Use of Cotton in the Ancient World

[Primvs Pavlvs]

Was cotton used in the Ancient world? Rome, Holyland, Africa?

[Graham Sumner]

Primvs Pavlvs wrote:

Was cotton used in the Ancient world? Rome, Holyland, Africa?

Yes it was. Cotton was imported from India into Egypt, even the ships had cotton sails. You would need to read some of the excavation reports that are available on the Egyptian ports in the Roman period.

Graham.

[Primvs Pavlvs]

Thank you Mr. Sumner!

[aitor iriarte]

Graham hasn't mentioned that cotton was a very expensive stuff inside the Empire, almost as expensive as silk was, AFAIK... 8)

Aitor

[Primvs Pavlvs]

Aitor,

If it was used for ship sails is it not safe to assume that it was cheaper than silk?

[Carlton Bach]

The 'Lexikon des Mittelalters' entry states that cotton was commonly grown throughout the Roman East's southern parts in Late Antiquity and spread from there to Spain and Italy in the 11th/12th c. However, it seems that intially, it was not used for clothing except as mixed fabric. At the same time, very fine cotton cloth of Asian origin was traded at exorbitant prices.

Maybe the answer is that coarse cotton cloth is easy, and cheap, but fine cotton is very demanding and expensive? Cleaning cotton properly was certainly a big deal before the 'gin.

[Dan Howard]

Silk may not be as suitable as cotton for sails. Silk loses a lot of tensile strength when exposed to sunlight, salt water, dying processes, etc. It is possible that cotton was actually stronger than silk over the long term.

[Graham Sumner]

Hi

Aitor is quite correct in stating that cotton would have been a very expensive commodity. However recent research and excavations at the Egyptian ports some of which is on-going suggests it was not as rare as once supposed. There is evidence for cotton remains even in Britain and it was used to wrap corpses found in Budapest and Rome.

Cotton was also grown in the Sudan during the Roman period as well as being imported from India. The Periplus M.E.41,48 describes this trade. According to Pausanias VII 26. 6. Cotton was also grown in Elis in Achaea but is not mentioned at all in the edict of Diocletian.

This information can be found in J.P.Wilds book 'Textile Manufacture in the Northern Roman Provinces', Cambridge 1970.

Graham.

[aitor iriarte]

Paul,
I don't remember the source for the quote of cotton sails but I've always understood that those sails belonged to Indic ships (Roman or not) and not to every Roman ship.
Volker's explanation about the relationship coarseness/price is a very likely one, to my mind!

Aitor

[hoplite14gr]

According to Pausanias VII 26. 6. Cotton was also grown in Elis in Achaea but is not mentioned at all in the edict of Diocletian.

Thanks for you information Gentlemen.
Solves some reconstruction problems!
Kind regards

[Octavianvs]

i do not think that the cotton used was of the same type of like tshirt material. perhaps more like cotton linen? and as far as sails went I know that the Vikings used sails of wool.

[Lepidina]

Ancient cotton was a different strain of cotton than modern cotton. I think most "Egyptian cotton" today is a variation that was originally from Egypt and grown in South America. I'll have to check on that.

One thing that makes cotton expensive is the processing time. Cotton grows in little balls filled with seeds that have to be plucked out by hand. Thus it makes it a more labor itensive fiber than wool or flax. In the US, the year before the cotton gin was invented, there were something like 5000 bales of cotton produced. The year after the cotton gin was invented, that number shot up to something like 20,000 and it became one of the stock "cheap", everyday fabrics. All the cotton gin did was separate the fibers from the seeds, which was the most time-consuming process.

The other problem with cotton is that it doesn't retain heat when it gets wet. Hikers have a saying that "cotton kills" which is why you aren't supposed to wear cotton when you are doing heavy hiking in cold weather or working on a boat. Once you start to sweat or it gets wet, it will just wick the heat away from your body. Wool will still hold in your body heat when wet and silk will just transfer the water to another layer.

So if you are living in a climate where it is cool and wet or hot and dry with cool evenings, wool would probably be a better fabric choice so you didn't get hyperthermia. Cotton is a good choice for tropical climates because it is cooler than wool and you don't have to worry about a cold snap.

[richsc]

I remember in the book "Big Cotton" the author claims that Romans called cotton "vegetable wool' but gives no references for that.