Makings of a Tarsoly belt bag from Birka Grave BJ 904 - Part 0

(Post started in July of 2022)

Since I went to my first viking age market, I have been borrowing my girlfriend’s belt bag. Not only is this bag not very historically accurate, but it’s also not, well, mine. For a while, I’ve felt that it’s time I got my own bag, and since I am working on reconstructing the Birka grave BJ 886 I wanted to properly reconstruct a bag from Birka.

Unfortunately, there are no fragments, fittings, or anything else in BJ 886 to indicate the presence of a bag. There are leather fragments from a purse, but no proper bag. For practical reasons, this poses a problem. When going to an event, actually being able to carry my things around is quite important. Therefore, I decided to simply make a bag from another grave from the same-ish time and place.

Luckily, Historiska Fynd recently did the grave finding a lot easier for me, as they are now selling this and this fitting from Birka grave BJ 904. The grave is a man’s grave from the mid 900’s, which fits the bill for what I need. Also, the bag has fox head fittings, so obviously I want that.

About the bag

The remains of the bag are described by Holger Arbman in Birka I. Die Gräber. Text. (Arbman, 1943). He describes them as “Bronzebeschläge eines Ledergegenstades”, i.e. “Bronze fittings of a leather object”. The fittings consist of two animal heads, one broken four-sided fitting with palmettes in the corners and a square hole in the middle, three roundels with four “kidney-shaped leaves”, one almost heart-shaped fitting, and six small fittings with a simple braided ribbon, two of which are corroded together. An image of the original fittings can be found in Birka I - Die Gräber - Tafeln (Arbman, 1940):

The broken fitting with a square hole is quite typical for this kind of bag, which Anne-Sofie Gräslund classifies the bag as a Type 3A bag (Gräslund, 1986), i.e. a bag with a large leather lid fitted with metal fittings, which is folded over the bag itself. The fitting sits around a hole in the lid that allows the lid to be secured by a strap, which is also often heavily decorated:

Gemeinsam für die Taschenklappen von Bj 93B, 154, 716, 904 und 943 ist ein wahrscheinlich mitten auf der Klappe angebrachter Beschlag mit einem rechteckigen Loch, durch das eine Art Öse an der Tasche selbst durchgezogen werden sollte. Mit einem durch die Öse gesteckten, oft mit Bronze beschlagenen Lederriemen liess sich die Tasche verschliessen. Diese Konstruktion kennen wir aus dem magyarischen Ungarn (Laszlö 1944, Abb. 54), aber auch von einer Tasche mit orientalischen Beschlägen aus einem Grab der Wikingerzeit in Rösta, Ksp. Ås, Jämtland (SHM 12 426), wo die eigentliche Tasche aus grobem Wollstoff bestand, die oben mit einer Schnur zusammengezogen wurde (Abb. 16:3; Gräslund 1975, 110 ff.).

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Common for the bag lids of Bj 93B, 154, 716, 904 and 943 is a fitting with a rectangular hole, probably in the middle of the flap, through which a sort of eyelet on the bag itself should be pulled. The bag could be closed with a leather strap, often fitted with bronze, that was passed through the eyelet. This construction is known from Magyar Hungary (Laszlö 1944, Abb. 54), but also from a viking age grave in Rösta, Ås, Jämtland (SHM 12 426), where the actual bag is made from coars wool, tied at the top with a string (fig. 16:3; Gräslund 1975, 110 pp.).

The six square fittings were likely used for this, and the two fittings that are corroded together indicate that they sat snugly together on the strap. Gräslund also draws a parallel to the Rösta bag, indicating that the fox heads of the BJ 904 bag may correspond to the bear heads of the Rösta bag, which were located on the top of the strap:

[…] so könnten etwa die Fuchsköpfe aus Bj 904 den Bärenköpfen am Riemen der Tasche von Rösta entsprechen.

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[…] for example, the fox heads from Bj 904 could correspond to the bear heads on the strap of the Rösta bag.

Now, there is one fitting that was described as “almost heart-shaped” by Arbmann (Arbman, 1943). Comparing this to fittings from other graves, for instance the Rösta grave, this fitting seems to me to be a bear head as well. The first figure below is the BJ 904 fitting, and the second is from a drawing of the Rösta bag, found in Gräslund (Gräslund, 1986). Comparing the two, there are some common elements - the overall shape, the position of the eyes, the spiral in the ears, the lines going from the middle and down to the sides to form the nose, and the “hairs” on the top of the head.

The leather remains found in the grave were also discussed by Gräslund. She states that the leather is cowhide, and that it is tanned with alum (Gräslund, 1986).

So liess sich feststellen, dass das Taschenleder von Bj 644, 746, 750, 808 und 904 mit Alaun gegerbt war. Das Leder von Bj 746 war Ziegenleder, das der anderen Taschen Rindleder.

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It could be determined that the bag leather from Bj 644, 746, 750, 808 and 904 was tanned with alum. The leather of 746 was goatskin, that of the other bags cowhide.

This is very interesting, as alum tanning (or, more technically correct, alum tawing) is also known as “white tanning”. This name comes from the resulting colour of the leather – white. Tanning with alum also makes the leather very sensitive to water, but if treated right it is very stable (Barlee, 2001). Treating the leather with fat is one such way. It’s worth noting that there are also remnants of a leather wallet (a type 1 bag) in the grave, and that Gräslund does not state which leather remains from the grave was alum tawed. Therefore, it may well be the case that this is what was alum tawed, not the type 3A bag.

