Research on the archaeological distribution and technique characteristics of foreign leather artifacts
As a global research topic,leather artifacts have been studied even longer than other materials.And the archaeology and research on them is more abundant in foreign countries.The technology of leather manufacturing,an ancient craft,has a long history almmost as long as the history of human civilization,and can be traced back to the Paleolithic Age.Therefore,the study of leather artifacts and their historical development is of great significance to the restoration and protection of leather artifacts.After reviewing earlier literature and books,this paper had a preliminary understanding of the unearthed situation and status of ancient leather abroad.With further reading,it finally analyzed and summarized the unearthed leather artifacts from nearly 39 regions of five continents.The structure of this paper is composed of three aspects:the situation of foreign leather artifacts,the characteristics of cultural relics and the leather tanning techniques.Firstly,it analyzed and summarized typical archaeological sites with abundant resources such as the Austrian salt mine,Danish marsh,Rome leatherfactories in Europe,Asia,Africa and so on,to understand the time,burial environment and uses of unearthed leather artifacts,so as to analyze the tanning process.Europe is rich in unearthed artifacts dating back to prehistoric times,including Iron Age hide fragments from the Italian ice fields,prehistoric hide fragmentsof shoes from the Swiss ice fields,and more than 200 Iron Age hides from the Hallstatt salt mine in Austria.The Pazyryk tombs of the Iron Age in the Altai Mountains of Asia provide important information for understanding the natural beast art style of the Altai Mountain areas.Egyptian leather,affected by the Nubian culture in Africa,is rich in colors and materials.Through reviewing the history and development of ancient leather in many areas,this paper further analyzed the tanning process,which could provide clues and information for the protection of ancient leather artifacts.Secondly,the ages of leather artifacts were divided into Neolithic Age,Bronze and Iron Age,A.D.to the 5th century A.D.,and Middle Ages,and the characteristics of leather artifacts in different ages were analyzed by taking study areas as examples.For instance,in the Neolithic period,people used the serrated edges of stones and cherts to cut animal skin,and stitched leather with bone needles,bone spurs or plant fibers.The leather that Ötzi the Iceman wore in the late Neolithic period was made of animal tendons sewn by plants as stitches,which confirmed the characteristics of this era.Finally,the ancient leather tanning techniques were mainly plant tanning,mineral tanning,smoke tanning and oil tanning.Through understanding the leather artifacts of 39 regions,the characteristics of ancient tanning process were analyzed and compared.The result of the tanning process depends on a number of factors,such as the type of hides(bull or cow hides),breeds(cow or sheep leather),living conditions(animals'health condition),the quality of the raw hides,the properties of different parts of the same hide and the tannin.With the plant tanning as an example,the source of plant tannins and the differences in functional groups in tannins affect the efficiency of tanning and the properties of tanned leather.Based on the published literature on leather artifacts,this paper widely collects,collates and analyzes the distribution of foreign leather artifacts and their characteristics,and summarizes four ancient leather tanning techniques.Sorting out the relevant data of leather artifacts in 39 regions and understanding the human living environment and cultural history can help further study the development of leather in the context of the times.The study of various uses of leather can enrich the development of leather tanning technology,and research on tanning technology and tannins used is of great significance for the restoration and protection of leather artifacts.The tanning process of many unearthed leather artifacts is hard to determine.Thus,the analysis of four ancient tanning processes summarized by predecessors is emphasized in this paper to compare the differences between tanning techniques.The aim is to determine the tanning method of unearthed leather artifacts with more advanced and non-destructive technology and methods and to fill the gap of tanning information of leather artifacts for the protection and restoration.And this paper clarifies the development characteristics of the world leather artifacts and providesa reference to enhance the international study level of leather artifacts in China.
distribution of leather artifactsleathercharacteristics of the timesleather usetanning techniquetannin
万方数据
维普
