Seip textiles

Church (9, 10) proposed that the decorations on the painted Seip textiles and their associations with the burials were meant to communicate social identities or roles. Song (77, 12) found that specific structures were correlated to specific fiber contents. However, the study of the colorants was not pursued. 

Furthermore, the types of yam structures that Willoughby (5) described in the Seip textiles as vegetal core with red-stained rabbit hair wrapped around if can only be achieved in coloring the fibers before spinning. Therefore, the prehistoric artisans had to have specific knowledge about dyes and how to apply them. 

Table IV. Seip Textiles Selected for Further Analysis...

The results of this research encompasses two broad areas (1) the development of a protocol for the examination of archaeological textiles, and (2) the application of the protocol to selected textiles of Seip Mound, Ohio. Detailed descriptions of the data gained from the Seip textiles and its implications will be published elsewhere. 

Enamel and bone, strontium isotope analysis, 102-104 Energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), scanning electron microscopy, Seip textiles, 35 Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), elemental analyses copper-based coins, 231-245 copper coins, Herodian prutah, 246-257... 

The degree of the fiber degradation and mineralization of the Seip materials made them difficult to sample and also limited the degree of visual examination that was ethically justifiable without destruction of the textiles. 

The protocol was tested on prototypes that simulated expected properties of colored archaeological textiles. When applied to artifacts from Seip Mound, some adaptation was required. It was shown that useful information can be gleaned from particulate shed from these fragile materials as well as from strategically located samples. 

Seip 32 is a material with deep green colored stains (9). The infrared spectrum of the green colored sample (Figure 17) does not appear similar to malachite (basic copper carbonate) as do the Etowah materials, but it is similar to verdigris (IRUG 00152) (19), which is composed of acetates and diacetates of copper. Thus the mineral replacement of the two fabrics is somewhat different. Whether that difference is due to the environment of mineralization or to the previous chemical composition of the textiles cannot be determined. 

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