Textiles and Fiber Analysis

Textiles and Fiber Analysis

Introduction

  • Textiles change through time.
  • Weaving is the layered information of textiles.
  • Textiles can last thousands of years if preservation conditions are good.
  • Canyons of the Ancients have an archaic basket (woven bottle of duffel leaves).

What Clothing Tells Us

  • Clothing (textiles) can tell us about:
    • Status
    • Climate
    • Information about someone before you talk to them

Fiber to Yarn or Cordage

Fiber Types

  • Animal, plant, and mineral fibers.
  • Plant fiber is most common (yucca, cotton).
  • Feathers, hair, and fur can be incorporated (turkey feather blanket).
  • Yarn is often plant-based.

Examples of Fibers

  • Yucca fibers: Processed yucca from a college field school.
  • Raffia: Palm leaves (more accessible than yucca).
  • Asbestos: Evidence of one textile made from asbestos (Hoking Basin).
  • Cotton: Unprocessed cotton with seeds and husks.
  • Hemp: Plant fiber similar to hair but can be soft.

Fiber Processing

  • Plant fibers: Remove pulp and juicy contents to get straight fibers.
  • Methods:
    • Scraping (agave, similar to yucca)
    • Fermenting
    • Baking leaves
  • Cotton: Use a Hopi ginning tool to remove seeds (ginning).
    • Ginning tool removes seeds and fluffs fiber.
    • Carding: Brushing into longer fibers.

Cotton Trade

  • Cotton not grown locally; often traded for.
  • Cotton pollen found at the Haney site.
  • May indicate seeds or finished products were present, not necessarily grown there.
  • Cotton use arrived later, coming from the South.

Questions about Cotton Trade

  • Were finished products or raw materials traded?
  • Typically, items from farther away are more processed or finished.
  • Pollen could be on finished products or seeds brought in for food.
  • Speculation that yarn was traded and then woven locally.

Wool

Churro Sheep

  • Common sheep among Navajo.
  • Wool fiber comes from churro sheep.
  • Shearing is like giving them a haircut.
  • Wool is dirty when it comes off the sheep and needs washing.

Wool Processing

  • Wool has a tendency to felt (heat and agitation cause felting).
  • Be careful when washing to keep fibers intact.
  • Carding: Brushing fibers straight.

Turning Fiber into Yarn

  • Add twist to draft loose fiber.
  • Methods: Spinning wheel, spindle, or thigh spinning.
  • Twisted fiber becomes yarn.

Resources

  • Textiles in Southwestern Prehistory: Free book with information on textiles and related materials in the Southwest.

Spinning Techniques

  • Supported spinning: Adding twist in one spot.
  • Suspended spinning: Adding twist while supporting the yarn.

Dog and Human Hair

  • Evidence of dog and human hair use in textiles.
  • Shorter fibers require a faster, lighter, supported spindle to reduce tension.
  • Wool has long staple lengths, making it easier to spin.
  • Cotton has shorter staple lengths.
  • Dog hair can be difficult to spin depending on the hair type.
  • Arizona State Museum has a large net made from human hair used for harvesting rabbits.

S and Z Twists

  • Record the angle of the twist for spin.
  • Thigh spinning and spindle spinning may have different twist directions.
  • S twist: Twist goes this way.
  • Z twist: Twist goes this way.
  • Plying: Often opposite twist to balance the yarn.
  • If originally spun with a Z twist, it will be plied with an S twist.
  • Balances yarn to prevent unwrapping.

Embellishments

  • Rabbit fur blanket.
  • Turkey feather cordage with yucca base.
  • Fibers can be added to yarn to thicken or fluff it up.

Dyeing

  • Dyeing: Something to look at, but hard to tell with old or burned textiles.
  • Different fibers react differently to dyes.
  • Tie dye: Also practiced.
  • Can dye the fiber, yarn, or fabric at different times for different appearances.
  • Examples include tie-dye blankets, potentially with corn symbolism.
  • If you dye the fiber then स्पिन it, the whole thing will be that color. If you dye just the yarn, you can see lighter spots where the dye didnt take, this is onion skin dye job.
  • Mordants: Keep the dye in the fiber and may affect the color or saturation.
  • Yellow onion skin can be used as a dye.

