Linen | One of the oldest fabrics known to humanity (2024)

FAQs

Is linen the oldest textile in the world? ›

Linen textiles appear to be some of the oldest in the world; their history goes back many thousands of years. Dyed flax fibers found in a cave in Southeastern Europe (present-day Georgia) suggest the use of woven linen fabrics from wild flax may date back over 30,000 years.

The oldest example of textiles yet identified by archaeologists is at the Dzudzuana Cave in the former Soviet state of Georgia. There, a handful of flax fibers was discovered that had been twisted, cut and even dyed a range of colors. The fibers were radiocarbon-dated to between 30,000-36,000 years ago.

Carbon-dating has proved that linen was used as clothing in Egypt dating back to 8,000 BC. It was prised for its ability to remain cool and fresh in warm weather. Linen is a fibre made from the flax plant, or more accurately, from the cellulose fibres that grow inside of the stalks of the flax plant.

Heidi Yellen's bioenergetics study reveals that fabrics possess unique frequencies influencing our energy and health. High-frequency fabrics like linen, wool, organic cotton, and hemp impart energy, while synthetic fabrics exhibit lower frequencies, potentially draining our energy.

Textiles have been an integral part of human daily life for thousands of years, with the first use of textiles, most likely felt, dates back to the late Stone Age, roughly 100,000 years ago. However, the earliest instances of cotton, silk and linen being to appear around 5,000 BC in India, Egypt and China.

The Tarkhan Dress, named for the Tarkhan cemetery south of Cairo in Egypt where it was excavated in 1913, is an over 5000 year old linen garment that was confirmed as the world's oldest piece of woven clothing.

The first material used for clothing is the natural fibres obtained from both plants and animal sources. These include cotton, flax, wool, leather, silk, etc. The first plant fibres used for extracting fibres are from flax seeds. Flax fibres are 36,000 years old.

The Tarkhan Dress, a V-neck linen shirt currently on display in the UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, has been confirmed as the world's oldest woven garment with radiocarbon testing dating the garment to the late fourth-millennium BC.

The first man-made fibre is Nylon. Nylon is a well-known synthetic polymer (derived from the Greek words 'poly' meaning 'many' and 'meros' meaning 'parts'). It was invented by Wallace Carothers and first brought to the public's attention in October 1938. The nylon molecules are very flexible with only weak forces.

Linen was a symbol of purity in Biblical times, and it is recorded in the prophets that angelic beings appeared, wearing fine linen garments (Ezekiel Chapters 9 and 10; Daniel Chapters 10 and 12; and Revelation Chapter 15).

Who wore linen in the Bible? ›

Priests wore an 'ezor of linen known as a 'ephodh. If worn for mourning, it was called a saḳ.

Linen is more costly than cotton because the flax plant from which linen originates demands special care and attention during harvest and – lacking elastic properties – is harder to weave without the risk of snapping threads.

Non-organic cotton registers a signature frequency of about 70. If the fabric has a higher frequency, it gives energy to the body. This is where linen comes in as a super-fabric. Its frequency is 5,000.

Linen is a flax-based textile that is predominantly used for homeware applications. While linen is similar to cotton, it is made from fibers derived from the stems of the flax plant instead of the bolls that grow around cotton seeds. Garments made of linen are desirable in hot and humid climates.

The earliest known woven textiles of the Near East may be flax fabrics used to wrap the dead; these were excavated at a Neolithic site at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia. Carbonized, and "protected by several layers of clay/plaster, in an anaerobic milieu....

The Indian Textile Industry

The story of textiles in India is one of the oldest in the world. The earliest surviving Indian cotton threads date to around 4000 BC and dyed fabrics from the region are documented as far back as 2500 BC.

First up is linen, one of the oldest textiles developed, dating back nearly 10,000 years. Most people associate' linen fabric with more expensive clothing, fancy tablecloths and napkins.