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Attempt to reconstruct early medieval gaiters, fastened with hooks on the knee

Wrap gaiters , calf wraps , calf bands , leg bands or leg wraps are bandage- like, mostly knee-high items of foot and leg clothing made of wool , linen , felt or leather . As the oldest finds show, they have been part of the Germanic costume since the Iron Age .

description

The foot , lower leg and pant leg are wrapped up to below the knee with a calf bandage . With simple variants, the end can be placed under the previous windings or tied with a simple ribbon as a closure. In various Germanic peoples, elaborately crafted buckle fittings or hooks were used, which could be made of bronze and silver. Depending on the costume, fashion and use, these windings were additionally tied with leather ribbons or fabric ribbons. Wrap gaiters were originally worn in shoes as a replacement for socks and at the same time protected the lower leg from cold and injury. They have come down to us for both men and women.

Antiquity and Great Migration

Leg bandages of the bog body from Søgårds Mose, Denmark, from the earlier Iron Age

Finds of buckle fittings or hooks, mostly in graves, prove the use of the calf wrap by the Teutons from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages. Textile remnants could u. a. in the Germanic bog bodies of Damendorf from the 2nd / 3rd. Century, Obenaltendorf from the 3rd century, Bernuthsfeld from the 8th century and from the Thorsberger Moor , around 3rd / 4th century. Century.

As finds and late Roman mosaics show, the leggings (Latin fasciae crurales ) were adopted by the Romans and used, among other things, in hunting. There was no standardized, prescribed use in the Roman military. Soldiers' letters received from Hadrian's Wall, however, prove the individual use that the Roman military permitted under appropriate weather conditions or for special missions. They also remained in use throughout the immigrant Roman or Romanized civilian population and were spread over the entire known world by the occupiers. After the fall of Western Rome , they remained in use in the Byzantine Empire and thus in Asia Minor.

Especially with the Alemanni , (Eastern) Franks and Bavarians , science assumes that calf bandages were also worn by wealthy women in the 6th century, but according to the findings at the time, at least in not insignificant parts of the Alemanni were not an integral part of the costume . Overall, however, wrap leggings seem to have been typical especially for Bavarian and Alemannic women.

In Bavarian graves of the 6th century one also found silver strap tongues from calf wraps. Such precious details were of course not common, but were only worn by a select group.

The color of the wrap gaiters most frequently mentioned for the Franks is red. The calf bands of the Wends who immigrated to Germania and adopted this piece of textile were of the same color . As excavations in the Berlin area have shown, wrap gaiters were ubiquitous in use during the time of the Great Migration.

The white leg wraps attributed to the Lombard costume became the target of derision from another Germanic people, the Gepids .

middle Ages

Even on the Bayeux Tapestry , which shows the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066, leg wraps are still clearly visible. In the further course of the Middle Ages the trace of their use in Europe is lost. Only in some local traditional costumes, such as in Greece, have leg ties partially preserved to this day.

In the Norwegian Bjarnar saga (around 1220), wrap gaiters even become a venerable relic: After Björn's death, Olaf's leg bindings are carried on until Björn's death and placed in his grave. After many years these gaiters are found undamaged in the grave and processed into parts of a chasuble.

Modern times

AEF cavalryman with leggings in 1918

Before 1900, the military rediscovered the knee-high wrap gaiter. Apparently, primarily local auxiliary troops and police forces were dressed in this way in the European colonies. For example, in 1896 they are occupied by British native combatants in Ashantiland . In 1899/1900 the Chinese gendarmerie set up in the German colony of Kiautschou was equipped with knee-high wrap gaiters in dark blue (summer) and dark gray-blue (winter).

In China, leg bands were by no means unknown, as historical drawings make clear. Possibly there was a parallel development to Germanic clothing. Even today, wrap leggings are part of the costume of some Chinese minorities such as the Miao , Qian and Lhoba . Wrap gaiters are also documented from Korea.

In 1902 the British Army - as the first European armed force - introduced knee-high leg bands that matched their new khaki uniform . During the First World War , they were part of the military equipment of the soldiers of almost all warring countries. Wrap gaiters were also worn at least partially in the German Air Force . The Ordinance Gazette of the Royal Bavarian War Ministry stated in 1916: “ According to previous war experiences, it has proven to be useful to wear leg bands in an airplane. "

During the Second World War , leggings were worn in a shortened version by the German mountain troops and in the Polish army , while the Italian Alpini , French infantry and the Japanese army stayed with the knee-high version.

After the end of the Second World War, the wrap gaiter disappeared relatively quickly from military use and is now mainly used in equestrian sports for the restraints of animals.

See also

literature

  • Karl Schlabow: Textile finds from the Iron Age in Northern Germany . Karl Wachholz Verlag, Neumünster 1976, ISBN 3529015156
  • Laurent Mirouze: Infantrymen of the First World War . Verlag Karl-Heinz Dissberger, Düsseldorf 1990, ISBN 3-924753-28-8
  • Laurent Mirouze: Infantrymen of World War II . Verlag Karl-Heinz Dissberger, Düsseldorf [1990], ISBN 3-924753-27-X

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Marcus Junkelmann : The riders of Rome. Part III . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1992, ISBN 3805312881 , p. 129
  2. ^ Christiane Neuffer-Müller: The Alemannic aristocratic burial place and the row grave cemeteries of Kirchheim am Ries . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3806207674 , p. 106
  3. ^ A b Ursula Koch : The Franconian cemetery of Klepsau in the Hohenlohe district . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3806208522 , p. 165
  4. ^ Memorie dell'Accademia delle scienze di Torino . Accademia delle scienze di Torino, 1971, p. 34
  5. ↑ Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory : Praehistorische Zeitschrift . Verlag Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin 1973, p. 170
  6. ↑ Ursula Koch: The row grave field near Schretzheim . Mann Verlag, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3786110735 , p. 88
  7. ^ Richard Pittioni: Archaeologia Austriaca . F. Deuticke Verlag, Vienna 1981, p. 117
  8. ^ Thomas Fischer, Manfred Eberlein and Otto Braasch: Romans and Bajuwaren on the Danube . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1988, ISBN 3791711318 , p. 102
  9. ↑ Hans F. Nöhbauer: The Bajuwaren . Scherz-Verlag, Munich 1976, p. 195
  10. ^ Alfried Wieczorek: The Franks . Exhibition catalog, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1996, p. 691
  11. ^ Adriaan von Müller and Alfred Kerndl (editors): Excavations in Berlin . Volume 7, Verlag Bruno Hessling, Berlin 1986, p. 229
  12. ^ Ludwig Pauli: The Alps in early times and the Middle Ages . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1980, ISBN 3406075983 , p. 166
  13. ↑ Karin Priester : History of the Longobards . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 380621848X , p. 20
  14. ^ Jan de Vries and Stefanie Würth: Old Norse Literature History . 3rd edition, Verlag Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin 1999, p. 352.
  15. ↑ Tim Jeal: Baden-Powell . Pimlico, Chatham 1991, ISBN 0-7126-5026-1 , after p. 238 (unnumbered series)