ORDINARY OR EXTRAORDINARY ? Redressing the Problem of the Bronze Age Corded Skirt

73 This article uses previously overlooked evidence to discuss the social role of the Bronze Age corded skirt found in Scandinavia. This skirt type has been interpreted in many different ways through the years, from a summer dress to the attire of un­ married women, and more recently the popular la­ bel “ritual dress” has been applied. The aim of this article is to critically review the various interpreta­ tions of the use and social role of the corded skirt, drawing on the entire data set available for study rather than just a small sample of the known traces of corded skirts. Here it is shown that there is evi­ dence indicating that the corded skirt was used at more times, and by more people and age groups, than previously thought, suggesting that it might have been an ordinary, everyday garment rather than something extraordinary.


INTRODUCTION
The aim of this article is to critically review past interpretations of the use and social role of the corded skirt. Over time, the skirt has been interpreted in different ways, mostly based on Thomsen's (1929) three suggestions, which appeared in his original publication (see below). More recently it seems that the generally accepted view is to regard it as a ritual dress (see for example Kristiansen & Larsson 2005:306;Rands borg 2006Rands borg :23, 2011. How the dress was worn was debated in the mid 1950s (Broholm 1951;Harald Hansen 1950. Harald Han sen 's (1950) interpretation of how the corded skirt was worn on the hip and not placed on the waist "won" that debate and has been used since (e.g. Hvass 1981;Kristiansen & Larsson 2005:298-302;Bergerbrant 2007:54-56;Randsborg 2011:38-41).
In Denmark there are a number of wellpreserved oak log coffin graves dating to the Early Scandinavian Bronze Age (Christensen 1999). They contain the remains of inhumed bodies, and from the later pe riod they may also contain cremated remains. The coffins are found in mounds, often with more than one grave in the barrow, but there is normally one central burial with the others buried as secondary graves nearby or in the periphery of the mound (Boye 1896(Boye [1986; Glob 1970). There are many indications from excavations that it was relatively com mon for the deceased of this period to have been buried in oak log cof fins, but only a few examples have been surveyed using modern meth ods. Some of these oak log coffins also contain information about tex tile and clothing, as well as woodwork etc. from the Early Bronze Age (1700-1100 BC) in the Nordic region.
There are seven wellpreserved outfits from the Early Bronze Age; these are assumed to be the clothing that was used while the person was alive, i.e. not special clothing for the burial. This assumption is based on the fact that the clothes have traces of wear, and there are also signs that long skirts had been reused and made into other pieces of clothing (Eskildsen & Lomborg 1977). Of the seven outfits, three are regarded as women's clothing based on osteological analysis and/or the artefacts found in the coffin. Too often, only these three complete outfits from the oaklog coffin burials have formed the entire basis for analyses and discussions of appearance and gender roles based on clothing in Scan dinavia. This article demonstrates the dangers of basing our interpreta tions on this limited material only, and the importance of tracking down all relevant traces to assemble the largest sample possible.
One of these three burials, the Egtved burial, contains a corded skirt (Thomsen 1929). This is the only complete example of a corded skirt, al Ordinary or Extraordinary? Figure 1. The Ølby burial, female burial with textile remains of corded skirt as well as bronze tubes (after Boye 1896Boye [1986: Pl. XXVI). though there are many other traces of corded skirts that contribute to a fuller picture of this garment type. A corded skirt has a narrow starting border, which warp threads were twisted onto to form a series of cords. These cords were held together at the bottom by a fine string (Broholm & Hald 1935:285-286). Bronze tubes were sometimes used to deco rate the cords, and are one of the primary indications of the presence of a corded skirt. In a number of burials such as Ølby, Denmark (Boye 1896(Boye [1986:138, Pl. XXVI, see Figure 1) one row or more of bronze tubes have been found below the beltplate. Many of these bronze tubes contain remains of woollen cords and other textile fragments showing very clearly that they were a part of a corded skirt (Fossøy & Bergerbrant 2013). Sofaer (2006) argues that it is important, wherever possible, to study both the archaeological artefacts and the body together since they are related to each other. What is left for the Early Bronze Age South Scan dinavians is a part of the performed gender. In some cases it is hard for us to make out which category the deceased belonged to, but this would not have been the case for those attending the funeral. In order to under stand the medium within which appearance acts, Sørensen has divided the total appearance into separate parts: cloth -the textile itself; clothing -garments created from the cloth; and costume -the assemblage of clothing, ornaments, and dress fittings (Sørensen 1991(Sørensen , 1997. Sø rensen's categories for appearance analysis provide a useful framework for approaching this study. The emphasis here is on the corded skirt as a costume, that is, the entire assemblage and its interpretation and so cial implications. The actual textile is given less attention, as it has been considered elsewhere, for example in Fossøy and Bergerbrant (2013).
There is no evidence that corded skirts were used in the Iron Age, as there are no textile remains indicating this (500 BC -c. AD 1000) (Man nering et al. 2012). This suggests that the corded skirt probably went out of use sometime during the Late Bronze Age (1100-500 BC). Due to a change in burial customs in the Late Bronze Age, from inhumation to cremation burials, the material is more difficult to interpret. This change also leads to fewer preserved textiles (Bender Jørgensen 1986:15). The burials from this period are not published in extensive catalogues as they are for the Early Bronze Age; it is therefore difficult to compile an overview of the number of burials containing bronze tubes. It is clear that some bronze tubes were used on possible corded skirts even during this period, as observed in some burials and hoards dating to the Late Bronze Age (Broholm 1949:59-60;Jensen 2002:391), however, these seem to be very rare and belong to Periods IV and V of the Late Bronze Age (Broholm 1946;1949:59, 92). This article therefore focuses on the material from the Early Bronze Age (1500-1100 BC).

