Flax & Fine Twined Linen in the Book of Mormon

• World’s strongest natural fiber: linen is ~30% stronger than cotton, making linen fabrics hard wearing and durable for several decades
• Eco-friendly life cycle/recyclable and biodegradable
• Soft hand: linen is stiff and scratchy at first, but softens with wear and wash*
• Structurally sound fiber: linen garments keep their shape well
• Colourfast and launders well
• Naturally hypoallergenic
• Anti-static
• Good moisture absorbency: can absorb 20% of its weight (before it feels damp)**
• Highly breathable
• Low elasticity
• Long extraction time (from plant to fiber)

*Vintage linen is very desirable as the soft hand feel of vintage linen is hard to replicate

**This is less than both cotton and wool. However wool becomes weaker once wetted whereas linen gets stronger. Absorbency is also dependent on the particular weave of the fabric and cotton tends to hold onto moisture for longer than linen.

Linen fibers are much thicker than cotton and thus linen fabrics have a lower thread count (number of yarns per inch of fabric) than those of cotton. However, it should be noted that thread count does not necessarily correlate with good quality, especially not when comparing two different fibers. In spite of linen’s relatively low thread count, linen is considered far superior to cotton in both quality and eco-friendliness and is priced accordingly.

Linen is, from ancient times, known to have healing properties, given the fiber’s high breathability, antibacterial, and hypoallergenic properties. Linen is anti-static which explains why it doesn’t cling to the body and generally stays clean longer as this naturally repels dirt. Linen is also a temperature-regulating natural insulator, like silk, which is due to the fibers permeability and hollow core. This helps the body to keep cool or warm depending on the seasons.

The anti-static and hypoallergenic nature of linen, means that it’s good on your skin, and so sleeping in linen should help you sleep better. Less so today, but linen has known to be a status symbol and given the fibers extensive range of functional benefits, it’s no surprise that linen is largely associated with luxury. Prestigious and expensive hotels will typically make use of linen bedding.

What’s the History of Linen?

The use of linen in thread and rope has been known to man for more than thirty thousand years which long predates the use of wool. By 3000 B.C., at latest, humans found a way of weaving the thread into textiles. The coarse fibers were spun into yarn and was used by Egyptians for sails whereas the finer, more expensive linen would be used for high-prized tunics and such. It’s claimed that Egyptians even used linen as currency.

In North Africa, Egypt and Sudan it was common to wear linen whereas it was common to wear wool in West Asia, Greece, and Germany. In Roman times however it was common for Europeans to wear tunics made from linen, typically worn underneath their wool robes. This is why linen, in the Western part of the World, became associated with underwear (the word lingerie derives from the french word for linen: lingin) and the white color in underwear also comes from linen, which is naturally “light”. The Islamic Empire preferred linen (and cotton) over wool as well.

In Europe it’s been a tradition to pass down dresses, sheets and other types of linen cloth as a heirloom from generation to generation. This too denotes linen’s long lasting properties as well as the high quality associated with the fiber. Linen was the fabric of choice up until the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century when the cotton of North America won ahead due to the technology of new spinning machines that made cotton manufacturing more affordable.

How is Linen Grown?

Flax plants are one of few crops still grown in Western Europe with about 75,000 acres grown annually. The growing cycle of flax is short with only around hundred days from sowing in March to harvest in July. The plant has a lot of potential and is thus not mowed, but instead uprooted. This is because the flax plant has a wide range of use which extends the linen used in the textile and garment industry.” All About Linen – The Forgotten Fiber PUBLISHED: JAN 4, 2017 BY MADS JAKOBSEN

Linen in the Book of Mormon

Linen is an item mentioned in the Book of Mormon in which those who believe in the Mesoamerican theory about geography are perplexed. Flax is used to make linen and there is no flax found in Mesoamerica. In the Book of Mormon linen is usually mentioned as “fine twined linen” referring to its costliness to make and its excess shine of beauty compared to wool. “It denotes linen as the finely spun threads of which consisted of two or more smaller threads twined together.” Bible Study Tools

The earliest evidence of humans using wild flax as a textile comes from the present-day Republic of Georgia, where spun, dyed, and knotted wild flax fibers were found in Dzudzuana Cave and dated to the Upper Paleolithic… Flax was cultivated extensively in ancient Egypt, where the temple walls had paintings of flowering flax, and mummies were entombed in linen.[11] Egyptian priests wore only linen, as flax was considered a symbol of purity.[12] Phoenicians traded Egyptian linen throughout the Mediterranean and the Romans used it for their sails” Wikipedia

“Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a food and fiber crop that is grown in cooler regions of the world. Flax fibers are taken from the stem of the plant and are two to three times as strong as those of cotton.” agmrc.org “Flax (Linum usitatissimum) production goes back to ancient history. Flax remnants were found in Stone Age dwellings in Switzerland, and ancient Egyptians made fine linens from flax fiber. Flax production moved west across the northern United States and Canada during the 1800s. As settlers moved west, flax was one of the crops produced. North Dakota farmers have grown flax since sod first was broken.”  

