Fiber and Perishables Interest Group Newsletter
Society for American Archaeology
Fall 2014
Austin 2014 was a terrific meeting for Fiber
Perishables. There were two dedicated sessions at the
conference. Anne Peters organized “Learning from
Destruction:
Patterns of Decay, Production
Techniques, and Evidence for Use of Fiber.” The
FPIG sponsored symposium brought 13 reports of
work from the Western Hemisphere. “Contrasting
Patterns of Collecting, Treatment and Use of Stems
and Fiber for Crafts in Hunter-gatherer versus
Horticultural and Agropastoral Groups,” co-chaired
by Patricia Anderson and Carole Cheval, drew
presentations from Europe, the Middle East, and
Australia.
The FPIG Business meeting filled the
conference room at the Austin Hilton. Much of this
newsletter reflects the discussion at the business
meeting. We chose a topic for the FPIG sponsored
symposium at the 2016 SAA Meeting in Orlando. We
determined that the co-chairs would find a way to
stay in contact with members who may not join SAA
every year. Many members also wanted to know who
joins the interest group.
This issue includes a report of an ongoing red
dye study at Museum Resources Division in Santa
Fe, New Mexico. Rachel Freer-Waters and Gwenn
Gallenstein report on a cotton textiles conservation
In this Issue
project at three National Monuments near Flagstaff,
Arizona. Ann Peters and Cathy Costin announce a
field school focusing on analysis of organic artifacts
in Ica, Peru. There is also an announcement for a
fiber identification workshop in Houston, Texas.
We have book announcements just in time
for holiday gift giving. Donald Ball has published his
two edited volumes of Stone Age Man in the Middle
South and Other Writings, by 20th century Tennessee
archaeologist William Edward Myer. Linda
Hurcombe’s Perishable Material Culture in
Prehistory: Investigating the Missing Majority also
came out this year.
Thanks to member participation, we have
news of our members’ research, and publications.
Consider sending a blurb about your work for the
next newsletter. At the end we offer a list of fiber and
perishable related exhibits and events. This section
could benefit from brief emails alerting us to events
at your institution.
Erin Gearty and Erica Tiedemann
FPIG Co-Chairs
Fiber and Perishables Events ..................................... 7
Reports ....................................................................... 2
Perishables Technology Listserv Reminder .............. 8
The Color Red: Expansion of Dyestuff Study ....... 2
More Access to FPIG ................................................ 8
Conservation of Cotton Textiles ............................ 3
Request for Information............................................. 8
FPIG News................................................................. 3
More Information about SAA FPIG .......................... 8
Sponsored Session for Orlando 2016..................... 3
FPIG Subscription Email List and Facebook Page 4
Report on the 2014 Membership of the FPIG ........ 4
Field School Announcement ...................................... 6
Workshop Announcement ......................................... 6
Book Announcements ................................................ 7
SAA Fiber and Perishables Interest Group
Fall 2014 Newsletter
Reports
The Color Red: Expansion of Dyestuff Study
by Mark MacKenzie
Museum Resources Division, Santa Fe, NM
The Conservation Unit of Museum
yucca as common substrates, followed by
characterization in the conservation lab.
Resources Division, Santa Fe, NM, has just
completed a multi-year project looking for Cochineal
Over the course of this ongoing research,
derived red dyes and pigments in paintings, sculpture,
analytical methods will be used in addition to HPLC,
furniture and textiles throughout the collections of the
including FT-IR, UV-Vis spectrometry, HyperMuseum of New Mexico System and museums
Spectral imaging, pXRF, and Raman spectrometry. A
including the Victoria and Albert, the Denver Art
goal is to make this growing body of characterization
Museum, the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art and
information accessible by institutions and
the Franz Mayer Museum (Mexico). This was done
researchers.
in support of a forthcoming exhibit "The Color Red"
Contact Chief Conservator, Mark MacKenzie
which will open in 2015 in the Museum of
for a short project description and dye stuff and
International Folk Art.
