Anyhow, the point was that if linen were lost in a crumbled structure or among rocks, it wouldn’t stick around all that long. One of nature’s answers to biodegrading cellulose is insects (e.g. termites or perhaps more properly the micro-organisms that live in the guts of termites, without which the cellulose they eat would do them no more good than so much inert material).
That's a good modality for Linen destruction.