X-ray microscopy reveals the outstanding craftsmanship of Siberian Iron Age textile dyers

Andreas Späth,Manfred Bieber,Rainer H Fink,Karl Meßlinger,Ludmilla L Barkova,Camelia N Borca,Markus Meyer,Thomas Huthwelker

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-84747-z

Andreas Späth, Manfred Bieber + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-84747-z

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Abstract

The excellent craftsmanship of ancient Oriental and Central Asian textile dyers is already demonstrated in the remarkable brilliance and fastness of the colours of the so-called Pazyryk carpet, the by far oldest pile carpet found to date. This specimen resembles the advanced craftsmanship of Iron Age Central Asian textile production. We have employed synchrotron-based µ-XRF imaging to detect the distribution of metal organic pigments within individual fibres of the Pazyryk carpet (about 2500 years old) and compare the results to wool fibres, which we prepared according to traditional Anatolian dyeing recipes. We observe congruent pigment distribution within specimens from the Pazyryk carpet and natural wool fibres that we have fermented prior to dyeing. Therefore, we conclude that the superior fermentation technique has been utilized about 2000 years earlier than known so far.

Highlights

The excellent craftsmanship of ancient Oriental and Central Asian textile dyers is already demonstrated in the remarkable brilliance and fastness of the colours of the so-called Pazyryk carpet, the by far oldest pile carpet found to date
It is proposed that the increased colour fastness of fermented sheep wool stems from a deeper and overall higher amount of uptake of pigments inside the fibres
In transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images of cross-sections from fermented and dyed wool fibres the CMC appears darker than the surrounding cortex, which is not the case in not fermented, but identically dyed analogues (Fig. S2)

Summary

Introduction

The excellent craftsmanship of ancient Oriental and Central Asian textile dyers is already demonstrated in the remarkable brilliance and fastness of the colours of the so-called Pazyryk carpet, the by far oldest pile carpet found to date. X-ray fluorescence microscopy (μ-XRF) is an ideally suited technique for high-resolution imaging of metal based pigments. The specifics of the project (diameter of single wool fibres ~ 30–50 μm) required a spatial resolution excelling typical XRF studies on cultural heritage samples with lab-based X-ray sources by almost an order of magnitude[7,10].

Results

Conclusion