Roman footballs

To make balls that bounced, the Romans used different sources: pig or swollen cow bladders covered with animal skin; cats’ intestines and guts minced in the shape of a sphere and covered with leather or skin; sponges enveloped in tissues or wrapped in rope. Until the end of the 20th century, certain villages in Turkey and Egypt used a technique of sponges compressed by rope to form a sphere and then protected by a cloth.

Philippe Villemus, Le Dieu football (The Football God) (Ed. Eyrolles 2006)

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