Publication details
Preliminary study of archaeological leather by ATR-FTIR
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Many remains of ancient clothing, footwear and utensils made from leather have been found in archaeological sites throughout the world [1]. The appropriate conservation treatment of these artifacts, in order to protect their integrity and scientific value, requires the understanding of leather’structure as well as it’s deterioration under burial medium, wet or dryconditions. Leather is a material made from animal skin by the process of tanning, using vegetable tannins, fats or metal salts. The chemical deterioration of leather is mainly caused by acid hydrolysis and oxidation due to environmental factors[2].Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) technique is widely used for historical collagen based materials investigation, enabling the detection of conformational changes of collagen structure, as well as the identification of materials added during the manufacturing process or formed on ageing [3-4]. The present contribution reports the preliminary results of Attenuated Total Reflection-Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) applied on several archaeological leather samples from South Moravia, Czech Republic. The archaeological leathers spectra were comparedand discuss with those of pure collagen and vegetable tannin powders, as well as hydrolysable and condensed tanned leathers. |