page_title: Early medieval European dress
section_title: Regional variation
hierarchical_section_title: Early medieval European dress / Regional variation
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Reithose aus dem Thorsberger Moor in Schleswig-Holstein, ca. Mitte 4. Jh. English: A pair of trousers from the Thorsberg Bog in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, approx. mid 4th century. Dansk: Bukser fundet i Thorsbjerg Mose ved Sønderbrarup, Sydslesvig. Fundet stammer fra jernalderen.
context_page_description: Early medieval European dress, from about 400 to 1100, changed very gradually. The main feature of the period was the meeting of late Roman costume with that of the invading peoples who moved into Europe over this period. For a period of several centuries, people in many countries dressed differently depending on whether they identified with the old Romanised population, or the new populations such as Franks, Anglo-Saxons, Visigoths. The most easily recognisable difference between the two groups was in male costume, where the invading peoples generally wore short tunics, with belts, and visible trousers, hose or leggings. The Romanised populations, and the Church, remained faithful to the longer tunics of Roman formal costume, coming below the knee, and often to the ankles. By the end of the period, these distinctions had finally disappeared, and Roman dress forms remained mainly as special styles of clothing for the clergy – the vestments that have changed relatively little up to the present day.
  Many aspects of clothing in the period remain unknown.
context_section_description: Areas where Roman influence remained strong include most of Italy except the North, South-Western France, as far north as Tours, and probably cities like Cologne in Germany. Iberia was largely ruled by the Moors in the later part of the period, and in any case had received rather different influences from the Visigoths compared to other invading peoples; Spanish dress remained distinctive well after the end of the period. The Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse also ruled the South and West of France for the first two centuries of the period.
  Early Anglo-Saxon women seem to have had a distinctive form of tubular dress, fastened on the shoulder with brooches, and belted. This style matches some German dresses from much earlier in the Roman period. After about 700, which roughly coincides with the general conversion to Christianity, they adopted the general Continental style.
  The pagan Vikings, especially the women, dressed rather differently from most of Europe, with uncovered female hair, and an outer dress made of a single length of cloth, pinned with brooches at both shoulders. Under this they wore a sleeved undergarment, perhaps with an intervening wool tunic, especially in winter, when a jacket may have been added as a final top layer.
caption: Barbarian trousers, from Thorsberg moor, a bog in Northern Germany, carbon-dated to the 4th century, though in terms of style they could come from any point in the following thousand years.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon DIGITAL IXUS 500", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2011:09:24 20:33:17", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Tag 0x1001": "2048", "Image Tag 0x1002": "1536", "Image ExifOffset": "268", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1938", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4752", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/15", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:09:02 13:24:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:09:02 13:24:40", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "125/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "237/32", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1536", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2048", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "384000/53", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2048000/283", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera"}