Ordinary or Extraordinary?
This article considers different views on the corded skirt one by one and assembles all of the evidence relevant for the discussion so that it may be critically examined. The main material for this debate derives from the graves and their content, and burials taken into consideration have either bronze tubes and/or actual textile remains of corded skirts. The fact that the research on dress in the South Scandinavian Bronze Age has only fo cused on a few graves rather than including all relevant material has re sulted in severe biases in the interpretations, and here it is argued that it has led to a distorted understanding of Bronze Age gender roles, overempha sizing the ritual aspects and the "erotic" significance of the corded skirt.

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF PREVIOUS RESEARCH
The Egtved excavator suggested three possible interpretations for the corded skirt, which he compared with the only other female dress then known, i.e. that from Borum Eshøj. The suggestions were: a summer dress, the young girl's costume or ritual attire (Thomsen 1929:195-196). Below these different interpretations will be examined critically based on the burial and hoard assemblages containing textile remains from a corded skirt and/or bronze tubes. In all the wellexcavated burials where we have knowledge of the placement of the bronze tubes they have been found below the waist (Bergerbrant 2005;Fossøy & Bergerbrant 2013), therefore bronze tubes are here seen as an indication that the buried in dividual in life had worn a corded skirt. The archaeological material for this evaluation can be found in Tables 1 and 2.