A brief history of Flax from 8000 BCE to present day

“Twined linen was used to make the curtains, veil, and door hangings of the Tabernacle (Exod 26:1, 31, 36), the hangings for the gate of the court and for the court itself (27:9, 16, 18), and also the ephod, the girdle of the ephod, and the breastplate of the high priest.” Bible Gateway

“Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is laborious to manufacture, but the fiber is very strong, absorbent and dries faster than cotton. Garments made of linen are valued for their exceptional coolness and freshness in hot and humid weather.” Wikipedia

Deuteronomy 22:9-12 Linen

“Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled. Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together. Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.” Deut. 22:9-12

It is interesting that wool and linen both have a high frequency, but below you will see the Lord’s wisdom in not wearing them on the body at the same time.

Scientific Details of the Linen Frequency Study

“In 2003, a study was done by a Jewish doctor, Heidi Yellen, on the frequencies of fabric. According to this study, the human body has a signature frequency of 100, and organic cotton is the same – 100. The study showed that if the number is lower than 100, it puts a strain on the body. A diseased, nearly dead person has a frequency of about 15, and that is where polyester, rayon, and silk register. Nonorganic cotton registers a signature frequency of about 70. However, 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. Wool is also 5,000, but when mixed together with linen, the frequencies cancel each other out and fall to zero. Even wearing a wool sweater on top of a linen outfit in a study collapsed the electrical field. The reason for this could be that the energy field of wool flows from left to right, while that of linen flows in the opposite direction, from right to left.

In an email dated 2/10/12, Dr. Yellen explained the process of this study:
“Frequency was determined by a technician [named] Ivanne Farr who used a digital instrument designed by a retired Texas A&M professor called the Ag-Environ machine. We had a public demonstration with an audience at internationally known artist Bob Summers home.

“Bob Graham, the inventor, told us that his machine was created to analyze the signature frequencies of agricultural commodities to aid the farmer in determining the right time of harvest growth. The gentleman identified signature frequencies that identified illness also and had turned to helping people get well. Bob Graham stated that it was a ‘signature frequency of that plant’s species identity.’ The mHz is different, we were suggested that it would be the same as Rose essential oil.

“There could be better devices so we have been looking around for more options. There’s a device that a brilliant American agriculture scientist developed that does measure the frequency of Linen. We have not yet acquired one but hope to soon!

“Dr. Philip Callahan, a noted physician and researcher, was able to prove the existence of this energy using plant leaves attached to an oscilloscope. About six months ago, he visited me in California and showed me a new development. He had discovered that flax cloth, as suggested in the Books of Moses [the Torah or Pentatuch], acts as an antenna for the energy. He found that when the pure flax cloth was put over a wound or local pain, it greatly accelerated the healing process. He was also using the flax seed cloth as a sophisticated antenna for his oscilloscope. This is the instrument that he uses to determine energy of flax.”

If the idea of frequencies is new to you, you may be interested to read about Dr. Rife and his studies in the 1920s. He didn’t study fabric in particular, but his research is still interesting.

“American inventor Dr. Royal Raymond Rife spent three decades studying specific vibrational ‘kill’ frequencies of hundreds of microorganisms. As far back as 1920, Rife theorized that disease-causing microorganisms vibrated at specific oscillation rates, and that if these were better understood, they might be safely eliminated by an opposing rate of vibration.

“With his expertise in optics, Rife developed microscopes with resolutions up to 17,000 times in diameter compared to the standard 2,500. With the aid of his high-powered microscopes, Rife methodically observed and cataloged the results, as he exposed pathogenic microorganisms to coordinated resonance from electronic frequencies. During his thirty years of vibrational research, Rife established what he called the Mortal Oscillatory Rate (MOR) for hundreds of disease-causing pathogens.

“In his work, Rife confirmed thousands of living vibrational frequencies. He determined that the average frequency of a healthy human body was between 62 and 72 Hz and that when the frequency drops below this average it signifies a compromised immune system. … essential oils can register as high as 320 Hz. … Rife meticulously mapped out a living mosaic of energy vibration, but he was simply too far ahead of his time to be appreciated for his contribution.” -Pgs. 19-20 of Whole Health, by Mark Mincolla Ph.D.

