From flax to linen: Experiments with flax at Ribe Viking Centre

CONTENT 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 5 The project ................................................................................................................................... 6 The Viborg shirt ........................................................................................................................... 6 Flax .............................................................................................................................................. 8 From flax to linen..................................................................................................................... 9 Project design ............................................................................................................................. 12 Structure of this report ........................................................................................................... 13 Is time of the essence? ........................................................................................................... 14 Experiment and experience .................................................................................................... 15 2. FLAX DURING THE VIKING AGE .............................................................................................. 17 Flax before the Vikings .............................................................................................................. 17 Danish finds ........................................................................................................................... 18 Viking Age textiles .................................................................................................................... 19 Danish finds ........................................................................................................................... 19 Towns..................................................................................................................................... 20 Production sites .......................................................................................................................... 21 Næs ........................................................................................................................................ 21 Parallels .................................................................................................................................. 23 Århus ...................................................................................................................................... 25 Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 26 Tools .......................................................................................................................................... 26 Rippling.................................................................................................................................. 27 Breaking ................................................................................................................................. 27 Scutching................................................................................................................................ 28 Heckling ................................................................................................................................. 28 Spinning ................................................................................................................................. 29 Weaving ................................................................................................................................. 30 Other tools.............................................................................................................................. 31 3. FIELD EXPERIMENTS ................................................................................................................ 33 Growing flax .............................................................................................................................. 33 The fields ................................................................................................................................... 33 Weather conditions .................................................................................................................... 35 Sowing and weeding .................................................................................................................. 36 Growth ....................................................................................................................................... 37 Harvesting .................................................................................................................................. 38 Drying ........................................................................................................................................ 40 Rippling ..................................................................................................................................... 41 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 43 4. FROM PLANT TO YARN............................................................................................................. 47 Retting ........................................................................................................................................ 47 The experiments ..................................................................................................................... 49 Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 50 Breaking ..................................................................................................................................... 50 The process ............................................................................................................................ 51 The experiments ..................................................................................................................... 51 2