In the study of past economies, attention often drifts toward grand monuments or precious metals, yet the materials most intimately tied to daily life—glass and textiles—reveal some of the most enduring and organized circular networks. These items, originally valued for their functional or aesthetic qualities, underwent cycles of reuse and recycling driven by persistent economic demand, technical feasibility, and inherent material value,. The multi-faceted lives of glass and textiles demonstrate how widespread organized material circularity was, establishing global supply chains long before the modern concept of recycling emerged,,.

The Organized Alchemy of Glass: From Beauty to Utility

Glass production, involving primary workshops that converted raw materials into base glass and secondary workshops that shaped the objects, often incorporated recycling at both stages. In antiquity, even when new raw primary glass was circulating, the organized collection of broken glass (cullet) was a documented, commonplace practice, reducing production costs by saving on imported raw materials and lowering melting temperatures. For the medieval period, the practice of glass recycling seems to have intensified, possibly stimulated by a perceived shortage of raw oriental glass, which led to the development of new, local techniques like the transition to wood-ash glass,,.

Value, Aesthetics, and Function in Glass Reuse

Beyond industrial recycling (remelting), glass fragments had multiple secondary lives, categorized by purpose: beauty, utility, and value.

First, beauty drove the reuse of broken glass vessels in the earliest Roman wall mosaics, dating back to the

2nd Century BC

Earliest use of broken glass in Roman wall mosaics for decorative purposes

. These mosaics incorporated fragments alongside seashells and stone to create the illusion of a natural, rocky surface, valuing the bright color and irregular shape of the glass shards,. This practice suggests that fragments were not casually collected but supplied by an established collection and distribution network operating on an organized scale.

Second, utility defined glass reuse when shards were adapted for practical functions without remelting. Examples include reworkings used as knife sharpeners or blades. In the early Middle Ages, broken Roman glass fragments were sometimes found in male burials associated with firesteel and flint, suggesting they may have served as flints or holders for fire-starting material.

Third, value drove the curation and long-distance trade of small glass objects, such as beads and spindle whorls, which passed through a process of “semiotic translation” where their meaning and function shifted over time,. Mosaic glass spindle whorls, for example, used for spinning light fibers in Late Antique Egypt, were reused in Europe as “sword-beads” or ornaments, intertwining their practical function with new symbolic value. The consistent use of specific Iron Age glass beads in 7th-century England further reinforces their enduring value, demonstrating a “complex trajectory” of recovery and recontextualization.

The Humble Rags: Textile Reuse in Naval Contexts

Textiles, requiring substantial investment in resources and skills, were highly prized and typically used until they lost their original functionality, entering a system of reuse that ranged from making new garments to serving purely utilitarian functions,. In Roman naval contexts, old rags (centones) were extensively reused in shipbuilding for caulking/luting (waterproofing hulls), insulation (in lead-lined vessels like those at Nemi), and as tarring tools (for applying pitch to hulls),,,.

Organization and Scale in the Rag Trade

The technical characteristics of the textiles used in naval contexts reveal an important economic practice: the choice of fabric mattered little, as shown by the wide diversity of weaves and qualities found among the fragments from shipwrecks like Comacchio and Arles-Rhône 3,,,. This diversity indicates that standardized production for these specific purposes was bypassed in favor of reusing old rags. Wool was the preferred material due to its elasticity and excellent absorption properties for impregnation with pitch or tar.

The economic scale of this practice was vast. Calculations based on ship size show that the small Lyon-Saint-Georges 4 barge required at least 26 m² of cloth for waterproofing (equivalent to 17 Roman tunics). The two imperial ships at Nemi required roughly

3,400 m²

Cloth required for insulation and lining of two imperial ships at Nemi

of cloth combined for insulation and lining. Given the thousands of ships needing such textiles, ensuring a steady supply of rags demanded an organized system of collection and distribution. Organizations such as the Roman collegia centonariorum, whose main activity was likely collecting and trading rags, could have managed this large-scale economic function,. This suggests that textile recycling was an integrated part of urban and industrial economies, potentially stimulated by large clients like the navy.

Conclusion: Enduring Value in Material Transformation

Both glass and textiles demonstrate that high-volume materials, often overlooked in the traditional study of the ancient economy, sustained complex and organized circular systems that spanned vast geographies and centuries,. Whether recycled through archaeometrically detectable remelting or reused based on aesthetic and functional value, the ability of these materials to transform ensured their persistent contribution to Roman and early medieval economic life,. This material transformation is a clear indicator that circularity was not peripheral but integral to the functioning of past societies.