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Linen in Ohio

“All the mounds within the Seip Earthworks were used to inter the remains of individuals, most of whom had been cremated. However at the base of one of the two great mounds in the large circle’s center, there was a log crypt… The individuals in the crypt apparently wore or were draped with a linen burial shroud. At the time of the excavation this linen was said to resemble the weave, texture, and color of pioneer-style, homespun linen. I used to imagine woodland Indians dressing exclusively in leather and animal skins. However early settlers have described the Native Americans of their era as wearing colorful fabrics. The Hopewell Indians lived over a thousand years before these settlers, but apparently even their fabric employed colorful dyes. Scientists are now using techniques developed in forensic laboratories to learn more about the colors and dyes used on these ancient textiles.

It is very surprising that any cloth was preserved underground over a dozen centuries, however both the burial shrouds and an additional sample of linen that was part of a votive offering were preserved because they laid directly beneath copper breast plates.” As I mentioned earlier, the textiles, pearls and other precious items were discovered in a log crypt at the base of the mound. However the logs rotted causing the crypt to collapse and the top of the mound to sink in. The Hopewell Indians built a secondary mound over the original mound apparently to restore the mound’s shape. Besides the remains of the people within the log crypt, the remains of many other people were interred in and around the Seip Earthworks. According to an article in the Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, an analysis of the remains of 87 individuals from one mound revealed that both males and females of all ages were laid to rest at this site, and this cemetery was populated over a relatively brief period of time.” Trek Ohio

Cloth of Every Kind:

“The comparatively well-made fabrics of the Hopewell mounds of the Etowah Group of Georgia indicate that some convenient adaptation of the loom was in use in these areas” – Henry Clyde Shetron, The Mound-Builders, D. Appleton-Century Company, NY [1930], 83. Figures on the left show various weaving of cloth by the Hopewell Group found in Georgia. Descriptions for each weave type are: a-c, g-i (twined weaving); f (in-and-out weaving); d and e (netting). Left: Woven cloth found in the Seip Mound, Chillicothe, Ohio, 1928. Cloths of various weaves were preserved by contact with copper. Below: Squier and Davis 1847 survey map of Seip Mound. (As written in Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum page 161)

“The Seip Group” The Mound-Builders By Henry Shetrone

“Two important votive offerings occurred in the central Seip Mound. In one of these reposed a huge ceremonial copper axe weighing 28 pounds (Figure 140). Over this were placed twelve large copper breastplates, overlapping one another, and between them were many thicknesses of woven fabric (Figure 35). This fabric, preserved by the chemical action of the copper, is very similar in weave, texture, and color to the homespun linen of pioneer days. It is perhaps the only woven fabric preserved in its original color and practically unstained so far taken from a mound. The other votive offering was the five massive effigy pipes of the Lower Mississippi culture… One accident occurred during the Seip mound excavation. A portion of the mound had been removed leaving a 30 ft. high vertical wall. Part of the top caved off burying Dr. Shetrone under a pile of rubble. He was unconscious and received numerous broken bones but made a full recovery. After excavation, Seip mound was restored and preserved. The Ohio Historical Society owns the central section of the earthworks and the National Park Service owns the surrounding property which includes some remains of the enclosure.” Science Views Bible Dictionary/Linen See also Cloth; Clothing
Silks and fine-twined linen in abominable church, 1 Ne. 13:7–8.
Zeniff causes women to work all manner of fine linen, Mosiah 10:5.
Nephites have abundance of silk and fine-twined linen, Alma 1:29 (Hel. 6:13).
Church begins to wax proud because of silks and fine-twined linen, Alma 4:6.
Jaredites have silks and fine-twined linen, Ether 10:24.

“And I did cause that the women should spin, and toil, and work, and work all manner of fine linen, yea, and cloth of every kind, that we might clothe our nakedness; and thus we did prosper in the land; thus we did have continual peace in the land for the space of twenty and two years.”   Mosiah 10:5

“And it came to pass in the eighth year of the reign of the judges, that the people of the church began to wax proud because of their exceeding riches, and their fine silks and their fine-twined linen, and because of their many flocks and herds, and their gold and their silver, and all manner of precious things which they had obtained by their industry. And in all these things were they lifted up in the pride of their eyes, for they began to wear very costly apparel. Alma 4:6 And Moses said unto him: “As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD. And the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be anymore hail that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD’s. But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God.” And the flax and the barley was smitten for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled [was in bloom]. But the wheat and the rie [rye] were not smitten for they were not grown up.” (Emphasis added.)

