From the Bronze age at the latest, and at least until the 17^th century, tablet weaving was used all over Central and Northern Europe: a weaving technique using pierced tablets to lift and drop the warp threads. The tablets are usually square and have a hole in corner, through which one thread passes. Each tablet (rather than each thread) corresponds to one warp thread: after the insertion of each weft, the tablets are turned, so that each of the threads in a tablet comes on top (i.e. becomes visible) in its turn. Tablet weaving was used for the starting borders and the finishing of loom-woven textiles, and also for narrow bands. In the Netherlands, the only weaving tablets found are early medieval and made of bone (finds from Friesland and Maastricht).

dimensions: 30 x 30 mm

provenance: York (UK), Friesland (NL)