First experimental evidence of hop fibres in historical textiles

Hop (Humulus lupulus) has been used in Scandinavia since at least the ninth century AD, as documented through archaeological findings and written, historical records. The written records are mainly focused on the use of cone-shaped flowers for beer brewing and medical purposes, but there are also records, for example, from the famous Swedish botanist Carl von Linne, who mentions the use of hop fibres for textile production. However, until now no experimental investigations have been published on the use of hop fibres in cultural heritage objects. A major reason for this has been the lack of a suitable characterization method. Hop is a bast fibre, just as flax and hemp and bast fibres cannot be distinguished from each other by simple optical inspection. Recently a new identification method for hop fibres was published by the authors of this article. Here we apply the new method in an investigation of two Swedish cultural heritage objects: (i) a woman’s garment from the nineteenth century, which was labelled as having an upper section made from coarse linen and a bottom section made of hemp and hop and (ii) a textile fragment from an eighteenth-century textile sample book, which was labelled as being made from hop. We show that the woman’s garment is made with hop and hemp fibres and the textile fragment from the textile sample book is made with hop. Our work provides the first direct proof that hop fibres were used for textiles in the past.publishedVersio

Hampa i det svenska textilarvet : en studie i hur historia om textilföremål arrangeras i mellanrummet mellan natur och kultur

This essay is about the Swedish textile heritage but also with an analysis of handmade hemp textiles from Transylvania. Plant fibers such as hemp and flax grown in a soil nature that existed around the subsistence farm. The knowledge of the earth nature combined with textiles has not been specifically studied in the research from the last century. By examining simple folk textiles of hemp shows how the textiles also are an universal field. The focus is on the raw material which is a transformation between nature and culture. With a phenomenological approach, the study will describe how the textile heritage announcement molds a territory in the interpretation of "our" Swedish plantfibres for textiles uses. In this territory there are both natural science and cultural studies from the 1600- to the 2000-centuries. The study goes on comparative elements with regions in Sweden, England and France. The focus is also on the actors and voices from the past and present who shaped the Swedish textile heritage

Hampa i det svenska textilarvet : en studie i hur historia om textilföremål arrangeras i mellanrummet mellan natur och kultur

This essay is about the Swedish textile heritage but also with an analysis of handmade hemp textiles from Transylvania. Plant fibers such as hemp and flax grown in a soil nature that existed around the subsistence farm. The knowledge of the earth nature combined with textiles has not been specifically studied in the research from the last century. By examining simple folk textiles of hemp shows how the textiles also are an universal field. The focus is on the raw material which is a transformation between nature and culture. With a phenomenological approach, the study will describe how the textile heritage announcement molds a territory in the interpretation of "our" Swedish plantfibres for textiles uses. In this territory there are both natural science and cultural studies from the 1600- to the 2000-centuries. The study goes on comparative elements with regions in Sweden, England and France. The focus is also on the actors and voices from the past and present who shaped the Swedish textile heritage

Hampa i det svenska textilarvet : en studie i hur historia om textilföremål arrangeras i mellanrummet mellan natur och kultur

This essay is about the Swedish textile heritage but also with an analysis of handmade hemp textiles from Transylvania. Plant fibers such as hemp and flax grown in a soil nature that existed around the subsistence farm. The knowledge of the earth nature combined with textiles has not been specifically studied in the research from the last century. By examining simple folk textiles of hemp shows how the textiles also are an universal field. The focus is on the raw material which is a transformation between nature and culture. With a phenomenological approach, the study will describe how the textile heritage announcement molds a territory in the interpretation of "our" Swedish plantfibres for textiles uses. In this territory there are both natural science and cultural studies from the 1600- to the 2000-centuries. The study goes on comparative elements with regions in Sweden, England and France. The focus is also on the actors and voices from the past and present who shaped the Swedish textile heritage

Viking and early middle ages Northern Scandinavian textiles proven to be made with hemp

Nowadays most plant textiles used for clothing and household are made of cotton and viscose. Before the 19th century however, plant textiles were mainly made from locally available raw materials, in Scandinavia these were: nettle, hemp and flax. It is generally believed that in Viking and early Middle Ages Scandinavia hemp was used only for coarse textiles (i.e. rope and sailcloth). Here we present an investigation of 10 Scandinavian plant fibre textiles from the Viking and Early Middle Ages, believed to be locally produced. Up till now they were all believed to be made of flax. We show that 4 textiles, including two pieces of the famous O¨ verhogdal Viking wall-hanging are in fact made with hemp (in three cases hemp and flax are mixed). This indicates that hemp was important, not only for coarse but also for fine textile production in Viking and Early Middle Ages in Scandinavia

First experimental evidence of hop fibres in historical textiles

Hop (Humulus lupulus) has been used in Scandinavia since at least the ninth century AD, as documented through archaeological findings and written, historical records. The written records are mainly focused on the use of cone-shaped flowers for beer brewing and medical purposes, but there are also records, for example, from the famous Swedish botanist Carl von Linne, who mentions the use of hop fibres for textile production. However, until now no experimental investigations have been published on the use of hop fibres in cultural heritage objects. A major reason for this has been the lack of a suitable characterization method. Hop is a bast fibre, just as flax and hemp and bast fibres cannot be distinguished from each other by simple optical inspection. Recently a new identification method for hop fibres was published by the authors of this article. Here we apply the new method in an investigation of two Swedish cultural heritage objects: (i) a woman’s garment from the nineteenth century, which was labelled as having an upper section made from coarse linen and a bottom section made of hemp and hop and (ii) a textile fragment from an eighteenth-century textile sample book, which was labelled as being made from hop. We show that the woman’s garment is made with hop and hemp fibres and the textile fragment from the textile sample book is made with hop. Our work provides the first direct proof that hop fibres were used for textiles in the past