Summer dress?
The interpretation of the corded skirt as a summer dress has most re cently been discussed by Randsborg (2011:80-81). Randsborg starts by testing this idea based on a hypothesis he and Nybo published (1986), where they argue that the direction of the coffin and the placement of the head in the coffin indicate the time of year the deceased was buried. Summer in this sense is a fairly long period ranging from March to mid October (Randsborg 2011:80-81), i.e. a period of seven and half months, leaving the winter period midOctober to March. It is also argued that: In most regions, the supine dead person "faces" east and the sunrise at the time of the burial, the head being in the western end of the coffin. How ever, on eastern Sjaelland (Zealand), and further east in the Skåne (Scania) Countries, including Bornholm, the dead usually faces west and the sunset at the time of the burial (Randsborg 2011:80). One element brought into this discussion is organic material found in the oaklog coffins. Randsborg argues that the yarrow (Achillea millefolium) flower found in the Egtved burial (Thomsen 1929:179-180) indi cates burial between June and September (burial facing 78º east to north) (Randsborg & Nybo 1986:164). The fully developed cow pars ley (Anthriscus silvestris) in the Skrydstrup burial (Broholm & Hald 1939:23) would have grown from April to October, and flowers in May and June, and the burial here faced 90º east (Randsborg & Nybo 1986:164). According to the authors, a mature plant would derive from the period after flowering, i.e. July to October (Randsborg & Nybo 1986:164). This indicates that both the Egtved and Skrydstrup were bur ied in the same season, meaning that both female costumes would have been worn at the same time of the year. Grave B in Guldhøj contained three fresh, fully developed crab apples (Pyrus malus sylvestris) (Boye 1896(Boye [1986:77), which, according to Randsborg and Nybo, probably occurred in midOctober as the grave is "facing" 108º east (Randsborg & Nybo 1986:164). From these three burials the authors hypothesized that the orientation of the coffin and the head reveals the season in which the deceased was buried.
According to Randsborg (2011:80) the burials with corded skirts clearly cluster in the warmer period, April to September, and he points out that there is no clear burial evidence in the warmest period, from May to July. This seems to be based on the direction of eleven burials (Randsborg 2011: Table 6). Going through the source material, it was possible to determine the direction of another twelve coffins. Therefore, the direction of 23 burials has been taken into account in this study. As shown in Figure 2, they seem to occur across the seasons, spanning from winter to summer. This suggests that either the Randsborg and Nybo model of a relationship between the direction of the coffin and the season is flawed, or that there is no clear connection between the corded skirt and summer, or possibly that both ideas are erroneous. In other words, no clear connection may be identified between the corded skirt and the summer period based on the available material and current methods for analysing it, and therefore it is not possible to conclude that the corded skirt was used only during certain seasons. Ordinary or Extraordinary? Attire relating to age or marriage status?
Many assumptions have been made about the age of the wearer of a corded skirt. Based on the age of the Egtved girl and the Borum Eshøj woman, Thomsen (1929:195-196) suggested that the corded skirt was the dress of the young women in contrast to the mature woman, who wore a long skirt (see Figure 3). This interpretation is also found in Ør jan Engedal's (2010:291) Ph.D. thesis, where it is suggested based on the three oaklog coffin burials (Borum Eshøj burial C, Skrydstrup and Egtved) that the corded skirt was related to the fertile unmarried or fer tile nonmother stage, and that the long skirt was linked to the mother or married stage of a woman's life. Based on the age of the women in the above graves he suggests that this shift probably occurred around the age of 17-19 years old. Eskildsen and Lomborg (1976; came to the opposite conclusion based on an idea from Nielsen (1971) that the female long skirt could have been remade into either a kilt and a cloak, or a wraparound and a cloak, depending on the length of the long skirt. Based on this assumption they assume that the corded skirt is the married woman's dress.
These assumptions are based on two or three burials. Unfortunately, there are few burials with preserved skeletal material. Only eight of the 43 burials with indications of corded skirts (see Table 1) have any in formation about age, and in one case age can only be inferred from the size of the coffin and the artefacts (see Table 3).

