From flax to linen. Experiments with flax - Ribe VikingeCenter

Figure 12. Textile remains found in hut CME, Aarhus. (Andersen et al. 1971). Not to scale.
Discussion
Aarhus is obviously different from the rural sites at Næs or Löddeköpinge, in that it was a town
proper. But both of the latter sites are interpreted as landing sites, and in that respect they are near
parallels to the site in Aarhus. They are found in a context of specialized production and longdistance
trade for linen. The finds from Aarhus are not extensive enough themselves to be
interpreted as anything than local production, but with the find context of a Viking Age town,
they still belong to the same sphere.
The other production sites can not all be interpreted in this context. But what one can possibly
conclude from the discussions above is that linen was connected to higher status -or just
considered “finer”- than wool during the Viking Age. With this status, and with the general
development of trade and transport networks, which characterize Viking Age society, an
economic niche developed, where some sites specialized in the production of linen. The sunken
huts with loom weights indicate that linen was traded in the form of finished cloth. If
specialization to this degree was common, there is no reason to assume that even fine linen cloth
was imported, unless there is direct evidence for import. This has otherwise been suggested even
for the fabric of the Viborg shirt (Fentz 1988). The weavers at such specialized sites would have
had ample opportunity to develop the necessary skills for making a high quality product, had there
been a demand for it.
These interpretations would stand stronger, if more attention was paid to wells and pits in
archaeological excavations. Clearly the archaeologists on Funen have been alert to this type of
find, and therefore there are several sites from this island. Applying basic market theory to the
notion that linen was a high status commodity which was in demand during the Viking Age, we
predict that similar sites can be found all over the country. The examples from Skånsø and
Dallund illustrate how botanical evidence is also important in mapping out the history of linen
production.
Of more direct consequence to this study, we can expect that if linen production was indeed a
specialized craft during the Viking Age, then even the experiences artisans who participated in
our work will most likely not be able to keep up. We will probably overestimate time.
Tools
What we can do is to make sure that the tools we use in our experiments are as close as possible
to those used during the Viking Age, at least minimizing that variable. The purpose of the
following is therefore to present the sources that the tools we have used in our experiments are
based on. In this section we have relied heavily on Behr (2000), who has compiled an excellent
overview over textile related tools from medieval Denmark.
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