engleski

Radiocarbon dating of textile in the Zagreb Radiocarbon Laboratory

Textile was rarely dated before the introduction of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) introduction since the radiocarbon method is destructive and AMS requires a much smaller amount of material than conventional radiometric methods. For the same reason, however, AMS is more susceptible to sample inhomogeneity and foreign contamination. Linen or wool textiles contain thin closely intertwined fibers, so the pretreatment should be done with extra care. The pretreatment method that effectively removes contaminants and isolates only the original carbon representative for dating, is often dictated by the condition of the artifact. For the most famous radiocarbon- dated textile, the Shroud of Turin, many different techniques had been applied: from mechanical scraping, removing organic coatings with organic solvents, using detergents and standard acid, base and acid wash. The usual pretreatment method in the Laboratory consists of: identifying the fiber origin (by burning a thread), mechanical scraping and removal of applied coatings (like paint) by solvents, if needed, then acid, base, bleach and again acid washing. The best known artifact of linen dated in the Zagreb Radiocarbon Laboratory is the wrapping of the Zagreb mummy, called Liber linteus Zagrabiensis. Since the AMS has been introduced to the Laboratory, we have also dated canvases and textiles (wool and linen) from archeological, historical and mostly art historical context. Here we present types of textiles dated in the Laboratory and the methods for their pretreatment and compare the obtained radiocarbon ages with the expected ages, when data are available.

14C dating ; textile ; linen ; wool ; canvas ; Liber linteus Zagrabiensis

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