A query asking the best method for tanning leather, primarily aimed at feminalia.

tanning methods?

SMc

What sort of tanning methods were most prevalant with the Romans? In particular what sort of tanning method would they have used for their trousers(feminalia?-remember, I'm just getting started here!). Just curious as to what was used...

Anonymous

Vegetable tanning was used which involved soaking the leather into a solution made from the bark (usually) of a tree or a plant rich in tannic acid. Leaves and roots can also be used.

www.philipsburgtannery.com/tannproc.htm

I've surfed a bit and according to a french site, true tanning appeared around 1000 BC with the use of alum.

Another method of tanning was to rub the skin with birch bark and then rub it with birch oil. This is what is known as "cuir de Russie". It's mainly used today for book binding.

I've read a long time ago that the wreck of an early nineteenth century russian merchant ship was found containing shoes made of "cuir de Russie". The shoes were washed with clear water, then oiled and the leather regained all its characteristics..

But as far as leather is concerned, we do have a specialist.

Aitor, someone needs your expertise here....

Matthew Amt

Carol Van Driel-Murray is one of the big Roman leather experts, so if you can find her articles (in JRMES, etc.) they will be helpful. I recall her mentioning "tawed" leather as well as vegetable-tanned, though I don't remember if she defined it or how. Might have been an alum tanning process.

The Romans also used rawhide for certain items--I have a growing suspicion that shield facings were more often rawhide than tanned leather, which would make them much stronger. But I don't know what sorts of archeological analyses would reveal whether something was tanned or not, or if a piece of rawhide might have been "tanned" over the centuries by the chemicals in the ground or water which preserved it. Probably a lot of famous finds haven't been analyzed, so you can't necessarily trust them if they say a shield has "hide" or "leather" on it. (Not that there are many shields that survive!)

Also, I'm not sure there is direct evidence for leather trousers, though it's a possibility. Wool works better for an infantryman trying to keep from freezing! As I understand it, the spelling is "femEnalia", related to "femen" meaning femur or thigh, NOT to "femIna" which means woman.

aitor iriarte

As for tanning methods, I can only add that rawhide desn't stand well water and humidity and the surviving archeological items come from dry climates, like the Qasr-Ibrim fort in Nubia.

It is rather stiff too, not proper for garments.

Leather trousers should be made of tanned leather, therefore. If I recall well, oiled leather or alum tanned leather do not survive in water-logged conditions as vegetable tanned leather does. In any case, it is strange that, so far, no parts of leather trousers have been recovered from the big military dumps. But that could be just a matter of chance...