Plant Fibre Diagnostics: Retrospect and Prospect

Summary

Here I review ethnographic studies of hunter-gatherer groups from North America, Siberia, and Scandinavia to examine plant-fibre material cultural heritage and natural husbandry practiced by these societies. This study considers plant-fibre textiles and their diagnostic differential typology to aid understanding of plant fibre processing and utilization and attendant diagnostic features. The poor preservation of European plant-fibre directs diagnostic trials to modern reference material and inferential diagnosis from museum collections of textile tools and their tool wear. The intension is to share the diagnostic potential for FT Raman-Spectroscopy, fibrillar rotational-velocity, and phytolith production as robust, non-destructive and minimally invasive techniques to aid the interpretation of ethnographic and archaeological textiles produced prior to the 18th century introduction of flax. Our current reconstructive work concerns the use of nettle fibre as a bowstring material in European medieval archery.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Excavating the Museum: New Research on Old Collections

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