Radiocarbon for the Dating of Fibres and Textiles: The Case Study of a Silk Knitted Fabric from Pompeii

Radiocarbon (or 14C) is a well-known long-living isotope, which is used as a natural chronometer to reconstruct the ages of organic materials and of some inorganic systems as well. In archaeological contexts, fibres and textiles, both of animal and vegetal origin, represent materials that are well suitable for the application of this dating method. Many important aspects have however to be considered while dating. As first, starting from the collection of the sample to be dated, the isolation of just the original carbon-based fraction is clearly mandatory. To achieve this and thus to remove all the possible contaminations, a proper sample preparation procedure is typically applied. Such a procedure must be tailored to the specific material to be treated and sometimes must be adapted to its preservation state. In this paper, we will show the case of the dating of an archaeological textile fragment found in Pompeii (Italy), discussing how much its degradation state had an impact on the overall preparation. Radiocarbon dating has been successfully performed on one silk-knitted textile found in Pompeii during excavations conducted in the nineteen century, carried out without a stratigraphical dig. However, the object has been included in the ancient textile collection of the Vesuvian area mainly composed of carbonized remains. The dating was performed to ascertain the actual age of the sample, demonstrating its later date between the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries AD.