Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 117, Issue 33, Pages 19670-19676Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2004139117
Keywords
cultural heritage; fossilization; cellulosic textiles; nanoimaging; synchrotron
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Funding
- French National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche [ANR]) [ANR-11-EQPX-0031]
- ANR (France) [ANR-11-EQPX-0029 Morphoscope2, ANR-10-INBS-04]
- LabEx (Laboratoire d'Excellence) PATRIMA/Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine under Project ETAM++
- European Union [654028]
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The understanding of fossilization mechanisms at the nanoscale remains extremely challenging despite its fundamental interest and its implications for paleontology, archaeology, geoscience, and environmental and material sciences. The mineralization mechanism by which cellulosic, keratinous, and silk tissues fos-silize in the vicinity of archaeological metal artifacts offers the most exquisite preservation through a mechanism unexplored on the nanoscale. It is at the center of the vast majority of ancient textiles preserved under nonextreme conditions, known through extremely valuable fragments. Here we show the reconstruction of the nanoscale mechanism leading to the preservation of an exceptional collection of ancient cellulosic textiles recovered in the ancient Near East (4,000 to 5,000 years ago). We demonstrate that even the most mineralized fibers, which contain inorganic compounds throughout their histology, enclose preserved cel-lulosic remains in place. We evidence a process that combines the three steps of water transport of biocidal metal cations and soil solutes, degradation and loss of crystallinity of cellulosic polysaccharides, and silicification.
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