“Oldest”, “rarest”, “most celebrated” … these adjectives are intentionally avoided in the major new exhibition, Tartan, at the V&A Dundee. It is ironic, therefore, that myself and the other curators have chosen to display the earliest authenticated fragment of tartan found in Scotland – an item which could be described using all three adjectives.
Following radiocarbon dating and extensive dye analysis, the Glen Affric tartan – first discovered in a peat bog in the 1980s – has been dated to between 1500 and 1600. Naturally occurring green, brown, red and yellow dyes have been detected in the textile fragment, which is woven in the characteristic pattern (or “sett”, as the individual pattern of a tartan is officially known).
This discovery revises previous scholarship which suggested that the Falkirk tartan (dating back to the third century CE) was the earliest example of “true tartan”. In fact, this older fragment is actually a simple two-colour checked weave – or “shepherd’s plaid” – unlike the multicoloured true tartan pattern of the Glen Affric.
