The quest for Anchiton

[-JKP-]

From the asbestos information exchange:

"The Romans also appreciated the fire-resistant nature of asbestos and used it for building construction and wove it into cloth used for head dressings, towels, and, like the Greeks, to make napkins and table cloths.  Asbestos was especially useful in napkins and table clothes.  The Romans would simply toss the soiled napkins or table clothes into the fire where any food scraps or filth would be burned off leaving only the cloth.  Typically the fire-cleaned cloth came out whiter than it did when it entered the fire, leading the Romans to call it "amiantus" meaning "unpolluted."
...

Other uses during the medieval era included insulation for armor; but, the most fascinating use of asbestos during the period was as a magical cross sold by traveling merchants.  The crosses, cut from asbestos, looked like very old, worn wood and were advertised by merchants as "true crosses" made directly from the wood of the cross upon which Jesus Christ of Nazareth died.  To illustrate the magical cross's powers, the merchants would throw the wood into a fire where it would remain undamaged.  "