05-06-2006, 08:00 AM
Quote: But were they eating that much meat? Grain products seem to have been the mainstay of the diet back then. Leather was certainly used for a lot of things. But again, I don't think cheapness and ease of construction was all that big a concern to them.
But would leather even have been relatively cheaper? Much of Greece proper was hardly Texas with vast herds of cattle, aside form the relative messiness of tanning mentioned already.
Another thing to consider is that flax can be managed so has to produce both linseed (and then linseed oil) and the raw fiber material for linen. Growing flax would not necessarily have required choosing between a food or oil crop and a fabric one.
Paul Klos
\'One day when I fly with my hands -
up down the sky,
like a bird\'
\'One day when I fly with my hands -
up down the sky,
like a bird\'
