Laser cleaning of ancient textiles

In this work, we tried to answer two questions: (i) are laser pulses, prior to SEM investigation, a suitable tool to recognize fibres contained in archaeological findings? (ii) are laser pulses a suitable tool to properly clean those textiles? The anaerobic environment (i.e. the peatery), aiding the preservation of such handmade textiles, often impregnates the textiles, in such a way that the normal chemical procedures for cleaning are not sufficient; besides the removal of the material could make the sample brittle. Laser pulses may offer an alternative method of cleaning. In this experimental work (performed on cotton samples), laser radiation effects have been investigated using several combinations of the two main laser parameters namely energy density and number of pulses. Since textile findings are quite rare, modern samples undergone to an artificial ageing have been previously treated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been used to examine the fibres before and after the treatment. This paper reports on early stages of research regarding fibre response to UV laser irradiation detected with SEM. The obtained experimental results can be considered as a first step of a more detailed study aiming at dirt and consolidant removal without impinging the original textiles.