Editing Flax (section)

=== History ===
[[File:The Women's Land Army in Britain, 1915-1918 Q30890.jpg|thumb|Flax being harvested during World War&nbsp;I]]
The earliest evidence of humans using wild flax as a [[textile]] comes from the present-day [[Georgia (country)|Republic of Georgia]], where spun, dyed, and knotted wild flax fibers found in [[Dzudzuana Cave]] date to the [[Upper Paleolithic]], 30,000 years ago.<ref name="VintageThreads">{{Cite news |title=These Vintage Threads Are 30,000 Years Old |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112726804&sc=fb&cc=fp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204031535/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112726804&sc=fb&cc=fp |archive-date=4 December 2010 |access-date=13 November 2010 |work=NPR.org |publisher=NPR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Balter |first=M |year=2009 |title=Clothes make the (Hu) Man |journal=Science |volume=325 |issue=5946 |page=1329 |doi=10.1126/science.325_1329a |pmid=19745126}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kvavadze |first1=E |last2=Bar-Yosef |first2=O |last3=Belfer-Cohen |first3=A |last4=Boaretto |first4=E |last5=Jakeli |first5=N |last6=Matskevich |first6=Z |last7=Meshveliani |first7=T |year=2009 |title=30,000-Year-Old Wild Flax Fibers |url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4270521 |journal=Science |volume=325 |issue=5946 |page=1359 |bibcode=2009Sci...325.1359K |doi=10.1126/science.1175404 |pmid=19745144 |s2cid=206520793|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Humans first domesticated flax in the [[Fertile Crescent]] region.<ref name="Fu">{{Cite journal |last=Fu, Y.-B. |year=2011 |title=Genetic evidence for early flax domestication with capsular dehiscence |journal=Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution |volume=58 |issue=8 |pages=1119–1128 |doi=10.1007/s10722-010-9650-9 |s2cid=22424329}}</ref> Evidence exists of a domesticated oilseed flax with increased seed-size from [[Tell Ramad]] in [[Syria]]<ref name="Fu" /> and [[Linen|flax fabric]] fragments from [[Çatalhöyük]] in [[Turkey]]<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/206552281/Archive-Report-2013 |title=Çatalhöyük 2013 Archive Report}}</ref> by {{circa|9,000}} years ago. Use of the crop steadily spread, reaching as far as [[Switzerland]] and [[Germany]] by 5,000 years ago.<ref>Barber E. (1991) "Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean". Princeton University Press, p.12</ref> In China and India, domesticated flax was cultivated at least 5,000 years ago.<ref name="cullis275">{{Cite book |last=Cullis |first=Chris A. |title=Oilseeds |date=2007 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-540-34387-5 |editor-last=Kole |editor-first=Chittaranjan |page=275 |chapter=Flax}}</ref>

Flax was cultivated extensively in [[ancient Egypt]], where the temple walls had paintings of flowering flax, and mummies were embalmed using linen.<ref>Sekhri S. (2011) "Textbook of Fabric Science: Fundamentals to Finishing". PHI Learning Private Limited, New Delhi, p. 76</ref> Egyptian priests wore only linen, as flax symbolized purity.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials |date=1994 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-2-88124-631-9 |editor-last=Wisseman |editor-first=Sarah Underhill |page=124 |doi=10.4324/9781315075396 |editor-last2=Williams |editor-first2=Wendell S. |s2cid=128265510}}</ref> [[Phoenicians]] traded Egyptian linen throughout the [[Mediterranean]] and the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] used it for their [[sail]]s.<ref>Buchanan R. (2012)  "A Weaver's Garden: Growing Plants for Natural Dyes and Fibers". Courier Dover Publications, p. 22</ref> As the [[Roman Empire]] declined, so did flax production.  But with laws designed to publicize the [[hygiene]] of linen textiles and the health of linseed oil, [[Charlemagne]] revived the crop in the eighth century [[Common Era|CE]].<ref name="Wisseman S., p.125">Wisseman S., p.125</ref> Eventually, [[Flanders]] became the major center of the European linen industry in the [[Middle Ages]].<ref name="Wisseman S., p.125" /> In North America, colonists introduced flax, and it flourished there,<ref name="cullis275" /> but by the early 20th century, cheap [[cotton]] and rising farm wages had caused production of flax to become concentrated in northern Russia, which came to provide 90% of the world's output. Since then, flax has lost its importance as a [[commercial crop]], due to the easy availability of more inexpensive synthetic fibres.<ref>(2003) "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, Volume 1" Oxford University Press, p.303.</ref>