Textile reuse in the Roman naval contexts

Textiles were and remain an indispensable part of human existence. Textile economy in the past had complex production and circulation networks. The evidence of textile reuse in Roman times is provided by both written and archaeological sources from across a wide geographical area. While much scholarly work has been dedicated to the discussion of textile reuse within literary sources, the archaeological evidence is only beginning to be considered as direct proof of Roman circular economy. In this paper, we demonstrate how archaeological textile analysis can show that they were, in fact, reused, by focusing on textiles that were used in naval construction as caulking, insulation and tarring tools, and by comparing archaeological finds from Italy to those excavated in other regions of the Roman Empire and beyond. We explore the materials that were used (wool, linen), their possible origin contexts as reflected in the quality of the recycled textiles (e.g. extremely fine quality in the case of Nemi and much coarser in the case of Comacchio); quantities required; and the possible chains of supply.