Mesoamerican Opinions about Flax

Silk and Linen in the Book of Mormon “Some people have wondered why the Book of Mormon mentions silk and linen (see Alma 1:29), since silkworms and linen as we know them were apparently not known in ancient America. The answer may be that even though the worm that eats mulberry leaves and produces silk in its cocoon seems to have been restricted to the Far East, several ancient American peoples had cloth as fine as and similar to silk. At the time of the Spanish conquest, natives in Mexico would gather cocoons from a type of wild silkworm and spin the thread into expensive cloth. People in the Yucatan would also spin the silky floss from the pod of the ceiba tree (or silk-cotton tree) into a soft, delicate cloth called kapok. The silky fiber of the wild pineapple plant was also prized in tropical America, yielding a fine, durable cloth. The Aztecs made a silk like fabric using hair from the bellies of rabbits. Some cotton specimens excavated at Teotihuacan, dating to A.D. 400, have been described as even, very fine, and gossamer-thin. As for linen, the flax plant from which the cloth is made was apparently not known in ancient America. However, several fabrics that look and feel like European linen were woven from native plants. The yucca plant and the leaves of the ixtle (agave plant) both yield fibers that make fine, linen-like cloth. A cloth made by stripping bark from the fig tree, soaking it, and pounding it also has some of the characteristics of linen.”

Source  John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., and Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1985), pp. 232, 365; Diane E. Wirth, A Challenge to the Critics: Scholarly Evidences of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Horizon Publishers, 1986), pp. 23, 27–28; “F.A.R.M.S. Update,” Nov. 1988. “Although the type of silk with which we are familiar has not been found, other types of silk were known in the ancient New World. The Spanish reported several kinds of silk. One kind of silk was spun from the hair of rabbit’s bellies, another may have come from a wild silkworm, and yet a third came from the pod of the ceiba tree. Spanish chronicles report that types of silk were spun and woven in Mesoamerica before their arrival. Since the arrival of the Spanish, however, these fabrics have disappeared—deteriorated with time. As with wheat and silk, it is possible that Book of Mormon linen refers to linen-like items rather than the linen with which we are familiar. Bernal Diaz, for instance, who served with Cortez, described Native American garments made of henequen, which is like linen. Likewise, sixteenth-century Bishop Landa recorded that the Mayan priests used linen garb in their ritual ceremonies.[458] The native garments were enough like “linen” to warrant the use of the same label. Henequen is made from the fiber of the maguey plant and closely resembles the flax fiber used to make European linen.”

https://mormonchallenges.org/2013/10/26/book-of-mormon-6-silk-and-linen/ Michael R. Ash, Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research, Incorporated

Native Americans used Flax Plants

Wampum belts are woven, beaded belts produced by various American Indian nations in the northeastern and central United States, before European contact in the late 15th century and after. The word wampum means white shell in the Algonquian language family spoken by the Narragansett people of Rhode Island and the Wampanoag people of Massachusetts. Wampum belts are made of white and purple beads, the white beads from the whelk shell, and the purple from the quahog shell. Due to the fragility of the shells, artisans required immense skill and finesse to produce and polish a bead without breaking it, followed by drilling a hole through its center, usually taking one day to produce a single bead. The oldest wampum beads were disks, but were later crafted into the cylindrical shape we are most familiar with today. Women artisans spun thread made from milkweed, dogbane, toad flax, velvet leaf, and nettle plants for weaving the belts. Using weaving techniques similar to prehistoric finger weaving (without a loom), women wove the beads and thread to form a beaded belt. The term “belt” simply refers to its shape, as these were never worn. Source

