Forensic Archaeology

Crime lab techniques brighten prehistoric textiles

The word "forensics" conjures visions of white coat-clad scientists in sterile gray crime labs.

New Ohio State research has found a considerably cheerier use for that high-tech science: seeing ancient textiles' faded colors.

Christel Baldia, a doctoral graduate in textiles and clothing, and Kathryn Jakes, professor of textile sciences, recently used forensic science to find patterns in textiles from burial mounds built by the Hopewell Indians. Baldia and Jakes looked at fabric from the Seip burial mounds in southern Ohio, believed to be part of a shroud-like canopy of fabric that arched over the remains buried inside the mounds.

“Textiles often come out looking like brown rags, yet Native American dress is described as colorful by early travelers or pioneers.” Baldia says. “So we asked ourselves: ‘What can we do to better examine ancient textiles for colors we no longer see?'”

Baldia and Jakes examined their sample under three kinds of light, then photographed the artifacts with special film and light-filtering camera equipment. The revelation: Undetected patterns and markings.

“The materials we examined from Hopewell burial mounds show gradations of color under different light sources,” Jakes said. “When artifacts have non-random changes in color like that, it indicates to us that there has to be dye or pigment. That's significant for ancient textiles because it reveals technologies prehistoric Native peoples were capable of.”

Jakes and Baldia hope forensic science--which art curators already use to separate original artwork from forgeries--will catch on as an inexpensive and non-destructive tool to analyze textile artifacts more efficiently.

“I think this will help spur a lot of new findings,” Jakes says. “It's a great way to start looking at the stuff in the attics of museums across the country in a new way.”

(Read the full research news story by Dave Mosher.)

Related links:

College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University

The Ohio State University Graduate School

The Office of Research at The Ohio State University

(text/images: University Marketing Communications)