Studying archaeological mineralised textiles. A perspective from sixteenth to nineteenth century scholars.

In temperate latitudes, archaeological textiles are rarely found during excavations, except when they have been mineralised in contact with metal artefacts, copper or iron-based. Mineralised textiles are often the only direct source of information on the textile techniques and processes of ancient civilisations. Vivi Sylwan’s description of textiles along the Silk Road in the early 20th century is often considered the first detailed archaeological description of mineralised textiles, while the physico-chemist Leo Biek pioneered their microscopic description. In this paper, we examine how antiquaries and scholars from the 18th and the first half of the 19th century identified and studied the presence of textile remains on metal objects, seemingly aware of the significance of these findings. These descriptions share common concepts and vocabulary with writings from the 16th to the early 18th century on petrification of wood. The authors not only show an awareness of and an interest in textile remains, but also question, including experimentally, the process of mineralisation, shaping the modern perception of it with concepts such as “transmutation” or “imprinting”. These ancient sources had a lasting impact on our contemporary appraisal of these materials, as we shall discuss in the second stage of this review, which will be devoted to contemporary methods of studying archaeological mineralised textiles.