Scotland is not a tropical country and for the past 11,000 years or so, people who have lived in Scotland have needed some type of clothing. Clothing was made out of plant and animal fibers and from animal hides, which do not survive in the archaeological record. What does survive most frequently in the archaeological record are the tools which are needed to make clothing, such as needles, and loom weights.
Since the beginning of the human occupation of Scotland, people used tough plants, rough grasses, tree barks, and animal hair to make ropes and cords, mats, nets, bags, and baskets. Later, sheep would be bred and their wool harvested for making cloth.
According to a display at the National Museum of Scotland:
“From the time of the very earliest hunters and gatherers, communities understood the properties of a wide range of fibres. The first textiles in northwest Europe were made from plant fibres such as flax, grasses and wood basts. Using sheep for their wool came later, about 4,500 years ago. The earliest evidence for woven textiles from Scotland also dates from around this time.”
Natural Fibers
In general, textiles were produced in the home for domestic use. According to a display:
“A skilled worker, using simple apparatus, could produce a complex finished product. Some of the objects used in producing textiles do survive, but the simplest, yet the most sophisticated instrument in textile production—the hand—is undetectable.”
Leather
Among the native people of Scotland, leatherworking was an everyday task with people making many things for their own use. According to the display:
“We took skins off animals and used them for ourselves. We treated them so they lasted longer and didn’t shrink or rot. We tanned them into leather and made them proof against water. We trimmed, we cut, we pierced and we sewed. And sometimes we added marks of decoration.”
While leather generally doesn’t survive in the archaeological record, the tools for working leather—tools for cutting, piercing, sewing, and tanning—often do survive and provide the archaeologists with evidence of leatherwork.
There were also a few leatherworking specialists who made leather goods for others.