Burial
Age Source  (Christensen 1999:113). There are no bones preserved (Boye 1896(Boye [1986:88-95). The oaklog coffin inner measurements of grave C are 1.13 × 0.34-0.31 m and it is 18 cm deep. This grave con tained a thin skin, textile remains, a child's armring (inner diameter 4 × 3.6 cm), an amber bead and a tin button (Boye 1896(Boye [1986:93-94). The size of the inner coffin and the diameter of the armring indicate that it was a child's burial (Boye 1896(Boye [1986:94). Based on a study of children's growth from the World Health Organization (WHO 2007), most children today reach the height of 110 cm before the age of six, in dicating that the deceased was probably under six years old at the time of the burial. The very narrow armring also indicates that the grave is that of a child under six years old. Therefore it is assumed here that the child was probably six years old or younger.
The average life expectancy in the Bronze Age varies slightly between different regions during the Bronze Age; for women in Lower Austria it was about 35 years old and for the men some more years (Teschler Nicola 1994:169). Don Brothwell (1972:83) has shown that the average life expectancy for a 19yearold in the English Bronze Age was 29.9 for women and 31.3 for men. Only 3.3% of the population reached over 50 years old (Brothwell 1972:84). There are probably two reasons why we have no individual wearing the corded skirt who is over 30 years old: firstly, few women reached the age of 30, and secondly, the number of aged skeletons in the studied material is small. The fact that we have re mains of corded skirts from more or less the full age span in the Bronze Age, from a small child to adult, indicates that age was not a determin ing factor in who wore a corded skirt in the period 1500-1100 BC.
Evidence for ritual dress or other social categories? Thomsen (1929:195-196) suggested, but doubted, that the corded skirt could indicate that the Egtved girl could have been a temple dancer in volved in erotic rituals. The idea is probably partly a reflection of the prevailing attitude of the time, which viewed the skirt as indecent. The ritual connection has survived the centuries, though, and may possibly be connected to the fact that many people still attach an "erotic" con notation to the skirt and to the female figurines from Fårdal. Dating both rock art and figurines can be rather difficult; the figurines seem to belong to a Later Bronze Age phase (Broholm 1949:59-60). How ever, there is little evidence or discussion as to why the corded skirt should have a ritual connection. In an attempt to address this Rands borg (2011) formulated a number of criteria for defining female status, Ordinary or Extraordinary? such as senior (married) member of cult group, and so forth (Randsborg 2011:165). He does not discuss the reasons for his distinctions beyond that it seems logical to attach married status to the woman in Borum Eshøj and unmarried status to the women buried in the famous Egtved burial and in the Skrydstrup grave (Randsborg 2011:86-87), i.e. trying to use some form of commonsense logic rather than scientific criteria to distinguish whether a woman was married or not. He also adopts the idea that some of the beltplates held calendar information (see Rands borg 2006:68-78), and that this should be regarded as "secret know ledge" which only select beltplates had, thus indicating their ritual sta tus. However, he maintains that most of the beltplates were just imita tions made without this specialist knowledge (Randsborg 2011:87-88). According to Randsborg: It is very interesting that certain women carried such superb astronomical knowledge in their bronze image of the sun. It underlines their role in soci ety, and in particular in the sun cult (Randsborg 2011:87).
It seems rather contradictory that Randsborg views all beltplates as signs of cult membership when he argues that most of the beltplates did not contain the exclusive calendar information and most of the makers of the beltplates, and therefore probably the wearers, were unaware of this knowledge. The main objects that show a woman as a person with "cul tic" obligations are beltplates and/or tutuli, the criteria mainly based on definitions advanced by Randsborg (Randsborg 2006:27). There are problems with the criteria for the different groups as they seem to be based on only a very limited part of the known material, and mainly based on the wellknown and rich burials, as well as Randsborg's own ideas about the orientation of burials in connection with the season (see above), and beltplates as calendars, etc. Other authors have also argued for a cultic relationship for the beltplate: A select group of chiefly elite women during the period 1500-1300 BC car ried the symbol of the sun, identical to the Trundholm sunchariot, on their bellies as an ornament that symbolised their chosen role. These women were also wearing the short corded skirt, and we see the same (young) priest esses in the female figurines from the ritual miniatures… (Kristiansen & Larsson 2005:298).
This quotation could easily make one think that they connect the corded skirt only to cultic behaviour, but in an unpublished manuscript from 1975, which was translated and published in 2013 (Kristiansen 2013), Kristiansen argued that there was only one Nordic Bronze Age costume, and that this comprised a blouse, a corded skirt and an outer garment (see also Kristiansen 1974). In other words the beltplate would have been the only possible indication of a ritual function. However, the stress placed on the corded skirt in connection with ritual use in many texts blurs this idea.
Here Randsborg's criteria have been applied to all of the burials and hoards with bronze tubes and/or burials with textile remains of corded skirts from the Early Bronze Age known to the author (see Tables 1 and  2). Hoards are here seen as one or more person's personal belongings following Kristiansen (1974). Frost (2011:39) has already interpreted the hoard from Vognserup Enge as the remains of two ritual costumes. In order to test whether Randsborg's criteria (see Table 4) fit his interpreta tion of the corded skirt as ritual attire, all the material must be included in the discussion (see Tables 1 and 2 for all of the material in this study).
When categorizing the burials and hoards compiled in Tables 1 and 2 according to Randsborg's criteria for different social groups (see Ta ble 4), less than half of the burials can be classified as cult members (see Table 5), and if the category "high rank" is included then 49% be long to this group; excluding the category "high rank", only 37% can be seen as belonging to the ritual sphere. When the hoards are added the numbers increase to 56%. This would also hold true for Kristian sen and Larsson's association of beltplates as indicators of individuals with ritual function, as all the burials classified as senior or junior cult members contain beltplates.
Can the artefacts found in burials with corded skirts give us any clues about the status of the wearers or any indication of a common identity? As shown above, the burials with bronze tubes or remains of corded skirts fit into all of Randsborg's categories; from high rank to low rank, from unmarried to married. It therefore seems that the artefacts indi cate that the corded skirt was used by a large variety of women in the Early Bronze Age. A look at the content of the burials (see Table 1) dem onstrates that bronze tubes are the most common artefact type found in association with corded skirts, but this is probably only due to pres ervation conditions, as the corded skirts without bronze tubes are less likely to be preserved. The three burials with remains of corded skirts but no bronze tubes indicate that the skirt might have been a more com mon type than the material might at first suggest. No typical artefact or pattern in the combination of artefacts has been identified to signal the presence of a corded skirt (Table 1). The corded skirt exists both in buri als that are heavily laden with bronze and also in some with very little bronze material. This seems to indicate a degree of universality in the use of the corded skirt, which occurs across a wide range of social groups.

