Ce que je poste là est la copie de l'article en anglais (que je traduirais dès la fin du spectacle), le lien sur la page de ladite université et une petit reportage de présentation d'Euronews, histoire de ne pas vous faire attendre.
Enjoy
University of Innsbruck
Medieval lingerie discovered
19.07.2012
Up until now
there was nothing to indicate the existence of bras with clearly visible
cups before the 19th century. Textiles found in a castle in Eastern
Tyrol now prove that there already was clothing similar to modern bras
in the 15th century - a discovery made by Beatrix Nutz, an archeologist
from the University of Innsbruck.
Photo: 15th century linen “bra” (large image) in comparison to a longline bra
from the 1950's. (Photo: B. Nutz)
In
the course of extensive reconstruction of Lengberg Castle, East Tyrol,
Austria, funded by the country Tyrol, starting July 2008, archaeological
investigations of several parts of the building were carried out under
the direction of Harald Stadler (Institute of Archaeologies, University
of Innsbruck). During the research a vault filled with waste was
detected in the south wing of the castle in room 2.07 on the 2nd
floor. The fill consisted of dry material in different layers, among
them organic material such as twigs and straw, but also worked wood,
leather - mainly shoes - and textiles. The building history, as well as
investigations on construction techniques performed by Martin
Mittermaier and Walter Hauser (Landeskonservatorat Tirol) and the
archaeological features heavily suggested a dating of the finds to the
15th century, when another level was added to the castle by
order of Virgil von Graben. The reconstruction is mentioned by Paolo
Santonino in his itinerary, who also gives us a short description of the
castle and mentions the reconstruction and the consecration of the
castle chapel by Pietro Carlo (1472–1513), Bishop of Caorle, on October
13th 1485. The vault spandrel was most likely filled with waste during the addition of the 2nd
storey as isolation or to level the floor. This date has now been
confirmed by fife Carbon-14 dates carried out at the ETH-Zürich.
The textiles
The assemblage consists more than 2.700
individual textile fragments. An initial review of the material gave a
wealth of different forms, including a number of almost completely
preserved pieces of clothing as well as fragments of linen lining of
garments with remnants of the former colorful woolen outer layer.
Fragments of several linen shirts show
pleats on collar and sleeves. The sleeves of these shirts with preserved
textile buttons and corresponding button holes with small cuff
circumfence suggest that they were constituents of female clothing, or
were even worn by children. One pair of completely preserved linen
underpants, the fragment of a second one and a textile fragment of red
and blue wool which turned out to be the codpiece of a pair of trousers
belong to male clothing.
The brassieres
Four linen textiles resemble modern time
bras. The criterion for this classification is the presence of distinct
cut cups. The two more fragmented specimens appear to be a combination
of a bra and a short shirt. They end right below the breast but have
additional cloth above the cups to cover the décolleté, and no sleeves.
Both “bras” have decorated lower ends. Finger-loop-laces (laces worked
in loop manipulating braiding technique) are sewn onto the hem with
lace-stitches resulting in simple needle-lace. Besides its decorative
function - one that cannot be seen anyway when worn under a dress - this
also serves as reinforcement for the hem and adds further support to
the breasts.
The third “bra” looks a lot more like
modern bras with two broad shoulder straps and a possible back strap,
not preserved but indicated by partially torn edges of the cups onto
which it was attached. The knot in the shoulder straps is secondary.
This “bra” is also the most elaborately decorated with needle-lace on
the shoulder straps, sprang-work between the two cups and, like the two
aforementioned “bras”, a finger-loop-lace and needle-lace at the lower
end.
The fourth “bra” is the one that resembles a
modern bra the most. At the first assessment this garment was referred
to in German as “Mieder” (= corselette in English) by the excavating
archaeologists. It can also be described with the term “longline bra”.
The cups are each made from two pieces of linen sewn together
vertically. The surrounding fabric of somewhat coarser linen extends
down to the bottom of the ribcage with a row of six eyelets on the left
side of the body for fastening with a lace. The corresponding row of
eyelets is missing. Needle-lace is sewn onto the cups and the fabric
above thus decorating the cleavage. In the triangular area between the
two cups there might have been additional decoration, maybe another
sprang-work.
Are the bras indeed from the 15th century?
There are considerable differences of
opinion as to who 'invented' the brassiere or bra. Among those named is
the French corset-maker Herminie Cadolle in the late 18th century and Mary Phelps Jacob who was awarded an US patent in 1914.
Up to now there was nothing to indicate the existence of bras with clearly visible cups before the 19th
century. Medieval written sources are rather vague on the topic of
female breast support, sometimes mentioning “bags for the breasts” or
“shirts with bags”. Other sources only mention breast-bands to bind down oversized breasts.
As no comparable archaeological textiles of
medieval “bras” were to be found, fiber samples of two bras were sent
to the ETH (Eidgenössissche Technische Hochschule = Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology) in Zürich to be Carbon-14 dated. In addition
fiber samples of the pair of underpants and two other textiles were also
radiocarbon-dated. All results confirmed the dating of the finds to the
15th century.
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