Tablet weaving
Tablet weaving or Card weaving is a weaving technique used for belts or trims. Instead of weaving on a loom, a certain amount of yarn lengths are placed through cards, with the yarn being tightened between a post and the weaver's own body. The pattern being created by turning the cards in a certain direction.
Tablet weaving has been around since the Iron Age, with the oldest examples being found in Hallstatt, Austria dated around 1200 B.C. (3200 years old), and was commonly used in European dress until the Viking age (1000 A.D.). The use later declined with mass produced textiles on big looms being more and more common. Scientists have no idea how patterns were invented or taught to new weavers. No examples of written patterns exist from this 3500 year time span.
Image copyright and content:
Hallstatt and Dürnberg textile remnants, Regina Hofmann-de Keizer