{"id":66456,"date":"2008-04-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-analysis-of-rare-textiles-from-honduras-ruins-suggests-mayans-produced-fine-fabrics\/"},"modified":"2008-04-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-16T00:00:00","slug":"uri-analysis-of-rare-textiles-from-honduras-ruins-suggests-mayans-produced-fine-fabrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2008\/04\/uri-analysis-of-rare-textiles-from-honduras-ruins-suggests-mayans-produced-fine-fabrics\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 analysis of rare textiles from Honduras ruins suggests Mayans produced fine fabrics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 16, 2008 \u2013 Very few textiles from the Mayan culture have survived, so the treasure trove of fabrics excavated from a tomb at the Cop\u00e1n ruins in Honduras since the 1990s has generated considerable excitement.<\/p>\n


\n\tTextiles conservator Margaret Ordo\u00f1ez, a professor at the 溏心vlog免费B站, spent a month at the site in 2004 examining 100 textile samples found in a tomb, and since then she has been analyzing tiny fragments of 49 samples she brought back to her lab to see what she could learn from them. <\/p>\n


\n\tThe tomb, one of three excavated by archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania, was of a woman of high status who was buried during the 5th century.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWhat was most amazing was that there were as many as 25 layers of fabrics on an offertory platform and covering pottery in the tomb, and they all had a different fabric structure, color, and yarn size, so it\u2019s likely that the tomb was reopened \u2013 perhaps several times — and additional layers of textiles were laid there years after her death,\u201d said Ordo\u00f1ez.<\/p>\n


\n\tOne fabric in particular had an especially high thread count \u2013 100 yarns per inch \u2013 which Ordo\u00f1ez said is even considered high for modern textiles. \u201cIt speaks to the technology they had at the time for making very fine fabrics. It\u2019s gratifying that we\u2019ve been able to document that the Mayans were quite skillful at spinning and weaving.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAnalyzing these ancient textile samples is a complex and laborious process, particularly because the remnant samples are so small. <\/p>\n


\n\tOrdo\u00f1ez pulled out about 30 plastic containers the size of a film canister, and inside each was what looked like a rock or bit of compressed mud about an inch in diameter. Within each piece were flecks of what only an expert could tell are tiny fragments of fabric.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cSometimes you really have to use your imagination to tell that there\u2019s a textile in there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\tHandling each piece very carefully so it doesn\u2019t crumble, Ordo\u00f1ez uses a stereomicroscope to examine the yarn structure, the fabric structure, and the finish on each sample. She then brings the sample to the 溏心vlog免费B站 Sensors and Surface Technology Laboratory to use a scanning electron microscope to look in more fine detail at the plant material from which each piece of yarn was made.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI can look at the cell structure of the yarn and compare it to reference materials to identify the kind of plant each thread is made from,\u201d explained Ordo\u00f1ez, who may spend as many as three days examining each fragment. \u201cWe\u2019ve found threads made from cotton, sedge grasses, and all kinds of other plant fibers.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAfter completing the analysis of the textile samples in her lab this summer, the 溏心vlog免费B站 professor plans to return to the Cop\u00e1n ruins in 2009 to examine more fragments from the woman\u2019s tomb and other sites. She said the working conditions at the site are challenging and the research facilities are primitive, but the site provides the best opportunity to learn more about the Mayan culture.<\/p>\n


\n\tShe may even do a study of Mayan statuary at the site to see what she can learn from the way that sculptors represented textiles from the period.<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 16, 2008 \u2013 Very few textiles from the Mayan culture have survived, so the treasure trove of fabrics excavated from a tomb at the Cop\u00e1n ruins in Honduras since the 1990s has generated considerable excitement. Textiles conservator Margaret Ordo\u00f1ez, a professor at the 溏心vlog免费B站, spent a month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}