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Looking forward to exploring Medieval European Nalbinding with the Medieval Dress and Textiles Society soon. Registration details on the MEDATS site: https://www.medats.org.uk/events/medieval-european-nalbinding/

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Beans and faces make up today's Nazca Nalbound Object of the Week. This 2nd cent CE tunic border piece is in the The Walters Art Museum. The central band has beans worked out of the upper edge and fully haired faces hanging below. The “hair” fringe is in very nice condition. The height including fringe is 5 inches.

https://nalbound.com/2026/03/03/now-beans-faces-border-fragment-2011-20-5/

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Today's Nalbound Object of the Week is another Egyptian sock, but this one is a bit unusual in that it is primarily made of linen.* It does have some dark blue/green and yellow wool on it. Some incorporated in the fabric of the sock (toe & heel edge) and some fragments carried along two rows of the midfoot in what looks like added embellishment. The image is of the sole of the sock and shows the wedge heel very nicely.

We don't have solid dating for any of these Egyptian socks made in compound nalbinding variants. They are presumed to be Coptic Era (a informal designation for generally Late Roman Egypt/Late Antique (3rd−4th centuries) and Byzantine Egypt (4th−7th centuries) that has fallen out of favor due to its imprecise usage and cultural implications) based on conventional /art historical dating applied in the late 19th & early 20th century. More recent finds and the radiocarbon dated Egyptian hats all fall into the 11th/12th century. Compound nalbinding variants don't start to show up in the archeological record until the end of the 1st Millenium elsewhere, so future scientific dating of these socks is super important to our understanding of exactly when the compound variants of nalbinding began.

*This is not the only plant based sock found, but they are less common than wool finds.

https://nalbound.com/2026/02/24/now-linen-sock-with-colored-wool-stripes-iii-15476/

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For today’s Nalbound Object of the Week we get a two for one special. The left sock was in Berlin, but has been lost since WWII. Its likely mate is in Ludwigsbourg. The two socks were both bought from the same dealer in 1890 and listed as presumably from Akhmim, Egypt. They are also extremely similar in size, shaping, color, stitch choice and density and one is for the left and the other for the right foot. We are very lucky that photos were taken before the left sock was lost. But if you happen to find it, I'd be happy to hear it.

https://nalbound.com/2026/02/18/now-lost-red-sock-9804-found-mate-gt-4498/

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Continuing with the theme of African nalbinding, this week's Nalbound Object of the Week is another Congalese Prestige Cape dating to pre-1853. Made from raffia palm fiber, the stitch has often been mistaken for sprang as the stitch doesn't just intralace with previous stitches, it interlinks with them before crossing to form a new loop. The British Museum has included some lovely detailed photos in their online catalog, so I was able to zoom in and highlight the path of the loops. And yes, that is a knot you see connecting the new length.

https://nalbound.com/2026/02/10/now-bakongo-nkutu-prestige-cape-af18530713-1/

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This week's Nalbound Object of the Week is a lovely red hat with a blue and yellow silk patterned wrap around its point/tassel from 11th-13th century CE Arsinoë/Krokodilopolis, Egypt. It's one of the few artifacts that include more than one type of nalbinding. If you happen to be in Berlin this week, you can catch it on display in the last week of the Auf unbetretenen Wegen exhibition.

https://nalbound.com/2026/02/04/now-red-hat-with-tassel-9318/

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This week's Nalbound Object of the Week is another Nazca Viscacha figure from the Early Intermediate Period (c.100 BCE-650 CE)

https://nalbound.com/2026/01/27/now-toy-viscachas-46-77-30-7651b/

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This week we take a closer look at the 17th century mitten found in the ramparts of the city of Copenhagen for our Nalbound Object of the Week. Like many mittens and socks of this time, it has some tar stains. If you look very closely, there is some two toned embroidery around the cuff edge. One thread of which still retains some reddish coloring (I’ve included a detail photo near the bottom of the post). https://nalbound.com/2026/01/20/now-mitten-with-embroidered-cuff-d7403b/

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https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HLWcwpduP/

