Any textile researcher, scientist or conservator who has spent long hours peering down a microscope or viewing fibre images generated by scanning electron microscopy will welcome additional resources to aid in the often challenging task of identifying archaeological fibres. Antoinette Rast-Eicher's stated aim in this impressive and literally weighty volume (over 3kg thanks to the heavy paper stock necessary for good quality image reproduction) is to “report on the kinds of fibres employed in Europe for the manufacture of textiles and furs” (p. 9), including both native and imported materials. Rast-Eicher argues that accurate fibre identification is an essential first step in the full understanding of textiles and dress. Although this is not made explicit in the preface, she brings both wide experience and great expertise to this task. As an associate of the Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Universität Bern, Rast-Eicher has published widely in this specialised field, often co-authoring the results of detailed research with other well-known textile experts.
The first and abiding impression is the extraordinary range and quality of the fibre images that form a truly comprehensive fibre atlas, including not only mainstream cellulosic and proteinaceous fibres, but also much less common fibres such as willow and oak bast. Animal fibres range from moles and rodents through to foxes, wolves and bears, woolly mammoth, camels, deer, goats, human hair and silk, including the marine ‘sea-silk’. The fibre images are drawn from a range of European sources including the Eidgenössische Materialprüfungsanstalt (St Gallen, Switzerland), the Naturhistorisches Museums of Vienna and Bern and the Liechtenstein Landesmuseum. Many fibres are shown both longitudinally and as cross-sections, easing the task of identification. Critically, fibres are also shown in a variety of magnifications and states. The exemplary series of images for linen show the fibre with starch and wax coatings together with examples of fibres recovered from artefacts. This not only provides insights into different approaches to processing and using the fibres, but also helps with the identification of degraded fibres.
The book is, however, much more than a series of images, invaluable as these are. They are underpinned by an introduction to the structure of proteinaceous and animal fibres along with a description of the routes for their preservation and degradation. Fibres are classed by type and then described in terms of habitat and history, which can include a survey of use as well as historical and anthropological evidence for social attitudes to different fibres, and, briefly, production methods. This survey is followed by specific details of fibre properties and a review of their appearance in the European archaeological record. The structured format for providing artefactual and textual evidence to enhance understanding of the visual evidence provided by the images is underpinned by copious citations marking the path to further detailed research. A brief survey of the content and approaches of some earlier fibre atlases provides a pertinent reminder of the value of earlier research and publications.
Practitioners are provided with technical information on sampling and, critically, armed with the questions to guide their visual examination of a fibre as they progress from inspection under a stereo-microscope to a light microscope, and possibly then on to scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy. Very simple methods are not discounted, as in the clear instructions given for preparing a temporary cross-section using a drilled metal plate. This section is prefaced by an interesting mini history of approaches to fibre analysis and the development of wool measurement. The account of the impact of past conservation techniques for fragile archaeological fibres, supported by a sequence of images, is both thought-provoking and a cautionary warning—some previous consolidants may have preserved the textile while obscuring evidence from its fibres.
The richness and range of this atlas is at times confounding. Although the section dealing with individual fibres is clearly based on plant or animal classifications, making them easy to locate and access, the introductory material lacks such a logical approach. The section entitled ‘Methods’ encompasses the discussion of fibre preservation, degradation and processing as well as describing actual techniques for analytical microscopy. Confusingly, the discussion on conservation products is slipped in after the discussion of general fibre processing. A firmer editorial hand guiding the overall structure of the volume would have been useful. A brief introduction to the book's format and some guidance on how best to navigate the various sections would easily have resolved this issue. Some of the historical evidence for the fibre use and production has a rather random feel and could have been tied in much more closely to understanding surviving fibres and artefacts; for example, while undoubtedly an interesting insight, what does knowing about the belief that a bear born during the hibernation period was associated with the mother goddess add to our knowledge of bear skin and fibre processing, use and identification? Similarly, greater editorial involvement would have helped iron out various quirks in style and picked up occasional typos (for example, ‘spottet’ instead of ‘spotted’ on p. 31). The index has similar oddities and is sometimes adrift in terms of accurate page references; for example, the reference to tarpan (the Eurasian wild horse) should be for p. 209 rather than p. 109. A list of tables to complement the index would have been helpful, especially when tab. 1 on p. 131 is located so far from the first reference to it on p. 12.
Nevertheless, this book will be a helpful addition to the library of those seeking to identify fibres and should find itself on the laboratory bench as much as on the bookshelf. The Archaeolingua Foundation, an Austrian-Hungarian not-for-profit organisation promoting interdisciplinary research and the various sponsors who supported the book's production should be congratulated in enabling the publication of this rich visual resource. It is to be hoped that future versions—possibly benefiting from further editorial work—will fully embrace digital technology and be available as a web-based resource. Meantime, researchers, scholars and curators will be grateful for an additional aid to fibre identification that particularly stresses the importance of understanding fibre processing in its historical context.