What is also interesting about the bag is the wool fabric that was found together with the fittings. It’s briefly mentioned in Arbman (1943) (Arbman, 1943), and elaborated on by Gräslund. She states that it is possibly from the bag itself, much like the bag from Rösta, and Agnes Geijer elaborates on the material itself in Birka III. Die Textilfunde in den Gräbern. (Geijer, 1938):

W2. GRAB 904. Taf. 7:3. Zweibindiges Gewebe. Ebenmässig und dicht, aus grobem Garn, das für Kette und Schuss ungefähr gleich fest gesponnen ist. Das eine Fadensystem, wahrscheinlich die Kette, linksgesponnen, 5 Fäden per cm. Das andere rechtsgesponnen, 4-5 Fäden per cm. Farbe rotbraun. Auf der einen Seite deutliche Webetextur, auf der anderen Seite fleckenweise Verfilzung, wahrscheinlich nachträglich entstanden.

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W2. Grave 904. Fig. 7:3. Two-binding fabric. Even and dense, made of coarse yarn that is spun with about the same strength for warp and weft. One thread system, probably the warp, is left-spun with 5 threads per cm. The other system is right-spun, 4-5 threads per cm. Reddish brown colour. Clear weave texture on one side, patchy felting on the other side, probably created later.

I’ve found two previous attempts at reconstructing the bag, of which one take the wool into account. The interpretation made in this reconstruction attempt is that the wool covered the lid, but that the bag itself is still leather (Furå, 2016). The resulting bag is absolutely gorgeous, but the very coarse wool makes me think the parallel to the Rösta bag is more likely to be correct – I believe it makes more sense that coarse wool would’ve been chosen for strength rather than for decoration.

Planning the construction

Now that I know what the archaeology says about the bag, it’s time to start making some decisions. Since I’m aiming for a proper reconstruction, I want my interpretation to be as close to the original as possible. This means bronze fittings, lid (and by extension back) and strap made from leather, and the bag itself made from coarse, reddish brown wool. Like with the Rösta bag, I am also going to add a string closure, even though there are no remnants of this on the wool remains. The woollen bag excites me, as most bags of this style that I’ve seen both at events and online are entirely made from leather. Having a bag made from wool makes it a bit more unique, which is fun!

Looking at other examples of this kind of bag that is available to buy, it seems that 15-16cm by 15-16cm is pretty common, with a depth of about 5cm. While I’ve come to understood that the evidence suggests the type 3A bags were likely smaller than this, there is also the aspect of practicality – I need to be able to carry e.g. a cellphone in the bag, and so I’m going to accommodate for this.

The harder decisions are related to the fittings and the leather. There is the position of the non-obvious fittings to consider, and also the as well as the number of fittings on the strap. Here is a "“artist’s rendition”" of what I’m aiming for. I kept the details out for the sake of it not looking like garbage, but it shows the general idea and where the different fittings will go.

This is of course just a draft, and very much subject to change. For the moment though, I think I will accept the parallel to the Rösta bag and place the three animal heads on the part of the strap that is used to hang the bag in the belt. As for the three round fittings, I will place the symmetrically on the lid, with two at the top and one in the bottom.

The strap fittings pose a bigger conundrum however. Only six were found in the grave, but two of them were melded together by corrosion. Like I said previously, this seems to indicate that they were quite snug on the strap. With only six of them though, that would leave a large part of the strap naked. This could of course be the case, but it could also be the case that several pieces are completely lost to corrosion. Drawing parallels to the Rösta bag again, it seems more likely that they have been lost to corrostion, as the strap on the Rösta bag is basically filled with fittings.

As for the leather, the question is whether I use a white leather or not. Leather can be re-tanned with vegetable tan after tawing, which produces a very stable product (Thomson, 2011), but from what I can tell the evidence doesn’t support this. Instead, Gräslund only states that the leather is alum tawed, which from my understanding would mean that the leather was white, and it would probably have been treated with fat to waterproof it in that case. But I also need to take into account that the analysed leather fragments may have come from the type 1 bag, not the type 3A bag that I want to construct.

Like with the wool, using white leather sounds exciting however. Most bags I’ve seen are brown, or possibly red. Again, white leather would make for a more unique bag, which would make this build more fun. However, I’ve decided to stick with brown, at least for now. Iron age people were not stupid and would’ve known well that alum tawed leather is sensitive to water, which sounds like a terrible choice for a bag that will sit exposed on ones hip. Instead, I think it’s more likely that the wallet that is alum tawed, as this would’ve likely been carried in a bag and would’ve thus been protected from water. Therefore, I’m making the type 3A bag brown. Also, I think it’ll look better, sue me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Conclusion

And thus concludes the first post about this project. I think that with the reddish brown woollen bag this will be a pretty cool project that will hopefully stick out a bit. It’s also fun that I’ve only found two attempts at reconstructing the bag at all, so it’ll be fairly unique in more ways than one.

There are some challenges with the project that I look forward to biting into. For one, there is the question of how to attach the woollen bag to the leather lid piece in a way that both makes it sturdy and accommodates for the drawstring.

Another challenge is posed by the fact that I am unable to find all the fittings ready made, and that the ones that I have found diverge from the originals. Obviously, this means that the only option is to cast them myself. Clearly, there is no other way. I’ve never cast anything in my life, but I’ve been meaning to try for a while, so that in and of itself will be a fun challenge!

Anyway, that’s all for now. Until next time!

References