CoffeeshopWithACause t1_jduk360 wrote
Reply to comment by barkfoot in Oldest tartan found to date back to 16th Century - A scrap of fabric found in a Highland peat bog 40 years ago is likely to be the oldest tartan ever discovered in Scotland, new tests have established. by ArtOak
Pretty much. 'Whereas tartan - that is, cloth woven in a geometrical pattern of colours - was known in Scotland in the sixteenth century [...] the philibeg - name and thing - is unknown before the eighteenth century. So far from being a traditional Highland dress, it was invented by an Englishman after the Union of 1707; and the differentiated 'clan tartans' are an even later invention.'
From The Invention of Tradition, eds. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, contribution by Hugh Trevor-Roper.
[deleted] t1_jdukr8z wrote
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