05-07-2007, 11:38 AM
This should help dismantle the argument that flax wasn't grown in any quantity in Greece. The argument about "local leather" vs "imported linen" is ballocks. Flax was produced locally. From Chadwick, The Mycenaen World. p153.
"I discovered that in modern times too large quantities of flax have been grown in the south-west Pelopponese. Indeed the area in Greece which produced most flax for fibre was almost exactly the kingdom controlled by the palace at Englianos [the palace to which the Linear B flax evidence was linked]. This cannot be an accident, but must be due to especially favourable conditions for the cultivation or preparation of flax. In fact, the west coast has the highest rainfall in Greece, and consequently has much more plentiful perennial water supplies... It would not be surprising if flax-growing had been practised here from Mycenaean down to modern times... The mention by Thucydides [4.26.8] of linseed in connexion with the rations smuggled in to the Spartans on Sphakteria island shows that flax was then grown in the neighbourhood; and medieval records too list flax among the products of the area."
"I discovered that in modern times too large quantities of flax have been grown in the south-west Pelopponese. Indeed the area in Greece which produced most flax for fibre was almost exactly the kingdom controlled by the palace at Englianos [the palace to which the Linear B flax evidence was linked]. This cannot be an accident, but must be due to especially favourable conditions for the cultivation or preparation of flax. In fact, the west coast has the highest rainfall in Greece, and consequently has much more plentiful perennial water supplies... It would not be surprising if flax-growing had been practised here from Mycenaean down to modern times... The mention by Thucydides [4.26.8] of linseed in connexion with the rations smuggled in to the Spartans on Sphakteria island shows that flax was then grown in the neighbourhood; and medieval records too list flax among the products of the area."
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
