En glemt skat: Miranda Bødtkers tegninger af arkæologiske tekstiler

Abstract

Over many years, illustrator Miranda Bødtker (1896–1996) carried out drawings for botanists, zoologists and archaeologists at Bergen Museum, the University of Bergen. After her death, thousands of drawings were discovered in her estate. Among them were numerous unpublished drawings of archaeological textiles from five sites. Bødtker’s illustrations show that although several scholars have studied the textiles, none had seen them all. This applies in particular to textiles from two Viking Age burials, Grønhaug and Dale, both of which comprise remains of figured tapestries that are hardly mentioned in archaeological literature. Grønhaug, and a boat from Halsnøy also offer several types of textiles related to the maritime world. The paper presents Bødtker’s drawings and discusses how they compare with published descriptions of those textiles, with drawings of textiles from the Oseberg burial, and to what degree this form of documentation meets current scientific demands.