The sock had been made using a technique never before recorded in England. The Danish term for the method is nålebinding which is a form of single-needle knitting. Work starts at the toe with a single loop of yarn and the garment is produced by a series of interlocking loops worked out in circles from this original loop. Shaping is done by adding extra loops or missing out loops. The result is a thick and quite stretchy fabric very suitable for a sock. There was a narrow band around the ankle which was dyed red using madder.
Nålebinding is an ancient technique, with examples known from Iron Age Sweden (3rd/4th century AD) and Coptic Egypt (4th–6th century). Viking Age examples have been found in Iceland, Finland and Russia, and medieval examples are known from elsewhere in Europe. The technique is clearly part of the Scandinavian textile tradition although this example is simpler than many of the Scandinavian ones.
This ancient sock caught the public imagination and it was the subject of magazine and newspaper articles around the world; hardly a book on the Vikings can be opened which does not include a photograph of it. It is now displayed at JORVIK where light effects make it appear on the foot of a leather worker. The question will always remain, however, as to whether it came to York on the foot of a Viking directly from the homelands, or whether it was made here by a descendant of an immigrant Scandinavian who was keeping the old traditions alive....
Find
no.13517, 1976.7, catalogue no.1309, 260mm long from toe to heel.
For more information: The Archaeology
of York 17/5, Textiles, Cordage and Raw Fibre from 16–22 Coppergate
by Penelope Rogers.
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