I've had my eye on attempting a recreation of the Gokstad backpack for a while now. http://web.missouri.edu/~rls555/SCA/research/gokbkpk/gokbkpk.htm is a great summation of the archaeological find, and if you look on pinterest there are a lot of modern recreations, either of wicker or leather. I felt like doing something a little different, and started a model size one in coil basketry. I've been wanting to give coil baskets a shot for a while now and this is as good a way to practice as any. My materials are very much modern, I'm using the twisted brown paper you use to make rush seats and some artificial sinew (nobody sane would use actual sinew in this project, unless they somehow had a T-Rex worth of the stuff).