Late Bronze Age figurines
One of the main arguments for a ritual connection for the corded skirt is the Late Bronze Age figurines (see e.g. Kristiansen & Larsson 2005:298). There are only a few human representations from the Late Bronze Age that show individuals wearing corded skirts. These people tend to wear jewellery such as earrings, armrings and neckrings, but Table 5. The numbers and percentage of burials with bronze tubes and/or textile re mains of corded skirts (43 burials and 4 hoards including 7 personal sets). The hoard from Turinge has been excluded from this study as it occurs far from the core area and seems to have occurred with a very different set of artefacts, and therefore does not correspond as a personal set(s).  have no clothing other than the corded skirt (Broholm 1949:264-270;Jensen 2002:391-393). As discussed above there is no clear connection between corded skirts in the Early Bronze Age and any specific jewel lery type, so this relationship between the bronze figures and neckrings is only seen in the Late Bronze Age figurines. Neckrings can be seen on the helmetwearing men from Grevensvaenge as well (Djupedal & Bro holm 1953) and are therefore not genderspecific, but might be related to ritual practices. Most of the preserved female figurines are of stand ing naked women, each wearing a neckring (Broholm 1949:265-267;Malmer 1992:378). There are neck collars or neckrings present in 43% of the burial material, or 48% when the hoard material is added, mak ing the connection with the corded skirt stronger than that with the belt plate. There is information about a female bronze figurine wearing a different type of skirt that was found in Grevensvaenge in the late eight eenth century, which is only known in the form of a drawing (Djupedal & Broholm 1953). The figurines wearing corded skirts ( Figure 4) are dated to Periods IV and V (Broholm 1949:265-267). A clear difference between the preserved corded skirt from Egtved and the depictions is that the figurines wore much shorter versions of the skirt. They just ba sically cover the bottom, whereas in the burial they are longer. The Egt ved skirt is 38-40 cm long (Thomsen 1929:189) and the Ølby burial has two rows of bronze tubes (Boye 1896(Boye [1986: Taf 26), while the Melhøj example had three rows of bronze tubes (Thrane 1965). A clear visual difference can therefore be seen between the Early Bronze Age corded skirt and the ones represented on the figurines. Is every bronze figure with a corded skirt female? It has previously been assumed that the bronze figures wearing corded skirts from the Late Bronze Age are all female. The figure from Fårdal and the human shaped knife handle from Itzehoe have clear breasts (Broholm 1949:269, Planche 71;Glob 1970:129, 131), indicating that they are indeed repre sentations of females. The somersaulters from Grevensvaenge are not as clearcut as the other two. The Grevensvaenge find contained seven fig urines, of which we know the appearance of six, but only two of them are preserved and are now in the collections of the National Museum of Denmark. Three of the seven are individuals wearing a neckring and a corded skirt, and they are all doing somersaults. Only one of the som ersaulters is preserved, but according to the sources they all looked the same (Djupedal & Broholm 1953:30-32, 49). When the preserved som ersaulter is compared with the preserved horned male and the drawings of the vanished human figures (Broholm 1949:267, 269;Glob 1970:134, 137) it is apparent that all of the figurines in the find wore neckrings, and no obvious breasts may be seen. Only the lost figurine wearing a long skirt has something that may possibly be interpreted as breastsor as a fibula. The preserved figurines both have protruding and point ing chins. The sex of the somersaulters is difficult to say for certain, as they could be males taking on a female role in ritual. All the human fig ures seem to have a clear connection to ritual acts, including the female figure on the knife handle from Itzehoe, who holds a bowl (Broholm 1949:268) from which she seems to be serving something.

