Colourful Past: Nålbinding Objects from Late Roman Times in the ROM

The ROM Toronto hosts the biggest collection of nalbinding objects from Late Roman times. The research project carries on with Dorothy Burnham’s work: A detailed examination of the eleven nalbinding objects will reveal the information that lies beyond the thread count. The technical details and with them the look of the socks contain markers for sociological information like age, gender and wealth. Regional and chronological features will be examined as well. While the socks will be compared to objects in other collections, the mittens are outstanding objects without parallels, bringing new items to the wardrobe of Late Antiquity. Köstner studied the technical details of nålbinding production, tracing socio-cultural signs of age, gender and wealth and analyzing signs of regionality and chronology.