Late Antique Textiles from the Papyrus Collection of the Austrian National Library Scientific investigation of fibres, dyes and dyeing techniques

The two volumes of the series Mitteilungen aus der Papyrussammlung der Österreichischen National-bibliothek (Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer) complement each other. The volume Die spätantiken Textilien der Papyrussammlung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, 1 (MPER XXXIV, 1) is a catalogue of the Late Antique textiles from the Papyrus Collection of the Austrian National Library in Vienna, including their descriptions and textile technological investigations. The textile finds originate from Late Antique Egypt and are dated by stylistic and iconographic studies to about 300–800 CE. The volume Late Antique Textiles from the Papyrus Collection of the Austrian National Library, 2. Scientific Investigation of Fibres, Dyes and Dyeing Techniques (MPER XXXIV, 2) contains the results of the interdisciplinary research on selected textiles of the collection obtained by the collaboration between historians, archaeologists, restorers and scientists. The scientific investigation was part of the research project Texts and Textiles in Late Antique Egypt, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, P-28282-G25, 2015–
2019). The aim of the research was to extend the knowledge of textile dyeing in Late Antique Egypt on the basis of examinations and literature studies, building a bridge between the scientific results and the textual sources written in Late Antiquity.
The general part of MPER XXXIV, 2 discusses the fibres, dyeing materials, dyeing techniques used in Late Antique Egypt, the creation of colours and the possibilities of dating. The texts on the dyeing materials include the biological sources, dye components, history and ancient written sources, and are supplemented by the dye analyses of textiles from the Papyrus Collection. In the catalogue part of MPER XXXIV, 2, detailed analytical results of 83 samples and two measuring fields of 30 textiles from the Papyrus Collection are discussed. Microscopic, chromatographic and chemical element analyses were focused on the fibres, dyes and mordants. These investigations were carried out by the Cultural Heritage Laboratory of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands in Amsterdam and the Department of Archaeometry of the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Multi-coloured textiles
were chosen for the analysis of all coloured threads present. A special focus was on the red and purple colours. The analytical results allow conclusions on the fibres, dyeing materials and dyeing techniques, such as double dyeing, blending of differently dyed fleeces and mordanting. Furthermore, the fibre degradation and contamination of the samples were determined. An archaeometric database served to collect the analytical data, microscopic images, chromatograms, UV/VIS absorption and SEM-EDX spectra systematically. The appendices contain summary tables of the dyeing materials identified in the textiles of the Papyrus Collection. In addition, archaeological textiles from Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean region are cited, where the use of these materials has been confirmed by dye analyses in numerous international projects. A detailed bibliography completes volume MPER XXXIV, 2.