Burials
To sum up the evidence so far, there seems to be nothing to indicate a clearcut, exclusive ritual connection for the corded skirts in the Early Bronze Age; however, most of the evidence from the Late Bronze Age seems to relate to the ritual sphere.

OTHER POSSIBLE EVIDENCE
Is there anything else in the burial record that can help us to understand the social use of the corded skirts? Below the distribution and the type of burial of the women with corded skirts is analysed.

Distribution of corded skirts
Does the distribution of the corded skirt give us any information about the wearers? As can be seen in Figure 5, most evidence of the corded skirt can be found in the older Valsømagle region (Vandkilde 1996:16-17). This difference of geographical evidence for corded skirts is probably due to smallscale regional variations in the costume tradition between Scandinavian areas where the bronze tubes were used on the corded skirts in the former Valsømagle region (Bergerbrant 2005). As seen in the three finds of remains of corded skirts without bronze tubes (Fossøy & Bergerbrant 2013:25-27), corded skirts were used outside the former Valsømagle region as well. If Engedal's (2010:112) interpretation of the slab in KyrkjeEide is correct then we have indications that corded skirts were used over a fairly large area. It therefore seems that the corded skirt was used in most parts of the South Scandinavian Early Bronze Age, Montelius Periods II and III, but that the use of bronze tubes to adorn the skirt was limited to a smaller region. It has been shown that the tra dition of adding bronze tubes probably started on northern Zealand and spread both west and eastwards, where it was mainly used in Period III in Scania and Bornholm (Bergerbrant 2005).

Burial type
The burials are mainly found in mounds, some as the primary burial, but most as secondary burials. In the burial material there are both in Ordinary or Extraordinary? humation and cremation burials. Four graves with bronze tubes were placed in mounds containing megaliths. We do not have good find in formation about all the finds; in some cases all we know is that they oc curred in a mound, and for others we do not have any find information period II grave period III grave period II hoard period III hoard corded skirts without tubes at all (see Table 1). Two burials stand out from the general picture in terms of their placement. One with secure find information is Valleberga 5:2, which is an inhumation under flat ground placed close to a mound (Strömberg 1975:58). The grave contained one beltplate, two armspi rals and a large quantity of bronze tubes (Strömberg 1975:58-59). The burials cannot be classified as poor, and according to Randsborg's defi nitions the individual would be a "junior member" of the cult. Why she diverges from the normal pattern and was buried next to a mound, and not in one, is difficult to say. The other example, Gyldensgård, is less secure, but it is also a probable Early Bronze Age cremation found in association with a mound. The burial contains only bronze tubes, and according to Randsborg's criteria is of "lower rank".
The general picture seems to indicate that the women wearing corded skirts belong to the category of people that had the right to be buried in mounds, since most of the graves are found in mounds. It also indicates that that corded skirt wearers ranged from those who were wealthy in bronze to those who were not.

CONCLUSION
This study clearly demonstrates the importance of bringing in all the available evidence when discussing different artefacts or pieces of cos tumes social importance. Sometimes we only have a few examples to interpret from and we have no choice but to do the best we can with the limited material.
It seems that the human figurines wearing corded skirts in the Late Bronze Age have a connection to ritual, but this does not mean that they define the function of the clothing type or should be used as the proto type to interpret all corded skirts found in burials from the Early Bronze Age, as the corded skirt appears to have been a fairly common piece of attire in the Early Bronze Age (occurring in no less than 43 of the female burials on record). In addition, it was used by a range of social cate gories among females. The one unifying link seems to be the right to be buried in a mound, since all but two were found in mounds, albeit some occurred in the mound of an older megalithic monument. The skirts were also used by a wide age range, indicating that the right to wear a corded skirt had nothing to do with age, marriage status, motherhood or any specific function in society. It just seems to have been a common piece of costume in the Early Bronze Age, used both in ordinary, every day wear and by the ritual specialist. Whether the bronze tubes went out of fashion or the popularity of the corded skirt just waned in the Ordinary or Extraordinary?
Late Bronze Age is difficult to say with any confidence, as the changing burial tradition leaves us with much less textile material. Based on the human figurines, it seems that the corded skirts became much shorter than they had once been, and it is possible that the use of the corded skirt died out in the early part of the Late Bronze Age, persisting as an archaic piece of costume used only in rituals.