01-16-2002, 02:26 PM
Ave, Imperatrix!<br>
<br>
According to Verla Birrel in <i> The Textile Arts</i>, the Romans used hemp pretty commonly because even though it wasn't as easy to work with as wool, it was easier to come by.<br>
<br>
<br>
John Hanson in the July 1998 issue of <i> The Ecologist</i> writes in his article "Pliny's Laughing Leaf": "As the 1980 Hempathy edition of The Ecologist outlined, 'common hemp, 'true hemp culture was as indispensable to the Roman Empire, among a great many other peoples, for medicine, food, clothing, shelter and communication, as it was to any peasant, his family, or self-supporting community that possessed the soils and skills to grow it. This was so from the beginning of civilization down to our own misbegotten industrial era, plagued by its current ethos of unsustainable expansion.<br>
<br>
Hemp has been used in a great many ways for centuries for everything from food to clothing. Indeed, Herodotus, Homer, Ovid, Pliny, Virgil, Livy, Martial, Gallien and many others all commented on the diversity of uses in which hemp was employed.(FN3) As our 1980 issue showed, there is good reason why hemp was so popular -- both in terms of resource conservation and for, among other things, its quality. The paper you will find at the heart of this issue, in the Campaigns and News section, will by all accounts, remain intact a great many decades longer than will the paper on which this editorial is printed. What's more, neither the slaughter of trees nor treatment by so many toxic chemicals has contributed to its quality."<br>
<br>
<br>
I've also read about "Roman Cement" used in the aquaduct. The recipe uses hemp hurds mixed with sand and lime as well as other reeds. Apparently the Hurds contain approximately<br>
20% silica content, the lime creates a chemical reaction that bonds the sand and fiber together.<br>
<br>
<br>
Finally, in Josef Bednarczek's <i> Everyday Life in the Roman Empire</i>: "A particularly valuable discovery relating to the manufacture of textiles was made at Karczyn. At the edge of this second/third-century ad settlement, a facility (unique on a European scale) comprising equipment used in the initial stages of preparing linen and hemp was found situated within a shallow body of water. Here a series of large wooden vats had been dug into the ground, well below the water table. Bundles of linen or hemp were stacked inside them in layers and left to soak for several days in order to separate the fibres from their tough stems. The last, excellently preserved, bundles lying at the bottom of these vats were recovered during the course of excavation 1700 years later! This was the first time that archaeologists were able to record this initial stage of plant fibre processing; the sum of previous knowledge on this subject having stemmed from indirect evidence in the form of much later ethnographic analogies and written sources." <p><BR><p align=center><font color=gold><font size=3>
_________________________________<BR>
CASCA TARQVINIVS GEMINVS<BR>
<a href=http://www.legio-ix-hispana.org> LEG IX HSPA COH V CEN VIII CON III </font></font><BR> <font color=gold> <font size=3>
_________________________________</font></font></p><i></i>
<br>
According to Verla Birrel in <i> The Textile Arts</i>, the Romans used hemp pretty commonly because even though it wasn't as easy to work with as wool, it was easier to come by.<br>
<br>
<br>
John Hanson in the July 1998 issue of <i> The Ecologist</i> writes in his article "Pliny's Laughing Leaf": "As the 1980 Hempathy edition of The Ecologist outlined, 'common hemp, 'true hemp culture was as indispensable to the Roman Empire, among a great many other peoples, for medicine, food, clothing, shelter and communication, as it was to any peasant, his family, or self-supporting community that possessed the soils and skills to grow it. This was so from the beginning of civilization down to our own misbegotten industrial era, plagued by its current ethos of unsustainable expansion.<br>
<br>
Hemp has been used in a great many ways for centuries for everything from food to clothing. Indeed, Herodotus, Homer, Ovid, Pliny, Virgil, Livy, Martial, Gallien and many others all commented on the diversity of uses in which hemp was employed.(FN3) As our 1980 issue showed, there is good reason why hemp was so popular -- both in terms of resource conservation and for, among other things, its quality. The paper you will find at the heart of this issue, in the Campaigns and News section, will by all accounts, remain intact a great many decades longer than will the paper on which this editorial is printed. What's more, neither the slaughter of trees nor treatment by so many toxic chemicals has contributed to its quality."<br>
<br>
<br>
I've also read about "Roman Cement" used in the aquaduct. The recipe uses hemp hurds mixed with sand and lime as well as other reeds. Apparently the Hurds contain approximately<br>
20% silica content, the lime creates a chemical reaction that bonds the sand and fiber together.<br>
<br>
<br>
Finally, in Josef Bednarczek's <i> Everyday Life in the Roman Empire</i>: "A particularly valuable discovery relating to the manufacture of textiles was made at Karczyn. At the edge of this second/third-century ad settlement, a facility (unique on a European scale) comprising equipment used in the initial stages of preparing linen and hemp was found situated within a shallow body of water. Here a series of large wooden vats had been dug into the ground, well below the water table. Bundles of linen or hemp were stacked inside them in layers and left to soak for several days in order to separate the fibres from their tough stems. The last, excellently preserved, bundles lying at the bottom of these vats were recovered during the course of excavation 1700 years later! This was the first time that archaeologists were able to record this initial stage of plant fibre processing; the sum of previous knowledge on this subject having stemmed from indirect evidence in the form of much later ethnographic analogies and written sources." <p><BR><p align=center><font color=gold><font size=3>
_________________________________<BR>
CASCA TARQVINIVS GEMINVS<BR>
<a href=http://www.legio-ix-hispana.org> LEG IX HSPA COH V CEN VIII CON III </font></font><BR> <font color=gold> <font size=3>
_________________________________</font></font></p><i></i>
