It has already been proved that hide-ropes could do the job. There was that silly TV prog where they tried to recreate old things (like Archimedes' boat lifter etc) which did loads of strain testing on them.
I think this has already been credibly proven, so you really shouldn't worry too much about it. You could easily find out the actual breaking strains measured , match it with modern rope and quote the research.
As a note on expense - the program originally wanted to do their project with authentic materials, but they were told it would take about a year to produce enough and be VERY expensive.
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