A Button, a Hook and a Rug Paper Wrapping: Identifying Plant Fibre Finds from Hailuoto, Finland

Hailuoto is an island in the Bothnian Bay in front of the city of Oulu, a local trading centre during the Post-Medieval period. Hailuoto Church, which was built in the early seventeenth century, burned down in 1968 and was excavated in the mid-1980s. Among other finds, textile remains dated to the period between 1620 and 1756 were found both in burials and the ground soil underneath the church floor.

Six (6) plant fibre samples were analysed to identify the materials. All these samples were preserved due to immediate contact with a metal object in the form of a pin, a button, a coin, or a hook. The samples were analysed using a three-stage procedure which is suitable for distinguishing flax, hemp, and nettle from each other. The procedure is based on the observations of the longitudinal surface characteristics and cross sections, combined with a Modified Herzog test that reveals the microfibrillar orientation in the S2 layer of the bast fibres.

Because of the small preservation areas and gaps in the excavation reports, the origin of some of the samples can only be speculated on. The samples attached to a button or a hook, both used in fastening clothes, are dress-related. The fragment with the pin is an example of fabric reuse for funerary attire. However, an interesting story might be told through a coin, wrapped and tied in rag paper, and deliberately dropped through the planks of the church floor.