Creature Comforts at Vindolanda: Two Unique Wool Mats with Knotted Pile

Fragments of two robust wool textiles with an unusual knotted blue pile were recovered from a Period I (late Flavian) fort ditch at Vindolanda. Their knotted structure — unknown hitherto in the western Roman provinces and only partially paralleled in the eastern — is discussed, together with questions about their possible production centre and actual function. The Supplementary Material available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X18000259) contains technical details of the textiles, an investigation of the raw materials and a comparison of the wools used.