Hemp, Linen & the Myths of Ancient Egypt

When people talk about hemp’s long and fascinating history, ancient Egypt often gets pulled into the conversation. Sometimes it’s suggested that hemp was quietly used in royal burials, or that it was labelled as “linen” to avoid scandal or controversy.

It’s an intriguing idea - but when we look closely at the archaeological and cultural record, a more nuanced (and arguably more interesting) story emerges.

Ancient Egypt wasn’t hiding hemp in plain sight. Instead, it was built - quite deliberately - on another plant entirely.

Linen: The Fibre That Defined Ancient Egypt

To understand Egypt’s relationship with plant fibres, we need to start with linen.

Linen is made from flax, a plant that thrived along the Nile thanks to the annual flood cycles. Over thousands of years, flax became far more than a useful crop - it became culturally, economically, and spiritually central to Egyptian life.

Linen was:

• Worn daily by the general population
• Mandatory clothing for priests and temple rituals
• Used to wrap mummies as a symbol of purity and rebirth
• Offered to the gods
• Counted, traded, and taxed as a form of wealth

In Egyptian belief systems, linen symbolised cleanliness, light, and order - values that sat at the heart of their cosmology. It wasn’t simply “fabric”; it was a sacred material.

Because of this, ancient Egyptian records are unusually clear and consistent when they refer to linen. It appears in artwork, inscriptions, burial inventories, and administrative texts. There was no ambiguity about what linen was or why it mattered.

Was Hemp Known in Ancient Egypt?

Possibly - but not in the way modern myths often imply.

There are a few areas where cannabis or hemp may intersect with ancient Egyptian history, though none provide firm evidence of large-scale fibre use.

Linguistic references

Some scholars have pointed to an ancient Egyptian term (šmšmt, often transliterated as shemshemet) and suggested it could refer to cannabis. Others interpret it as a general aromatic or medicinal plant. There is no scholarly consensus, and the word does not clearly describe a textile fibre.

Medical texts

Ancient medical papyri, such as the Ebers Papyrus, list many plant-based remedies for pain, inflammation, and eye conditions. While some modern interpretations speculate about cannabis, the original plant names are ambiguous and cannot be definitively linked to hemp.

Chemical studies

In the late 20th century, a small number of studies claimed to detect cannabis compounds in mummified remains. These findings were widely debated and criticised due to contamination risks and methodological concerns, and they never became accepted evidence of routine cannabis use.

Taken together, these clues suggest that cannabis may have been known as a medicinal or aromatic plant, but they do not support the idea that hemp was a major cultivated fibre in pharaonic Egypt.

Hemp Didn’t Build the Pyramids

And that’s okay.

One of the most persistent ideas in alternative fibre history is that hemp was deliberately renamed or disguised as linen to avoid controversy. That pattern does appear in much later periods - particularly in Europe during times of prohibition or moral panic.

But ancient Egypt was not one of those cultures.

Egypt had:

• No cannabis taboo
• No prohibition culture
• No moral or legal reason to hide hemp
• A deeply sacred relationship with flax already in place

If hemp had been widely grown, processed, taxed, or used as a textile fibre, it would almost certainly have been documented - just as flax was.

Egyptians were meticulous record-keepers. They catalogued crops, labour, offerings, and materials in extraordinary detail. Linen appears everywhere in that record. Hemp does not.

Which leads to a simple conclusion:

If Egyptians were growing hemp extensively, they would have documented it - just like they documented flax.

Giving Hemp Its Own, Real History

Importantly, separating hemp from Egyptian linen doesn’t diminish hemp’s importance. In fact, it strengthens it.

Hemp’s great civilisations lie elsewhere:

• Ancient China, where hemp was used for textiles, rope, and the world’s earliest paper
• Central Asia, where hemp featured in ritual and ceremonial practices
• India, where cannabis appears in Ayurvedic traditions
• Europe, where hemp powered maritime trade through sails, rope, and canvas

Hemp didn’t build the pyramids - but it built ships, books, trade routes, and entire industries.

Different fibres shaped different civilisations.

Fibres Tell the Story of Civilisation

Looking at history through plant fibres reveals something powerful:

• Egypt was a civilisation of linen and ritual purity
• China became a civilisation of hemp and paper
• Europe grew into a civilisation of hemp and maritime power
• Later industrial societies turned to cotton and mass production

Each fibre reflects climate, values, technology, and belief systems. Hemp doesn’t need to be everywhere to be extraordinary - it just needs to be understood honestly.

Why This History Still Matters

At Made In Hemp, we believe hemp’s real story is far more compelling than any myth. Its durability, sustainability, and versatility speak for themselves - without needing to be retrofitted into every ancient civilisation.

Understanding where hemp truly belongs in history helps us appreciate it not as a trend, but as a timeless, global fibre with its own remarkable legacy.

And that legacy doesn’t start in the shadow of the pyramids - it stands confidently on its own.