Hard to believe it has been 7 years since Iwas able to travel to the Museumder Kulturen Basel. I posted a bit about our examinations of the slip stich crocheted sock that had been misinterpreted as nalbinding here:

https://nalbound.com/2021/02/21/coole_socke/

We are honored to have been able to publish our article on that sock in ATR which I talk about and link to here: https://nalbound.com/2023/01/31/newest-issue-of-atr-contains-our-article/

And with the Museum der Kulturen Basel's recent publishing of their online collection, I look forward to being able to show you the nalbound collection in my Nalbound Object of the Week series. https://nalbound.com/2025/12/23/now-childs-sock-with-orange-blue-and-yellow-stripes-iii-15474/ (In and amongst other nalbinding from around the world.)

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For today's Nalbound Object of the Week we have some true figural work out of Peru. This time it's a singular effigy figure, not a border of figures. And, it's a viscacha, which are so adorable!

https://nalbound.com/2025/12/30/now-viscachas-figural-effigy-46-77-30-7651c/

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As the holidays gear up, I find myself thinking of stockings...*

So this week's Nalbound Object of the Week is a lovely example of Egyptian compound nalbinding. Ostensibly from the 4th century,** but its specific find location and strata was not recorded. I am very grateful that the Museum der Kulturen Basel has put their collection online so that we may all share the wonder of the nalbound socks they hold.

https://nalbound.com/2025/12/23/now-childs-sock-with-orange-blue-and-yellow-stripes-iii-15474/

* Who am I kidding? I'm always thinking about socks... (or mittens, or hats, or.., but mostly socks)

** This is a very old art historical based dating. There has been no scientific dating of compound Egyptian nalbound socks.

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Today's Nalbound Object of the Week is hat/cap from the Cliff-Dweller culture in what is now Northeastern Arizona. Interestingly enough we drove right past the site this was found during our trip around the Four Corners region in Aug/Sept. The shoe-socks from this region are more well known and hats in general are less well known in the worldwide nalbound corpus, so I am happy to be able to include this cap in the series. If you want to see a color picture of the hat, follow the link to the museum catalog in my post.

https://nalbound.com/2025/11/18/now-arizona-cliff-dweller-skullcap-14-5-10-a1260/

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If you are interested in the early blue & white knitted socks found in Egypt, there is exciting news. The Museum der Kulturen Basel has recently put their collection online, which includes quite a few examples of blue & white socks (or fragments thereof).

As the search engine is a bit tricky as yet, I put together a blog post that includes them and a few from other institutions: https://nalbound.com/2025/11/04/blue-and-white-knit-stockings/

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While I was in Sweden to examine some of their medieval nalbinding, I had the chance to sit down with Återskapat and my friends Nele and Ingela and have a good long chat about nalbinding. You can join us at the table here: https://aterskapat.libsyn.com/terskapat-103-nalbinding?fbclid=IwY2xjawHeL1hleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHbPNT6aDBrFHyFa225JfSlQlkfG9Gas4p_8lyC_Pl_MCtL7PmX5PIVNMoA_aem_lYoAREO9yHImj_0PpqeqiA

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The nalbound mitten from Iceland was recently radiocarbon dated bringing it more inline with its shaping https://nalbound.com/2024/10/22/now-arnheidarstodum-iceland-mitten-thjms-3405/

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NOW: Inca Wig Cap 1983.491.2

This week’s Nalbound Object of the Week is another Incan wig Cap from Peru. Similar to the cap posted in late July, this is a stunning example with a beautiful set of braid wrapped ends that …

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NOW: Helgeandsholmen stocking

For today’s Nalbound Object of the Week I must tell you of the surprise I got the day I was examining the medieval Nidaros Stocking. That same day, Niina-Hannele Nuutinen brought my attention…

Knee-length nalbound stockings have been extremely rare in the archeological record. But while I was examining the medieval Nidaros Stocking in April, I learned of another medieval knee-length stocking! This week's Nalbound Object of the Week is a 15th century stocking from Helgeandsholmen in Stockholm, Sweden. Excavated between 1978-1980, it was recently sent to Stockholm's Archaeological Collection […]