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I am curious on how widespread was the use of cotton during Roman times...
I had noticed that some reenactor sites frowned on the use of cotton products so I assumed that it was an unknown plant in the old world which would then make it unacceptable, but then I remembered that the ancient Egyptians used cotton as well as the civilizations in India...
..So I was wondering about its use during the Greek / Roman period...
Gaius Germanicus / aka A. Ingoglia
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Hi
I think this subject has been discussed on RAT before.
Nevertheless cotton was imported from India in huge quantities during the Roman period. Even the ships had cotton sails! However Egypt itself had it's own cotton industry and more evidence is emerging for cotton growing in other middle eastern countries at that time. So the answer is is that cotton was not as rare in Roman times as was once thought even only a few years ago but was probably still much of a luxury item the further from Egypt you got.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
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Graham ; Thank you for the reply and info... I assume if it was very expensive only the very wealthy such as tribunes , senators , merchants , etc , would have cotton garments?
Gaius Germanicus / aka A. Ingoglia
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Graham ; I found this past post which may be the one you spoke of
http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... ght=cotton , if anyone has additional info or links let me know...
Gaius Germanicus / aka A. Ingoglia
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if your intending on using this for clothing and are in such an area that wool will cause hardship on your physical well being , linen was used by the romans. or you can find a nice lightweight wool.
Animals die, friends die, and I shall die, but one thing never dies, and that is the reputation we leave behind after our death.
No man loses Honour who had any in the first place. - Syrus
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Johnn; I like wool as a material but some types I seem to be allergic to .. I would probably use linen or fine wool but was also curious about the use of cotton in the ancient world as I seldom see people using it...
Gaius Germanicus / aka A. Ingoglia
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Gaius
I see , I am not really a material expert so I cannot say truly. Perhaps it is best if yo uprefer wool find what does not bother you and use it or sew in a liner that keeps th ematerial away from you. as long as no one would see this I cannot see a problem. I would wonder what would happer if a recruit was affected seriously from wool in ancient rome what would have been done?
Animals die, friends die, and I shall die, but one thing never dies, and that is the reputation we leave behind after our death.
No man loses Honour who had any in the first place. - Syrus
Octavianvs ( Johnn C. ) MODERATOR ROMAN ARMY TALK
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the most common allergy to wool fabric is not actually to the wool itself. It an allergy to the chemicals used to finish wool with today.
Gaius I would suggest finding some course woven linen and sewing your tunic from this if you dont want to use wool. Linen can be obtained from
www.farbric.com fairly cheap most of the time. My friend recently purchased some heavy weight linen for 4 USD a yard from them.
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the link in the post above in not a 'good link'.
Caius Fabius Maior
Charles Foxtrot
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link to the rules for posting
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Animals die, friends die, and I shall die, but one thing never dies, and that is the reputation we leave behind after our death.
No man loses Honour who had any in the first place. - Syrus
Octavianvs ( Johnn C. ) MODERATOR ROMAN ARMY TALK
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