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In northern Europe around 1,000 A.D., all Germanic peoples dressed similarly. While there were some variances, overall, the Viking Age and the Viking territories had surprisingly uniform clothes.
Men wore a wide-skirted tunic up top that was closely fitted across the chest. There were pants underneath that could be worn either loosely or tightly. The overdress was suspended over a lengthy shift that women wore. In cold weather, both men and women donned a long cloak or a jacket for warmth and protection.
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While part of our understanding about Viking-era clothing and textiles comes from literary sources and written legislation, the majority comes from archaeological discoveries. Most textiles from the Viking Age have been found in grave goods. Fabric doesn't do well when buried underground, as one might anticipate. Large-scale fabric survival is extremely uncommon and necessitates peculiar soil conditions. As the corrosion byproducts of the fabric in touch with the jewelry in the grave scratch the jewelry, it is occasionally possible to see textile traces on the bottom of jewelry. The weave and number of threads may be calculated using these ghost photos.
The majority of Scandinavian farmsteads made their own handicrafts, including the clothing, tools, and other necessities for their residents. However, more individuals were able to become experts in one or more of these trades as trading towns grew in popularity. Blacksmiths, jewelers, beadworkers, antler carvers, and other full-time artisans came to the trading towns to manufacture their wares for export to foreign markets as opposed to merely for sustenance or the meager trade that took place internally.
Other locations also have clothes remnants. Old clothes was utilized for a variety of uses by the Norse. It was occasionally covered in pitch and used to patch holes in ships after they had been built. Pitch was applied to cloth in other instances to be used as a torch, but it was never lighted. These textiles with pitch coatings have fared quite well. Because it was used to construct a ship, at least one complete Viking-era outfit a pair of men's trousers has survived.
The size of a chieftain's fighting army was frequently proportionate to his income since the wealthiest chieftains could afford to be the most kind to the warriors who fought for them. A chieftain's chances of success in raiding increased proportionally to the size of his army, which in turn increased both his wealth and the number of soldiers under his command.
Simple Viking farmers, however, occasionally had weights for silver, suggesting that they had at least a little amount of silver to buy supplies for their farm from the outside world. This demonstrates that, while though providing chieftains with luxury commodities was trade's primary function, it was by no means its exclusive goal. People who lived in the rural regions close to trade cities sometimes exchanged excess items, usually food, for other things that went through the trading towns.