.

The trade in products such as salt, grains, fish, wood, wine, beer, animal skins, and cloth flourishes. The goods are largely transported by sea and by rivers, using cog ships of between fifteen to thirty metres in length. The cities blossom, reinforce their city walls, expand their ports, and merchant homes, warehouses, and offices were built. The riches of the Hanseatic League are still clearly manifest in the cities along the River IJssel, but also in smaller Hanseatic cities such as Stavoren, Hasselt, Tiel, and Doesburg.

One particular town, called Hindeloopen in Friesland, would not become an actual Hansa city BUT because of its close proximity to Stavoren, which was a Hansa city, Hindeloopen benefitted from the League anyways. The Stavoren harbour wasn’t very large and so many ships docked in Hindeloopen. It isn’t clear why exactly Hindeloopen never became an official Hansa city, but the closeness of Stavoren could be an issue. With only 11 kilometres between them, that might have contributed to Hindeloopen’s non-membership. Still, the city prospered and became quite wealthy.

You can see why I can’t include this pretty little town in the new Compleat Anachronist, but you can also see why I just had to share…. 😉

Back with a Bang!

It has been quite the year…. that is all I am going to say.

I am seriously happy to be back at this campfire to share stories with you about projects and adventures, new and old.

In the beautiful year 1960, when most of the readers of this blog weren’t alive yet (and no, neither was I…) , some leather bits and pieces were excavated at a crannog at Loch Glashan in Argyll, West Scotland. At first, it was thought the bits were part of a tunic, but later theories have suggested that they were more likely fragments from an early Christian book satchel. The leather fragments were dated between 600-900 AD and fits my persona to perfection.

If you look at this stone from Papil, Shetland, excavated in 1877 then you can see 2 cute little backpacks. Can I say ‘cute & little’? I think I can… I mean just LOOK AT THESE!!

This type of bag was not uncommon in those days, and they remind me of the Roman Loculus satchel as well. It makes sense, you need a bag to carry your items, no?

My husband is an accomplished leather worker and he was quite intrigued by the bag from Loch Glashan and after studying this great page from the National Museums Scotland museum, he decided to make me a bag. Here it is!

I am tremendously proud to be using this at future events!

The Lady in the Oak Tree

In 1905, a remarkable discovery was made in Hogebeintum, in Friesland. During excavations in one of the artificial mounds, the remains of a person buried in an oak coffin were found.

The skeleton dates from the 7th century and the deceased was presumably an important woman. We know this because full grown oaks were rare in this area of my country in that time period. Being buried in a hollow tree coffin is therefore considered to be rare.

The woman also wore a necklace with 35 glass beads, 2 amber beads and 121 mother of pearl beads, also signs of a high ranking woman in 7th century society. She was 1m60 tall and between the ages of 40 and 50 when she passed.

Undertunic is pretty!

It has been quite some time since I wrote anything substantial. Life simply got in the way of creativity. It happens to the best of us.

After finishing the Skjoldehamn undertunic in May of this year, I just wasn’t able to find fabric at the thrift shops that would work for the overtunic. This took weeks, no months even. I reached the point where I felt completely disheartened and ready to throw in the proverbial towel. But… it’s a HOBBY, right? A hobby shouldn’t make you feel like that! In addition, it is only fair to add that I am not in a hurry to finish this garb set. I have enough to wear at events! So, when it came to fabric hunting I was able to take my time.

I went back to the undertunic and my comment about the fabric being much too bland for me. So, I gave myself a little in between project! It was time to make that undertunic pretty. I found some leftover trim, that I made at least 10 years ago and I added it to the collar and flap. Now, I am more than happy how it turned out, though the trim is making a collar a tad bit heavy. You win some, you lose some, right? Ask me if I care….

The 1336 Indulgence from Zutphen

As you know, my main focus is the medieval history of the Low Lands. I am forever interested in the general medieval history of my country. I have a beautiful piece for you today! Have a seat, grab a drink and enjoy this original pearl.

The ‘Rondeel’ was one of several nunneries in Zutphen. Alfardus Marinus van Drynen donated the house Rondeel to a number of young ladies for a ‘devout life’ on 14 February 1334. The young ladies had no specific monastic rule, they had no chapel and there was no rector. According to the foundation deed, there were at least 12 nuns.

Two years after their foundation, in 1336, the Rondeel nuns received the rights to hand out indulgences to their benefactors. Everybody who donated money to the nunnery, received a 40 day indulgence. This meant that their stay in Purgatory would be shortened by 40 days, after which their soul was purified.

The indulgence was made by a handful of Italian bishops in the Papal palace in Avignon in 1336. Attached to this parchment is a smaller document, written by the bishop of Utrecht, Jan van Diest to validate this indulgence.

Handing out an indulgence was reserved for the pope and several selected cardinals and archbishops. The more signatures or seals on the indulgence, the higher the value, because it was the believed the indulgence had more power if the pope himself added his seal. The Zutphen Indulgence has seals from 2 archbishops and 13 bishops. Selling indulgences was quite profitable in the middle ages and for the Rondeel nuns the indulgences proved a steady source of income.

This indulgence is beautifully illuminated, befitting the Avignon Papal palace. Below on the right we see John the Baptist holding the Lamb of God. Above right we see Christ in the middle, with Peter and Paul on either side. Top left we can see Mary with child. To Mary’s right we see a number of women kneeling, presumably the Rondeel nuns.

According to the Zutphen archives, there are no indulgences like this one in The Netherlands. So it truly is a unique example! The North Rhein-Westphalia archives in Germany has a similar indulgence from Avignon, created 3 years before this one and probably by the same scribe! That indulgence was meant for Stift Schildesche near Bielefeld.

