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Medieval "Lingerie" From 15th Century Castle Could Rewrite Fashion History
fangmcgee writes "Archaeologists have unearthed several 500-year-old bras that some experts say could rewrite fashion history. While they'll hardly send pulses racing by today's standards, the lace-and-linen underpinnings predate the invention of the modern brassiere by hundreds of years. Found hidden under the floorboards of Lengberg Castle in Austria's East Tyrol, along with some 2,700 textile fragments and one completely preserved pair of (presumably male) linen underpants, the four intact bras and two fragmented specimens are thought to date to the 15th century, a hypothesis scientists later confirmed through carbon-dating."
I'm rather more interested in WHY all this was hidden under floorboards in the first place. "2700 textile fragments"? Must've been a lot of space under there, enough for a nice big hoard of gold bullion. Instead we find... clothes?
What looks at first glance like a descending backstrap is, in fact, the edge of a missing descending section - look at the lace holes, and the lay of the fabric.
The entire lower front of what I assume to be some kind of "control garment" (like those combined bra/corset things you sometimes see in catalogues) is missing. Bodice, or corset, with built-in cups, yes. Brassiere, in the modern sense, no.
I'm betting on costumes for a game of "The Naughty Pirate rips the Farmer's Daughter's Bodice".
In fact, I'd go further. certainly valuable clothes at the time. And yet another reminder that "trickle down" works so far as that, as the economy develops, the privileges of the rich extend to wider society. If this is "news for nerds" it is a reminder that what probably took a skilled seamstress a week in the 15th century is almost disposably cheap in the 21st, due to factory automation.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Since when are nerds *not* interested in the fates of stranded time travelers from the future?
Ezekiel 23:20
The castle is in Austria. And the period is the 15th century, not the 16th. Although the clothes have been carbon dated I can't find a reference to the exact date, but for most of the 15th century the language would have been Middle English.
In Austria??? A dialect of Early New High German, surely? If you're going to be a pedant it's important to get it right.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
First, it's archaeology. That's science. Science news is news for nerds. Second, they found something 500 years old that they thought had been invented in the 20th century. That's engineering, also news for nerds. Plus there's the patent troll aspect, and you know as well as me that most folks here are interested in patent abuses. I'd say something that had been invented by a 14th century man should be pretty obvious to a 20th century man.
Free Martian Whores!