Forensic photography brings color back to ancient textiles

An image of a Hopewell textile retrieved from Ohio Seip burial mounds in southern Ohio. Photographed in simulated daylight (top), some patterns can be seen by the unaided eye. Credit: Reprinted from The Journal of Archaeological Science , Vol. 34. Archaeologists are now turning to forensic crime lab techniques to hunt for dyes, paint, and other decoration in prehistoric textiles. Although ancient fabrics can offer clues about prehistoric cultures, often their colors are faded, patterns dissolved, and fibers crumbling. Forensic photography can be used as an inexpensive and non-destructive tool to analyze these artifacts more efficiently, according to new Ohio State University research. Forensic photography helps researchers collect information from fragile artifacts before using expensive chemical tests, which cause damage during material sampling. The forensic method also helps researchers narrow areas to sample for colorants, ultimately reducing artifact damage and testing costs. “Normally when you dig artifacts out of the ground, especially stone or ceramic ones, you wash them and they look sexy. But you can’t do that with textiles,” said Christel Baldia, Ohio State University doctoral graduate in textiles and clothing. Baldia conducted the study with Kathryn Jakes, professor of textile sciences in the College of Education and Human Ecology at Ohio State, and published their findings in the April, 2007 issue of Journal of Archaeological Science. Putting forensic photography to the test, Baldia and Jakes examined textiles from burial mounds built by the Hopewell, a prehistoric Native American people that flourished about 1600 years ago. In their study, the two investigators focused on pieces of fabric recovered from Ohio ‘s Seip burial mounds in southern Ohio. Experts believe some of the pieces belonged to a canopy of fabric that arched over the remains buried inside the mounds. “Textiles often come out looking like brown rags, yet Native American dress is described as colorful by early travelers or pioneers.” Baldia said. “So we asked ourselves: ‘What can we do to better examine ancient textiles for colors we no longer see?'” Forensic scientists use different light sources, such as ultraviolet and infrared, to visualize stains or fingerprints on clothing, but Jakes said no one has used those methods in looking at ancient textiles. “In a way, it’s like shopping for clothes,” she said. “You need to see the clothing in different lighting—a fabric looks like it matches in the store’s lighting, but when you bring it into sunlight the colors change.” Under non-visible light, many pigments and dyes absorb light energy but release it in different wavelengths, or colors, of light. This behavior is called fluorescence, and it can reveal faded or deteriorated artwork in textiles. Fluorescence normally helps forensic investigators find blood stains, fingerprints, body oils, and other evidence where there appears to be none (such stains can be visible even after washing thoroughly). To find fluorescent patterns in textiles, Baldia and Jakes simulated daylight, ultraviolet light (between 254 nm and 365 nm), and infrared light (between 800 nm and 900 nm), then photographed the artifacts with special film and light-filtering camera equipment. The photographs ultimately helped them see undetected patterns and markings in some of the artifacts they examined. “The materials we examined from Hopewell burial mounds show gradations of color under different light sources,” Jakes said. “When artifacts have non-random changes in color like that, it indicates to us that there has to be dye or pigment. That’s significant for ancient textiles because it reveals technologies prehistoric Native peoples were capable of.” When archaeologists are curious about an ancient fabric’s colors, they often sample the material at random and cause damage to it. Photographing artifacts with Baldia and Jakes’ method before sampling, however, helps archaeologists build a focused game plan for sampling that minimizes harm to the material. “The code of ethics from the American Institute of Conservation is ‘do no harm’,” Jakes said. “For the artifact to stick around for as long possible, you have to be as minimally destructive in your sampling as possible.” Baldia said sampling ancient fabric always requires removing a fiber or piece of yarn. “People essentially do this randomly, but forensic photography helps minimize damage by enabling us to sample strategically,” Baldia said. If archaeologists see a pattern in forensic photographs, she said, then the area most likely contains dye or paint—and focusing on such areas ultimately provides more information about ancient civilizations while cutting research costs. Baldia explained that she and Jakes got the idea to photographically analyze textiles from museum painting conservators.”Art museums use it to see if a painting has been painted over, if it’s a forgery, and so on,” Baldia said. “We thought: ‘why aren’t we doing this with ancient textiles?’ Just like other art, fabrics are dyed and painted, and this is an inexpensive way to gather important information.” The researchers hope their technique will become standard practice for analyzing textiles and even other organic artifacts, like wood or leather. “I think this will help spur a lot of new findings,” Jakes said. “It’s a great way to start looking at the stuff in the attics of museums across the country in a new way.” Source: Ohio State University

Copper Celts with Fabric Attached

The Naples Mound 8 (also Naples-Russell Mound 8 or Illinois Archaeological Survey #PK 335) is a Havana Hopewell culture mound site located in Pike County, Illinois three miles east of the city of Griggsville. The mound was given the name Naples Mound #8 in 1882. The mound was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Naples-Russel Mound 8 (or Illinois Archaeological Survey #PK 335), also known originally as Zelph’s Mound, pictured above, is a Havana Hopewell culture mound site located in Pike County, Illinois. The artifacts found during an excavation conducted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990 confirmed the mound was a Hopewell burial mound, dating from 100 B.C. to 500 A.D. — a time-frame within the fully developed Nephite civilization and when it collapsed. (Archaeology of the Americas Before Columbus, Ancient American Magazine, Volume 12, No. 74, 36.)

Copper celts were removed from Naples-Russel Mound 8 during an archaeological dig. There are remains of fabric on the surface that was preserved from contact with the copper. (Below)

There is much more information about linen and fabrics found at ancient Hopewell sites. The importance of copper as a preservative has helped find these fabrics.

Zelph’s Mound Information

Excavations at the Blue Island and Naples-Russell Mounds and Related Hopewellian Sites in the Lower Illinois Valley