SKIN, AND WOOL‐TEXTILE REMAINS FROM HALLSTATT, AUSTRIA

Summary.A study was made of wool cloth remains comprising 56 yarns and of 33 samples of haired animal skin from the Kilbwerk salt‐mine site at Hallstatt, Austria dated 6th to 8th century BC. Most of the wool in the cloth was primitive hairy‐medium or generalised‐medium type and over half the samples had natural coloration, the predominant colour being grey. One yarn was of medium wool type and four were of semi‐fine fleece type, neither of these having been previously reported before the Roman period. The skins were much hairier, only one‐third having fleece types found in the cloth, and only two of these were of the finer generalised medium variety. Most of the skins with the coarsest hair were probably from goats, and those with less coarse hair from true hairy sheep, a fleece type that is thought to have developed during the Iron Age. The staining reaction of the skin indicated rawhide or oil tanning. The presence of inactive hair follicles within the skin showed that over half had ceased to live during the autumn‐winter period.