Fibers archaeological

Optical elements, liquid crystalline materials in, 15 116—117 Optical emission spectra, 14 833-837 plutonium, 19 671—673 Optical emission spectroscopy (OES), archaeological materials, 5 742 Optical fiber(s), 13 391-392 24 618 defects in, 11 145 drawing of, 11 141-145 fabrication of, 11 135-141 health care applications for, 13 397 overcladding of, 11 144 remote measurements using, 14 234 in sensors, 22 270-271 sol-gel processing of, 11 144-145 strength of, 11 141-145 vitreous silica in, 22 444 Optical fiber sensors, 12 614-616 Optical germanium, 12 556... 

Cannabis use by humans dates from prehistoric times. It was used as a food source, medicine, fuel source, for fiber, and as a recreational drug. Although it is not known how Cannabis was first used, fibers and seeds have been found in Neolithic archaeological sites. Pottery... 

Techniques of optical microscopy (OM) are well known and often used for the examination of fibers and yams from archaeological textiles. Many texts provide the fundamentals of the technique (e.g. 40-43). Some manuscripts describe the methods that may be employed in the study of archaeological materials in particular (44, 45), while others report the results of optical microscopic examination in identification and characterization of archaeological fibers (e.g., 12, 46). 

Similarly, SEM is a well known method of examining and imaging fibers and particles (47). Many papers report the use of this technique in the study of archaeological materials (e.g., 48-50). 

SEM is particularly useful when integrated with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), thereby allowing the determination of elemental composition of the materials that are also being observed and micrographed. Elemental composition of fibers and deposits has been studied in textiles from Etowah (51). The elemental composition reflects their burial environment in association with copper as well as their constituent plant fibers. Rowe (52) applied this technique successfully to pigments used in rock art, and it has been used in the study of archaeological fibers (11, 53-55). 

SEM-EDS was not performed with the replicated samples before using it on the actual artifacts, because its frequent application to analyze historic and archaeological fibers has verified its usefulness. 

Infrared Examination of Fiber and Particulate Residues from Archaeological Textiles... 

Coloredfiber replicates and related standards Charredfiber replicates Mineralizedfiber replicates and related standards Archaeological fibers... 

As Indian hemp was charred for increasing periods of time, some loss of chemical structure was incurred (Figure 7). The sample charred for 30 minutes is white and fragile, while the 10 and 20 minute samples are still black and fibrous and appear more like the charred fibers observed in the archaeological textiles. It is obvious that the composition has been altered by exposure to heat. The cellulose is dehydrated with the 2900 cm-1 band reduced in each of the levels of charring. The 10 and 20 minute samples are similar to each other, but somewhat different from the uncharred Indian hemp. The 1630 cm-1 band in the uncharred fiber is shifted to 1582 cm-1 due to dehydration. The new bands in the region of 1450 cm-1 and 1200 cm-1 in the 30 minute sample are comparable to those noted by Ercin and Yurum (44). 

Comparison of Charred Fiber Spectra to Archaeological Fibers... 

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