The fact is that the actual date when the first actual threads were worked into what would be described as lace is really unknown, and the topic of heavy debate. Now tools for making it have been discovered in ancient Roman archaeological digs, and at some 3000 years back that is the earliest that anyone can place it.
Even so, does this mean that the Romans were the first to develop lace? That is in fact highly unlikely, and anyone who has studied early Roman history knows why. You see, one of the reasons that the Romans became the dominant society in the Mediterranean region in those early times was their willingness and in fact desire to adapt ideas, and technologies from other cultures.
They were the Melting pot of that time, just as the US is today. So just as you look down to the roots of so many things that you can find in the US and see that it came from another peoples who immigrated there, the same can be surmised of these early Roman lace making tools.
Now having said all that this still does place the origins of lace making in the Mediterranean at some 3 thousand years ago. Now that's a heck of a long time back, and for the most part when you start rummaging around in archaeological digs going back that far, really the only things that you find to have survived are made out of stone, or bone. Things like fabric just don't survive.
Now a good number of experts on the topic of the history of lace have it cropping up in and around Europe sometime in the middle ages. Between say 1200 to 1400. However, if the above date is correct concerning lace making taking place in early Rome, then it can easily be surmised that it was they the Romans who first wore lace trimmed fabrics in Europe.
Now being that the first Romans stepped foot on British soil during their invasion that began in AD 43, that puts lace making in the region in fact being done in England. So has any ancient lace or lace making tools from that period some 2000 years ago ever been found in England?
The answer to that question is no, nothing from that period at all. Even so, if you back track and follow the demographic footprints laid down in the history of that time, it's not hard to reason that the Romans brought over more than weapons of war when they came. That they also brought some of the comforts of home like their lace.
Now be forewarned that all that you have read above is enough to get you into a fight in just about any country in Europe because a good percentage of them laid claim to or at least being contributory to some degree to the actual development of lace. Things of beauty like lace are funny that way. Everyone wants to have their name attached to it.