recipe submission guidelines. This project will
Recent collaboration with the Office of
Archaeological
Studies
has
expanded
the
characterization study to include juniper root bark
dye (reddish brown). Samples from dyed replica
three-leaf sumac coiled basketry elements and yucca
fiber cord are being analyzed via HPLC in the hope
that such characterization will help archaeologists
and curators know when cultural materials have been
dyed with juniper root bark. Preliminary results
include chemical differences with other red pigments,
but our library of possible pigments is far from
complete.
proceed at its own pace with an indefinite completion
date, and with results released as they become
available.
We would also like to network with other
researchers who are characterizing traditional dyes.
Mark MacKenzie, Chief Conservator
Museum Resources Division
725 Camino Lejo,
Santa Fe, NM 87501
[email protected]
We are now looking for samples and recipes
relating to other natural (non-aniline) red-brown dye
stuffs that may have been used pre-historically and
historically in the Americas. The goal of this long
term study is to look for similarities and differences
in the dyed materials that might help in the
identification of ancient dyes or classes of dyes. The
dye stuffs and recipes will be applied to sumac and
Eric Blinman, Director
Office of Archaeological Studies
PO Box 2087
Santa Fe, NM 87504-2087
[email protected]
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SAA Fiber and Perishables Interest Group
Fall 2014 Newsletter
Conservation of Cotton Textiles from Navajo, Walnut Canyon, and
Wupatki National Monuments
by Rachel Feer-Waters and Gwenn Gallenstein
Flagstaff Area National Monuments, Flagstaff, Arizona
A recently funded project includes the
conservation process will be documented both in
conservation and re-housing of 270 non-burial related
report form and by taking before and after
damaged prehistoric cotton textiles from Navajo,
photographs of each textile. The images will be
Walnut Canyon, and Wupatki National Monuments
available on each monument’s website. Freer-Waters
at the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA). These
will also train MNA collections staff on the
prehistoric remnants of cloth were excavated by
preventive care of archaeological textiles, and will be
archeologists in the 1930s and 1960s, and many
available to educate the public on tours to the MNA
remain in the crumpled state in which they were
Easton Collection Center (ECC) where the work is
being performed.
found. Many fragments also still have soil
accumulation and other debris from the excavation
Rachel Freer-Waters is an American Institute
site. Due to creasing, they cannot be adequately
for Conservation Professional Associate with a
studied or fully viewed.
diverse background, and extensive experience with
A conservator, Rachel Freer-Waters, has
been hired to perform conservation treatments, as
needed, and design storage systems that will provide
preventive care for the objects in question. A studenttrainee has also been hired to assist with the
preventive care tasks and documentation of the
process. Conservation is being undertaken with care
to preserve any potential material that might be
valuable during scientific analysis, and balance those
interests with the preservation of each piece. The
analysis and conservation of prehistoric textiles. This
particular project is reminiscent of a 2008 postGraduate Samuel H. Kress Fellowship she was
awarded through the Arizona State Museum, where
she analyzed and conserved over 200 archeological
perishable artifacts for a major exhibit. Seeing these
textile fragments is like visiting old friends. She has
resided in Flagstaff, Arizona for the last two years
and enjoys working with museums and clients all
over the Western region.
FPIG News
Sponsored Session for Orlando 2016
Every other year, SAA Interest Groups have the
opportunity to sponsor a symposium at the national
meeting. In an effort to stay ahead of the deadlines
the come up all too fast after the April Business
Meeting, the FPIG co-chairs called for symposium
topics in the Fall of 2012. Maxine McBrinn and
Laurie Webster submitted a proposal in response to
that call. Members attending the 2014 Business
Meeting agreed to sponsor Maxine and Laurie’s
symposium at 2016 SAA Meeting in Orlando, FL.
