Scientific Analysis Of Textile Artifacts Excavated In Bazhou

Textile archaeology has a centuries-old history,but textile technology archaeology is still an emerging field of research.Fibers and dyes,as two important raw materials for textiles,are of great importance for textile archaeology.Among them,the scientific analysis of ancient textile relics not only provides information on the application status and variety distribution of textile materials in ancient China,but also provides a scientific basis for the conservation and restoration of cultural relics,thus helping to carry out the next step in the conservation of cultural relics.The analysis and testing of ancient dyestuffs can provide important information about where and when textile artifacts were produced,and even the origin of natural dyestuffs and related dyeing methods,enabling the screening of high-quality natural dyestuffs for modern dyeing,and helping us to understand the color culture of ancient textile clothing.This paper focuses on the textile artifacts excavated from Yuli Lao Kaiping Cemetery,Yuli Yingpan Cemetery and Ruoqiang LE Ancient City Cemetery in Bazhou area.The main part of the study is divided into two major parts,the first part is to examine and analyze the fibers of excavated textiles in Bazhou,and the second part is to examine and analyze the dyes on excavated textile artifacts in Bazhou.The dyes were detected and analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography tandem diode array detector and mass spectrometry(HPLC-DAD-MS),among which the HPLC-DAD-MS technique has the advantages of efficient separation of individual components,high selectivity,and high sensitivity for inferring molecular structure information of unknown dyes,thus providing important information for the identification of dyes on textile artifacts excavated in Bazhou.The detection of fibers can be performed by scanning electron microscopy(SEM)to observe longitudinal sections of fibers,the cross-sectional morphology of fibers was observed by optical microscopy(OM),the molecular structure of fiber samples was determined using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR),and in addition liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(LC-MS/MS)protein identification techniques were used to detect protein fibers.Ancient and modern fibers were examined and comparatively analyzed by using OM,SEM,FT-IR and LC-MS/MS techniques.The results showed that among the tested ancient fiber samples,silk and wool were predominant,followed by cotton.Two different types of silk,Bombyx mori silk and Bombyx mandarina silk,were detected in the textiles unearthed in Bazhou,Xinjiang through a variety of fiber detection technology methods,and the wool fibers detected may be local sheep’s wool in Xinjiang,and the cotton detected was local grass cotton in Xinjiang.The identification and analysis of dyes on textile artifacts was performed using HPLC-DAD-MS technique.A milder extraction method(pyridine,water and oxalic acid)was used to extract the dye components from the ancient artifacts.For the extraction of the blue dye dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO)was also added.The results of the test analysis showed that the red dyes detected can be divided into plant dyes and animal dyes,of which red plant dyes detected are Rubia tinctorum,Rubia cordifolia or Rubia peregrina as well as red animal dyes such as Kerria lacca and cochineal.The yellow dyes detected were Reseda luteola,Phellodendron chinense,Phellodendron amurense,Berberis species and Mahonia japonica.The blue dyes detected were indigo dyes,in addition to the black dyes characteristic component ellagic acid was detected.The HPLC-DAD-MS coupling technique was used to analyze and identify the dyes from the excavated artifacts in Bazhou,which can efficiently separate the individual components and satisfy the rapid analysis of unknown compounds,thus enabling the accurate identification of the dyes.Through the detection and analysis of dyes and fibers on textile relics excavated in Bazhou,we can better understand the history and culture of Bazhou and other information,provide accurate scientific basis for the conservation and restoration of ancient textile relics,further enrich the history of ancient dye technology in China,and provides empirical material for the study of the ancient history of dyeing science and technology.