Historical Tales

Analysis of a 2,800-year-old burial shroud found in Denmark has been found to be made of imported wild nettles, not cultivated flax as previously thought.

This discovery, announced…in the journal Scientific Reports, casts a new light on the textile trade in Bronze Age Europe, said study researcher Ulla Mannering, an archaeologist at the University of Copenhagen.

“Since the Stone Age, they had very well-developed agriculture and technology for producing linen textiles,” Mannering told LiveScience. “So it’s really unusual that a society which has established agriculture would also take in material from things that are not of the normal standardized agricultural production” — in other words, wild plants.

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Story: Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience | Photo: National Museum of Denmark

Tagged as: Burial Shrouds, Denmark, Fabrics, Materials, Nettles, Weaving