Ancient Stinging Nettles Reveal Bronze Age Trade Connections

Science News ^ | September 28, 2012 | U of Copenhagen

[SunkenCiv]

A piece of nettle cloth retrieved from Denmark's richest known Bronze Age burial mound Lusehøj may actually derive from Austria, new findings suggest. The cloth thus tells a surprising story about long-distance Bronze Age trade connections around 800 BC.

2,800 years ago, one of Denmark's richest and most powerful men died. His body was burned. And the bereaved wrapped his bones in a cloth made from stinging nettle and put them in a stately bronze container, which also functioned as urn...

Karin Margarita Frei's work and the grave's archaeological remains suggest that the cloth may have been produced as far away as the Alps.

A bronze container, which had been used as urn, is of Central European origin and probably from the Kärnten-Steiermark region in Austria. The strontium isotope analysis of the cloth indicates that it may very well be from the same region...

The strontium isotope analyses have surprised Ulla Mannering... Central Europeans still used wild plants for textile production during the Bronze Age while at the same time cultivating textile plants such as flax on a large scale. Nettle textiles could apparently compete with textiles made from flax and other materials because top quality nettle fabrics are as good as raw silk.

The strontium isotope analyses also mean that Danish textile history needs revision.

[SunkenCiv]

The remains of the nettle cloth. (Credit: National Museum of Denmark)

[SunkenCiv]

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[blam]

Nettles = stinging & itching to me.

[bigheadfred]

Nettles = stinging & itching to me.

And then to have your bones wrapped in them for eternity.

[blam]

"And then to have your bones wrapped in them for eternity. "

I'd come back and haunt someone, for sure.

[bigheadfred]

Wailing like a banshee.

[1010RD]

Nettles blab.

[Hiddigeigei]

A quote from SWICO Ag on the Internet.

"Clothing made from stinging-nettle fiber is about to hit the catwalk and an Italian fashion house has started to produce a range of nettle jeans and jackets. Before long nettle knickers may be all the rage, and supermodels such as Kate Moss might be spotted sauntering down the street in a nettle-fiber dress.

... Nettles made a brief comeback during the First World War, when Germany suffered a shortage of cotton and nettles were used to produce German army uniforms.
... The fibers of the stinging nettle have a special characteristic in the fact that they are hollow which means they can accumulate air inside thus creating a natural insulation.

[SunkenCiv]

[singing] everything old is new-ew again...

[Bigg Red]

I suspect that the cloth was actually made from the tufts on the plant after it has flowered, rather than the parts of the plant that have the itch-producing components.

[Bigg Red]

Oops! My supposition was wrong:

http://www.nettlesoup.info/nettlecloth.htm

[colorado tanker]

It shouldn’t be a surprise that long distance trade was going on in Europe in 800 BC. That scientist should have taken some history courses.