Patrimony Textile Materials Short Characterization

In this paper we aimed to characterize heritage samples trough different analyses such as physicochemical and microbiological bioburden assessment analyses. The characterization was made on two types of textile materials coming from a private collection: the 1st was from the beginning and the second one from the end of the 20th century. Micro-destructive methods (such as SEM and optical microscopy) and macro-destructive methods (by use of chemical reagents for fibers solubilization) were used to identify and quantify the fibrous composition of the samples. The Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) technique was successfully applied to confirm the fibrous composition. The microbiological bioburden of the samples was evaluated by isolation on two semy-synthetic media: Czapek-Dox and Potato-Dextrose-Agar supplemented with Chloramphenicol. Thus, we have realized a primary characterization of the samples with desire to continue the future studies with focusing on the evaluation of the classes of dyes used for dyeing the samples and the use of micro- or non-destructive methods to obtain more information that could give us a better view of the realization and application of archaeological textile materials. The results showed that the studied textiles were composed from natural yarns (wool and cellulose), unevenness damaged (holes, creases) due to conservation conditions and, in a lesser extent, to the microbiological activity of the specific strains present on the surface of the textiles.