A MICROSCOPIC STUDY OF REMAINS OF TEXTILES MADE FROM PLANT FIBRES

Summary. Plant fibres in textiles from the following sites were investigated and those not already identified as flax were identified as such: Tybrind (Mesolithic Denmark)-unidentified; Çatal Hüyük (Neolithic Turkey); the Kerma civilization of Nubia (2000 BC); Kings Road, Guernsey (Iron Age) (mineralised cloth), and eighteenth-century England. Some Bronze Age nettle fabric from Denmark was examined.
The Scanning Electron Microscope provided an invaluable aid to identification, particularly in the mineralised material. Fibre diameter measurements in the form of distributions, like those used with wool, also assisted identification, but no evolutionary changes with time were evident in these. It was possible also to make such measurements on SEM photomicrographs of the mineralised fibres.