Symposium Excavating the Museum:
Research on Old Collections
Chairs: Maxine McBrinn and Laurie Webster
New
Symposium Abstract Museums often have hidden
treasures in their collections, materials that were
collected but never published or published with only
a limited distribution. Many of the objects in these
collections have never been analyzed or were
incompletely described and have not been used to
address current research questions. These forgotten
collections, many of which date to the early years of
our profession, sometimes include rare objects or
large numbers of artifacts, and reward efforts to reexamine them. The research projects presented in this
symposium focus on perishable artifacts, including
textiles, baskets, footwear, and cordage, as well as on
more durable materials.
The abstract for the symposium follows. The call for
submissions for the 2016 meeting will open in six
months or less. Please consider the topic and begin to
prepare yourself for the summer flurry of activity in
advance of the next national meeting.
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SAA Fiber and Perishables Interest Group
Fall 2014 Newsletter
FPIG Subscription Email List and Facebook Page
To receive this newsletter in your Email
Inbox on an ongoing basis, please subscribe at
By subscribing to Fiber Perishables, you can
receive news and announcements from the interest
group regardless of your membership status with
SAA. The newsletter will arrive in the text of an
email message in simple format. We hope that this
model will increase the audience for the newsletter
and for calls for submissions to SAA Annual Meeting
events like “Excavating the Museum,” the 2016 FPIG
sponsored symposium.
http://tinyletter.com/FiberPerishables
At the Business Meeting in Austin, we
discussed the problem of staying in contact with our
Interest Group in years when some members allow
their SAA membership to lapse. Since the FPIG was
included among the official interest groups of the
society, the administration in Washington, D. C. has
maintained email lists and published the newsletter
on its website. To be included on the email list, one
must be a member in good standing of the SAA who
has also checked the appropriate interest group box
on the membership form. There is no fee to belong to
FPIG beyond the SAA Membership dues.
FPIG also has a Facebook page for publicly
sharing member announcements like the Ica Field
School for the Handling and Analysis of Organic
Artifacts or the publication of Donald Ball’s book.
https://www.facebook.com/SAAFPIG
Like the SAA Fiber Perishables Interest Group page
and add it to one of your Facebook interest groups to
see FPIG content in your feed.
In an effort to maintain regular contact with
the broader Fiber Perishables community, the cochairs have decided to publish the FPIG Newsletter
through the TinyLetter subscription service. At the
same time we will continue to publish and announce
the newsletter through the regular SAA channels.
Report on the 2014 Membership of the FPIG
by Erica Tiedemann
Figure 1. FPIG 2014 World Membership. The color scale reads from yellow for a few members (Brazil=1; Great
Britain=8) to light brown (Mexico=20; Canada=21) to dark brown for many members (USA=420).
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SAA Fiber and Perishables Interest Group
In a year with two fiber related sessions at
the national meeting, the FPIG drew members from
around the world. The attractive illustrations* in
Figures 1. and 2. were made in Google Sheets with
an SAA spreadsheet listing the city, state, and
country of origin for FPIG members. Unsurprisingly,
the overwhelming majority of members, 420, live in
the United States.
Fall 2014 Newsletter
The second illustration (Figure 2.) breaks
down the United States membership by state. Texas,
the state that hosted the Annual Meeting, had 45
members. California and Arizona followed with 39
and 38 members. New York and New Mexico each
had 20 members.
Figure 2. FPIG 2014 United States Membership. The color scale reads light to dark with darker states having more
members: yellow – 1-4; light tan 5-9; light brown 10-19 (e.g. IL, IN, MO); orange brown 20-29 (NM, NY); brown
30-39 (AZ, CA); dark brown 45 (TX).
*Volunteer Geographic Consultant, Clifford Tiedemann, gave the following explanation of the difference between
an illustration and a map.
What's required for an illustration of a portion of the earth's surface to be called a "map": 1. Title; 2.