Dye Examples

  • Tea, wild tea, and rabbit brush.
  • Cochineal (bugs).
  • Indigo (plants).

Dyeing Process

  • Create a dye bath.
  • Immerse the item to be dyed.
  • Leave or cook for desired saturation.
  • Commercial dyes are also available.

Cochineal

  • Cochineal bugs spotted on prickly pears on campus.

Haney Site Textile

  • Textile found at the Haney site.
  • Possible Z twist or S twist Z ply.
  • Possibly yucca.
  • Burned but tougher fibers.
  • Found in stretcher eleven fifteen, potentially on a surface.

Textile Recording

  • Record how the textile was constructed.
  • Was it made on a loom?
  • Is it cordage and knotted, like a net?
  • Is it a basket?
  • Record patterns, stitches, and rows.

Sandal Analysis

  • Mesa Verde Museum recording of sandals.
  • Interesting designs.
  • Knotted bits in addition to plain weave.

Sandal Recovery

  • Not many recovered due to poor preservation.
  • Arid or dry environments are necessary for preservation.
  • Rock art shows sandal imagery.

Loom Weaving

  • Loom weaving appeared around 700 AD, coming from the South.
  • Knotting, twining, and braiding occurred long before looms.
  • Looms allow for larger pieces of fabric and faster production.
  • Basic weaving includes warp (anchored cordage or yarn) and weft (added part).

Loom Types

  • Back strap loom: Anchored to the wall with a strap around the back.
  • Horizontal looms.
  • Vertical looms: Anchored to the bottom floor with potential ceiling anchors.
  • Tools: Pedal, batten, shed rod help maintain design.

Weaving and Gender

  • Both men and women wove in different cultures and groups.

Textile Colors

  • Common colors: White, tan, red, black, brown.
  • Plain weave and twill tapestries, sometimes tie-dyed.
  • Polychromes in Arizona.
  • Lace from the Hohokam.

Textile Designs

  • Pueblo II: Banded designs.
  • Pueblo III and IV: Quartered layouts, reminiscent of Mesa Verde Black on White pottery designs.
  • Hypothesis: Basket designs influenced textile designs.

Clothing Types

  • Aprons, blankets, and sashes were worn by women.
  • Human hair used in designs.
  • Men wore breech cloths and cotton blankets as shirts.

Preservation Conditions

  • Textiles are rare in archaeology.
  • Cliff dwellings are where most textiles are found.
  • Burning is a method of preservation.
  • Extreme aridity in cliff dwellings.
  • Freezing (e.g., Ötzi the Iceman).
  • Acidic microenvironments (e.g., Roman bronze armoring with textile).
  • Acidic bogs.
  • Alkaline environments (limestone caves, shell middens) preserve plant-based fibers.
  • Animal-based fibers preserved in microenvironments or bogs.

Spinning Tools

  • Evidence of textile making activities.
  • Spindle whorls: Made of pottery, gourd, etc.
  • Loom Anchors: Evidence of loom use in structures.
  • Picks, forks, moon batons, and bone awls.
  • Bone awls: Versatile tools, including use in weaving.
  • Wear patterns on bone awls indicate use for weaving.

Textile Impressions

  • Evidence of basket construction.
  • Burned yucca fragments.
  • Thicker pieces of yucca used for blankets and sandals.

Textile Analysis

  • Textiles are sent to textile experts, such as Lori Webster.

Pottery Analysis

  • Basket impressions recorded during pottery analysis.

Other Evidence

  • Rock art: Textile imagery.
  • Intricate woven sandals: May represent the maker or community group (identity marker).

Modern Practices

  • Talking to people about their cultures and knowledge.
  • Navajo women spinning.
  • Hopi fiber artists (often males).
  • Experimental archaeology: Making brown stump, flint knapping, making and dyeing fibers, weaving.