I've been interested in historical food and dress for many years. It's what makes history come alive for me - understanding what people where eating, drinking, wearing and doing for fun, rather than just knowing what war was going on or who sat on the throne at any given place and time. So I read with interest an article published on LiveScience about a Viking woman's costume found in a grave 10th century grave in Russia, though unfortunately the article doesn't say where in Russia (and it's a rather large place). The reproduction of the dress shows a brightly colored silk garment worn trailing behind and joined in the front by two metal breast shields. It must have been a costly garment, considering the bright blue color and the fabric, which was silk.Before the invention of synthetic dyes fabrics in bright colors, such as deep blue, purple and bright red, were very expensive and therefore indicative of rank and wealth. Purple has long been associated with royalty for this very reason; the cost of harvesting this dye (collected from a marine mollusk) was so vast that the resulting cloth was out of reach for all but the wealthiest of people. The fact that this Viking garment was made from silk also indicates wealth as the cloth (or the fibers themselves) could only have come from China, a journey of many hundreds of miles.