Scale; 3. Projection; 4. Orientation; 5. Location; 6. Legend; 7. Source. Without all seven it's only a "maplike thing". Ideally all should appear within the "neat line," roughly the map border but usually a fine line
enclosed within a heavier one. The neat line insures that items don't get lost in a reproduction process.
Sometimes one or more elements may show up in an external figure caption.
Although Google Sheets creates slick illustrations in its chart/map option, it does not allow for inclusion of any of
the information needed to make a map. Nor does Google Sheets have an option to illustrate all of North America
with the state by state, province by province breakdown. Given the number of members who live in Canada and
Mexico, a view of North America would have been preferable for Figure 2.
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SAA Fiber and Perishables Interest Group
Fall 2014 Newsletter
Field School Announcement
Ica Field School for the Handling and Analysis of Organic Artifacts
Program Director: Cathy Costin, PhD.
Department of Anthropology, California State University, Northridge
Field director: Ann H. Peters, PhD.
June 6 – July 5, 2015
Contact addresses:
The Ica Museum field school provides an
introduction to Andean archaeology in both theory
and practice, with an emphasis on the unique
preservation of fragile organic materials in several
Andean environments and their contribution to our
understanding of ancient societies.
[email protected]
[email protected]
Museum visits and illustrated lectures will
complement a hands-on approach to field and
laboratory methods for handling and analyzing
artifacts of wood, bone, hide, reeds, cordage and
textiles. The aggregate character of fiber artifacts
and their fragility require special strategies in
handling, observation of features, conservation
treatment and storage. While organic artifacts can be
found in occupation contexts, most have been
recovered in mortuary contexts. Therefore, we will
consider their contribution to mortuary analysis, and
the contribution of mortuary analysis to our
understanding of ancient Andean societies.
Figure 3. Archaeologist and textile conservator Carmen
Carranza in 2011 using microphotography to
document the use of adhesives on textiles in the
1950s. She is also teaching preventative conservation
techniques to the students of the Ica field school. The
adhesive was found to be non-reversible.
Workshop Announcement
Fiber Identification and Analysis for Conservation
The National Center for Preservation
Technology and Training (NCPTT) and The Museum
of Fine Arts Houston are hosting a three-day handson workshop on fiber identification and analysis for
conservation. The workshop will be held March 2426, 201, at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in
Houston, TX. This course covers basic polarized light
microscopy (PLM) and methods of sampling,
characterization and identification of mammalian hair
and selected natural and synthetic fibers. Emphasis is
placed on hands-on exercises involving sample
preparation and specimen manipulation as well as the
characterization
specimens.
and
identification
of
actual
The workshop’s instructors are Nicholas
Petraco and Fran Gale. This workshop is only open to
20 participants, so register early to reserve your spot.
Tuition for the class is $399.
More information, schedule, and registration
can be found at;
http://ncptt.nps.gov/events/fiber-identification-andanalysis-for-conservation/
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SAA Fiber and Perishables Interest Group
Fall 2014 Newsletter
Sources
Book Announcements
Stone Age Man in the Middle South and Other
Writings. 2 vols. WILLIAM EDWARD MYER and
DONALD B. BALL (editor). 2014. Borgo
Publishing: 9780990543114: Amazon.com: Books
Frequent newsletter contributor, Donald B.
Ball, has released his extensively referenced and
copiously annotated anthology of the writings of
William Edward Myer.
WILLIAM EDWARD MYER (1862-1923)
of Carthage, Tennessee, was the state’s most
significant and productive archaeologist in the early
twentieth century. Unfortunately, until now his
monumental and previously unpublished Stone Age
Man in the Middle South manuscript—intended to be
his magnum opus summarizing decades of
observations regarding the archaeology of the upper
and central Cumberland Valley—has been accessible
to only a limited number of regional archaeologists
for the better part of a century. These volumes make
readily available for the first time both Myer’s Stone
Age Man manuscript and an extended sampling of
his other writings including his previously unknown
Record of Relics No. 2, his personal inventory of his
extensive (12,000+ items) collection. This anthology
of Myer’s work fills a long standing void in the
literature of this region and is a “must have” addition
to any library devoted to the prehistoric archaeology
of Tennessee, the southeastern United States, and the
study of Mississippian era chiefdom level societies.
