A New Tablet Weaving Technique from Bronze Age Hallstatt.
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Saunderson, K., Zimmermann, A., Grömer, K., 2026. A New Tablet Weaving Technique from Bronze Age Hallstatt. EXARC Journal, 1.
The salt mines of Hallstatt, Upper Austria, bear some of the most significant evidence for our understanding of textile culture in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age in Central Europe due to the exceptional preservation of these finds. Following recent excavations, a new textile, HallTex 390, from the Late Bronze Age “Tuschwerk” mine has revealed multiple previously unknown features, techniques, and a peculiar design: two typical Bronze Age fabrics connected with an unusual ribbon with a ribbed structure, combining twisted and tabby-structured threads of different diameters. While comparisons for similar techniques from Denmark are discussed, this technique is quite unique for Bronze Age Central Europe. Only through experiments were we able to fully understand the textile, which seems to have consisted of tablet weaving with tablets threaded with either two or four threads while simultaneously using the weft as a sewing thread to connect the ribbon to the other textiles. This produced results comparable to the original while also revealing how efficient these Bronze Age craftspeople’s design choices were.