Posted on 07/24/2022 10:08:57 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
On exami[ni]ng hair samples of mummies in the scanning electron microscope we found a piece of tissue between the curls which had the characteristic appearance of silk. To show that the specimen was silk, we performed infrared studies using multiple internal reflection, allowing nondestructive identification of the material. The spectra clearly identified silk.
We performed amino-acid anaylsis of the sample according to the method in ref. 2 and obtained the typical spectrum of hydrolysed silk, with high glycine, serine and alanine peaks as originally described by Shimura. To exclude the possibility that the silk specimen could have been added later to the mummy’s hair we performed amino-acid racemization studies on the mummy’s hydrolysed hair samples and on the hydrolysed silk specimen: proline racemization was used as the marker amino acid...
The mummy, a 30-50-year-old female, was found in Thebes, Deir el Medina, at the burial ground of the king’s workmen. Based on anthropological data, the mummification method, the burial ground and amino-acid racemization, the mummy can be assigned to the twenty-first dynasty.
The silk industry had its origin in China and the material probably first reached the Mediterranean countries via Persia. Silk was not used in Egypt until later; the earliest example that can be traced is of Ptolemaic date from Mostagedda, a wollen tunic with decorative stripes with a weft of white silk...
A portion of a coloured silk fabric was found at Qustul, south of Abu Simbel, the exact date of which is not certain, though it is probably not older than the fourth century AD. From the fourth century AD onwards silk became more common in Egypt. Our work suggests that silk was used in Egypt as long as 1,000 years BC, which would shed new light on ancient trading practices.
(Excerpt) Read more at silkroadfoundation.org ...
Thanks! Interesting stuff!
I have a sister who spun some silk on a spinning wheel she got from New Zealand. She made it into a skein and gave it to me. I’ll never use it. I just like to look at it and think of all the work (and love) that went into it.
I love silk and have LOTS of washable silk. I haunt the thrift stores to find tops and skirts that are made of silk I can afford, now that I’m retired.
‘Face
;o]
My pleasure.
Do the authors of this article have any idea where the silk was produced? We already know that the Mediterranean island of Cos made silk in ancient times. However, it wasn’t as good as Chinese silk, so when silk from China became available, the Coan silk industry went out of business.
Due to their reliance on the conventional pseudochronology, they’ve already dated it wrong, so, possibly not. :^)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coa_vestis
Thanks, I never knew that.
I knew all about the hemp, now I wonder about a lot of other organic compounds.
Nope. Even if this find were correctly dated, the Exodus was mid-15th c BC; even the conventional misdating of the Exodus is two centuries older than the incorrect date of this find. My wild guess is, there was an earlier, then-recent discovery of something that appeared to be Chinese silk, from a Ramses ii context, that has subsequently been found to be not silk or not Chinese. :^)
The backlash against finding tobacco and cocaine was breathtaking.
Is such a thing even possible? Yes, it is.
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