Post-medieval dress accessories from recent urban excavations in Scotland

This paper presents a discussion of some of the small, everyday artefacts of post-medieval life which have been recovered from a number of recent excavations in urban Scotland. In some of these excavations, the medieval archaeology has been of primary importance; hence the artefactual evidence of the past three or four centuries has sometimes received relatively less attention in necessarily selective publication reports. The dress accessories discussed here have both archaeological and socio-historical significance. Each type of accessory has gone through a process of evolution, influenced by changing economic needs, fashions, social values and manufacturing technologies. The post-medieval development of these artefacts provides an evolutionary and technological link between their medieval predecessors and their present day equivalents. The artefacts discussed specifically are all from excavations carried out by the Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust between 1983 and 1995, in Elgin, Paisley, Perth and St Andrews.