Riksantikvarieämbetet

Publications
System disruptions
There are recurring service disruptions on some of the search portals due to high traffic. We are working to resolve the issue, you may temporarily encounter an error message.
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
First strontium isotope analysis of a heritage hemp fabric in Iceland
Riksantikvarieämbetet, Vitterhetsakademiens bibliotek.
ET & EC SAGL.
2025 (English)In: Fornvännen, ISSN 0015-7813, E-ISSN 1404-9430, Vol. 120, no 4, p. 275-285Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The strontium (Sr) stable isotope ratio (87Sr/86Sr) is a powerful hydrogeological and biogeochemical tracer and has been used to determine the geographical provenance of minerals and bones, as well as protein and plant fibers, but few textiles made of bast fibers. Here we report a first attempt to investigate the possibility of using Sr isotopic analysis to trace the origin of a heritage hemp (Cannabis sativa) fabric from Iceland likely made in the early 17th century and previously identified botanically. Iceland has a uniform young soil type formed by volcanic activity making it possible to collect a single soil sample and compare it to a reference sample of recently grown Icelandic hemp fibers. This special circumstance makes the Sr isotope ratio conclusive for determining whether the heritage textile hemp fibers were grown there or not. Fibers from a Romanian hemp towel were also analyzed as additional reference material, to calculate the sample size required when analyzing the Icelandic fabric. In total, four samples were analyzed, and the results are reported here. Strontium isotope signals indicate that hemp fibers from the Icelandic fabric were not grown on the island, and that they may have originated in France or Scotland.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 2025. Vol. 120, no 4, p. 275-285
Keywords [en]
Linen, Hemp, Cannabis, Iceland, France, Scotland, Isotopes, Textile
National Category
History Organic Chemistry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:raa:diva-8716OAI: oai:DiVA.org:raa-8716DiVA, id: diva2:2019654
Available from: 2025-12-08 Created: 2025-12-08 Last updated: 2025-12-12Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(3180 kB)197 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 3180 kBChecksum SHA-512
eee09ba9c9a4bf9f40b4b592c81164500cc08393e427035a03ca757e7088befab639ad0f34342373f4d4ea0649d084e6b8a1a0c12893de4704fab35d1837a8f4
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Open Access (gold standard) med licens CC-BY
In the same journal
Fornvännen
HistoryOrganic Chemistry

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 5713 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf