Tents, to be linen or not to be linen.

[texascavtrooper]

[. It does take a lot of effort to produce an almost watertight weave, such as used in canvas for sails.[/quote]

Robert, I have made a tent out of a thick linen when I was in Germany that was not woven very tight. You could see light trough it in places. You would think that it would let water thru it but when it got wet the fibers swelled and sealed the tent. so the weave of the Linen is not as tight as you would think.
As for tring to prove that the Roman army used only linen/canvas tents I have never said they did. I only asked if they could have used them. I'm not saying that everyone had one but is it possable that they could have used them. Also as we all know cloth dosen't fair well over time and rot fairly quickly in all but the perfect conditions. So the lack of proof is not saying they didn't have them. It's just saying we don't know if they did. Also the point that one tent has seams shown and the other dosen't seams to point to some other material other than leather. But who knows!
Thank you all for the insite.
Bryan