Characterisation of mineralised archaeological textile fibres through chemical staining

Abstract

Archaeological textile fibres are often preserved in contact with iron or copper alloy objects through mineralisation. Depending on burial conditions these may take the form of positive or negative casts. Often and perhaps surprisingly many mineralised fibres still preserve small amounts of the original organic matter. While in the past mineralised fibres have usually been investigated with instrumental analysis techniques such as scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, this article describes the use of simple microscopic chemical staining tests for proteins (animal fibres) and cellulose/lignin (plant fibres) to complement the visual assessment of mineralised fibrous remains. It was found that a classification even of highly degraded archaeological fibres was possible with a combination of naphthol blue black for animal fibres and zinc chloride/iodine (Herzberg stain) and safranine O for plant fibres.

Notes

Author for correspondence.