Source: Heritage Zutphen, photo 0208-0004

About dangerous business

Boy, do I have a story for you today! It involves mystery, murder and… a latrine…

Allow me to take you back to the beautiful year of 1076. Yes, the days without proper indoor plumbing. I realise that doesn’t sound very romantic, and trust me it gets worse, much worse.

Private toilets, also called privvies, were not common for regular people like you and me but larger castles and manor houses had lavatories built to the outside walls of their dwellings. The result was, as you may know, that the feces and urine ended up in a cesspit below.

A fine gentleman, named Godfrey the Hunchback, Duke of Lower Lorraine was enemies with Dirk V, Count of Holland. Why? Well, according to Dirk Godfrey was supporting the wrong side, so enter a hired hit man.

Or, in this case, hired stab man who was enlisted to assassinate Godfrey. The assassin climbed up till right under the privvy and when Godfrey was doing his business he was stabbed with a spear. Yes, you’ve got it right: stabbed where the sun doesn’t shine. Godfrey died of his injuries roughly a week later. The killer was never found.

Bring some back-up next time you need a pit-stop…

Skjoldehamn Undertunic 2

Hi all, it has been a weird few weeks for me in which there were quite a few curveballs. But hey, that is called life, and there will always be times in my life when bronchitis is on the agenda and nothing else. I got through it! And I am back to my Skjoldehamn project. So, come & sit (you DO have a coffee, right?) and I will show you!

Perhaps you remember from my earlier post on this tunic, that I still had to create the stand up collar and front ‘bib’. Well, the tunic is finished and again I used left over fabric for these collar & bib pieces.

Here are a few photos of the finished undertunic.

I learned quite a few things here! Of course, I kept an eye on the 1st goal of this project, i.e. making garb from cheap thrifted (or donated) fabric so that aspiring historical crafters can make something that doesn’t break the bank.

The 2nd goal being a go-to set of clothes for myself to use in the kitchen at events or to use while running around at events.

The fabric for the tunic was donated and the collar was made from a leftover bit I still had at home. What have I learned? This was the first stand up collar I ever made and in retrospect, it would have been better if I hadn’t cut the neck opening as deep as I had, because this feels a bit too wide. I am not unhappy how it turned out, I just could have done better. Also, the colours are much too pale on me, BUT you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth, right? It is a good idea to replace the collar and bib at some point with a coloured linen.

Because I will use this set for kitchen work at events, I have decided to look for second hand linen to make a 2nd undertunic. After a day of hard work & cooking it’ll be great to put on a clean tunic! The next step is the breeches, fingers crossed I can find fabric 😉

The Saint John’s Fern

This is a new category on my blog, and one that I had in mind from the beginning but it is only now that I have found a good book to start with.

The Saint John’s Fern by Kate Sedley

Allow me to introduce you to Roger the Chapman, a former Benedictine monk, turned pedlar & mystery solver. “The Saint John’s Fern” is the 9th book in the series about Roger the Chapman, published in 1999. The first Roger the Chapman book was published in 1991 and the last on in 2013. There are 22 books in this series by Kate Sedley.

Kate Sedley, the pseudonym of Brenda Margaret Lilian Honeyman Clarke (born 1926) is an English historical novelist. She is 95 years old and still active as a writer! Now that is a life goal if ever I saw one!

The Story

Master Capstick, a rich old man, is beaten to death. His nephew Beric is seen leaving the scene, covered in blood, and has since vanished. Where could the culprit be? It has been 5 months since the crime and the murderer has yet to be arrested. It is a real mystery where he could be. Roger the Chapman doesn’t like murderers, even worse if they get away with it.

The local people, quick to fall back on the witchcraft of their ancestors, blame the Saint John’s fern, which if eaten can make a man invisible. Roger, already responsible for solving many difficult mysteries (remember this is book 9 in the series), suspects that there is a more obvious answer and begins his own inquiries.

These books give you double the fun: lots of good cultural and social, as well as historical, detail about Medieval England and really fun puzzle/murder mysteries. It helps that the main character is a clever man with a good head on his shoulders, and now a chapman (travelling salesman) has some worldly knowledge as well. Yet, his opponents manage to fool him (and you as the reader). A good and fun read till the end.

Monkey business

Today, I am going to take you to our capitol Amsterdam. There aren’t many 16th century houses in the city anymore, but this one is quite remarkable and worthy of a post.

Between 1544 and 1550 a house was built on the Zeedijk, in the heart of the city. The Zeedijk is one of the oldest streets in Amsterdam, and the mixture of old houses with monumental gables and the nostalgic atmosphere make it a real tourist attraction. Mind you, it wasn’t always a happy place. Back when I was attending Amsterdam University in the late 80s -early 90s, the Zeedijk was a place you wanted to avoid with a passion.

The house, at number 1 Zeedijk, can be found on a 1544 map of Amsterdam by Cornelis Anthonisz. Back then it was an inn where sailors could stay for a few nights. The second and third floor had ample space for the sailors; hammocks were hung on the beams to create enough sleeping space for them. Their payment, if they were short on cash, was often a monkey or other animal, which they had taken home from their travels to more exotic places. The innkeeper could then sell the monkeys to rich citizens to settle the bill. The café is therefore appropriately called “In ‘t Aepjen” meaning In The Monkey.

Now… mind you, those monkeys quite often were covered in fleas. The customers left the inn scratching the flea bites. We still have a saying in Dutch “in de aap gelogeerd’ meaning ‘staying with the monkeys’; referring to something that looks like a good deal but turns out bad for you.

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.

_{Source: Huis van Hilde}