Recreating the Viborg Shirt

The Viborg shirt is a famous artifact in certain archaeological circles. Really. Discovered in 1984, this linen shirt dates to the 11th century. The cloth is very well woven from fine thread, making it something of a luxury artifact.

The folks at the Ribe Viking Center in Denmark got curious about how long it would take to make such a shirt, so they started a controlled experiment. Ribe is home to a cadre of professional Viking reenactors, so they know something about spinning and weaving. Perhaps they are not as fast as people who spent their whole lives doing this sort of thing, but on the other hand they enjoy it, which might make them a little quicker; plus they have modern health and vision care.

Making linen is a complex process; after it is harvested the flax has to be rippled, retted, broken, scutched, heckled, spun, and woven; the linen cloth was then bleached in the sun before being cut and sewn into clothes. Total person hours to make ONE high quality linen shirt: 300 to 400. As you can see from the pie chart, most of the effort went to spinning and weaving. Spinning in particular was hugely time consuming, which explains why women carried their spindles and distaffs everywhere.

Think about what you can buy with what you earn in 350 hours, and think again about the value of a simple linen shirt. Ponder also that the sails of Viking ships were made of linen; think what THAT must have cost.