Flax Throughout the Ages
It's only recently that flax has hit the newstands and studies as a superfood, but in fact, it's been a staple crop for thousands of years. Flax was actually one of the first crop domesticated by man, likely in the Mediterranean region or the Fertile Crescent around 8000 BCE. However, evidence of flax fibers were found in Dzudzuana Cave in the Republic of Georgia, which carbon dating indicates was inhabited approximately 30,000 years ago. The cultivation of flax soon spread through northern Africa and then on to Europe around 4000 BCE.
The Egyptians used flax linen cloth as well as linseed oil in some of their earliest mummies and tombs. During the Stone Age, the Swiss Lake Dwellers planted the crop for both its seed and fiber. Spun, dyed, and knotted flax fibers were commonly used in textiles after the crop was domesticated. Its appearance in Europe is especially interesting, since sheep were domesticated before the Stone Age. However, the Stone Age Swiss used flax rather than wool for their fabric, likely because sheep shearing was beyond their technology. Flaxseed wasn't used for food until around 1000 BCE, when it was used for baking bread in Jordan and Greece.
During the Middle Ages, flax was cultivated to make linen on an industrial scale. The emperor Charlemagne actually ordered flax production throughout his empire for its practicality. Flax fibers yielded a durable and comfortable linen, which was used in varying qualities for everything from peasants' tunics to the shifts of royalty. Flax crops were grown and harvested commercially and accounted for a large amount of seasonal employment. After harvesting, the fiberous flax stems were soaked in water and then hulled using a "fiber breaker," a wooden apparatus not unlike a sawhorse with an attached mallet. Once the outer stem covering was removed, the inner flax fiber was soft, glossy, and a light golden color, easy to weave, dye, and stitch. During the Renaissance, linseed oil was used to preserve oil paint, notably by the Dutch painter Van Eyck.
Flax was brought to the United States by the early colonists, who cultivated it on a small scale for home use. In the 1660s, Virginia required all districts to contribute six pounds of linen thread for community use. Flax began to be commercially produced for its fiber in the United States in 1753, and was a mainstay of the economy. Its production was short-lived, however, with the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. Throughout the Industrial Revolution and into the 20th century, flax was grown almost exclusively for livestock fodder. By the 1940s, fiber flax production in the United States had dropped to nearly zero.
It wasn't until the 1980s, with the increased concern for environmentally friendly products, that flax began to be commercially produced for human use on a large scale once more. Food products containing flaxseed started being marketed in the mid-1990s, and recent medical studies have continually indicated its nutritional value and health benefits.
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