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Actually cotton is an odd one, origin wise. Species were domesticated in the old and new worlds simultaneously. Most cotton TODAY comes from the New World species. But cotton existed in both Africa and Asia for millennia, and was known to the ancients. In fact many authorities on folklore believe that the origin of the mythical animal know as a barometz, or vegetable lamb of Tartary (basically a sheep that grew out of the ground and remained attached to a stalk through it's umbilicus) was the attempt of an ancient Hebrew writer to try and describe cotton, and using a word that could me either "apple" or "sheep" depending on the vowels (which as in modern Hebrew are often not written down) Certainly some bits of the barometz mythology certainly sound like they are talking of cotton (especially the bit about the wool of a barometz being makeable into a fabric equal to the finest wool, but unlike wool, being easily washable without shrinkage). So ME could have had cotton (maybe from the South or East, before the shadow ultimately consumed them.)
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