Fibre analysis identifies hemp in fine Scandinavian medieval textiles

A 2013 investigation identified hemp in fine textiles preserved from Viking and medieval Scandinavia. The result expands the plant’s material history beyond the ropes and sailcloth with which hemp is often associated. It also shows why an inherited museum description can be a starting point for research rather than a final identification.

Looking again at the fibres

G. Skoglund, M. Nockert and B. Holst examined ten textile samples previously described as flax. Their study combined fibre examination methods, including polarized-light analysis of fibre structure, to distinguish materials that can be difficult to identify by appearance alone.

Four samples contained hemp. Three combined it with flax, while the examined Lomen coverlet material was identified as hemp. A mixture is a significant result in its own right: naming a textile after one plant can hide the use of another in the same object.

Fine woven objects

The hemp-bearing samples included two pieces of the Överhogdal wall-hangings and the Marby hanging in Sweden, together with the Lomen coverlet from Norway. The study’s table places the Överhogdal pieces in 900–1100 CE, Marby in 1030–1160 and Lomen in 1165–1260.

These are woven objects associated with decoration and household or church preservation, rather than evidence limited to coarse cordage. The identification changes the range of objects through which the history of cannabis can be studied.

What the sample establishes

Four out of ten describes this particular investigation. It is not a survey of all Scandinavian textiles and cannot be converted into a percentage of medieval cloth made from hemp. The researchers also distinguish finding plant pollen or seeds from demonstrating textile manufacture.

That distinction matters when connecting agriculture to craft. A seed assemblage may show the presence of a plant, but fibres in a woven object answer a different question: what material the maker actually used. Neither result, on its own, identifies the whole organization of cultivation, processing and exchange.

Two dates to keep separate

The history entry is dated 18 October 2013, when the study was published. The objects belong to much earlier periods. Placing the research at its publication date avoids inventing a single year in which Scandinavian people began weaving hemp.

Recorded under Sweden, the event also includes Norwegian evidence. It concerns craft, material identification and the recovery of overlooked cannabis history; it does not imply intoxicating use by the people who made or preserved the textiles.^[1]