Perishable Material Culture in Prehistory:
Investigating the Missing Majority. LINDA
HURCOMBE. 2014. Routledge.
Perishable Material Culture in Prehistory
provides new approaches and integrates a broad
range of data to address a neglected topic, organic
material in the prehistoric record. Providing news
ideas and connections and suggesting revisionist
ways of thinking about broad themes in the past, this
book demonstrates the efficacy of an holistic
approach by using examples and cases studies.
No other book covers such a broad range of
organic materials from a social and object biography
perspective, or concentrates so fully on approaches to
the missing components of prehistoric material
culture. This book will be an essential addition for
those people wishing to understand better the nature
and importance of organic materials as the ’missing
majority’ of prehistoric material culture.
Fiber and Perishables Events
The following exhibits may interest FPIG members. If you would like an event at your institution to appear
in future FPIG newsletters, please contact the FPIG co-chairs (see contact details below).
Textiles of Timor, Island in the Woven Sea
Fowler Museum at UCLA
Los Angeles, CA
through January 4, 2015
http://fowler.ucla.edu/
Examining Opulence
A Set of Renaissance Tapestry Cushions
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, NY
through January 18, 2015
http://metmuseum.org/
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SAA Fiber and Perishables Interest Group
Telling Stories
Textile Museum of Canada
Toronto, ON
through January, 25 2015
http://www.textilemuseum.ca/
Fall 2014 Newsletter
Here & Now: Native Artists Inspired
Burke Museum
Seattle, WA
through July 27, 2015
http://www.burkemuseum.org
Death Becomes Her
A Century of Mourning Attire
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, NY
through February 1, 2015
http://metmuseum.org/
Native American Voices: The People. Here and
Now
Penn Museum
Philadelphia, PA
with rotating exhibits until 2019
http://www.penn.museum/
Gown of Cloud & Rainbow: Miao Costumes &
Jewelry from China
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Minneapolis, MN
through February 22, 2015
http://new.artsmia.org/
Good Beginnings: Children's Hats and Clothing
from China
Textile Museum of Canada
Toronto, ON
opens February 11, 2015
http://www.textilemuseum.ca/
From Ashgabat to Istanbul: Oriental Rugs from
Canadian Collections
Textile Museum of Canada
Toronto, ON
through April 19, 2015
http://www.textilemuseum.ca/
The Red that Colored the World
Museum of International Folk Art
Santa Fe, NM
opens May 17, 2015
http://www.internationalfolkart.org/
Perishables Technology Listserv Reminder
The Perishable Technology Listserv is an email discussion list moderated by Ed Jolie that was formed to
stimulate discussion about and disperse knowledge of perishable technologies within an anthropological
framework. To join the list, terminate a subscription, or obtain additional information please visit the listserv
webpage at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Perishable_Technology, or contact Ed at [email protected].
More Access to FPIG
To receive this newsletter in your Email Inbox on an ongoing basis, please subscribe at
http://tinyletter.com/FiberPerishables. Like SAA Fiber Perishables Interest Group on Facebook to see FPIG
announcements on your home page.
Request for Information
We continue to accept and publish member announcements and short stories. We are interested in research,
publications, reviews, collaborations, and upcoming events. Submit information to the FPIG Co-chairs, Erin Gearty
and Erica Tiedemann at [email protected] and [email protected].
More Information about SAA FPIG
For more information about SAA FPIG or to access previous newsletters, please visit our web page at:
http://www.saa.org/ForMembers/InterestGroups/FiberPerishablesInterestGroup/tabid/152/Default.aspx .
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