Colour and Textiles: 37th Dyes in History and Archaeology Meeting

Dyes in History and Archaeology (DHA), an international group of experts with multidisciplinary backgrounds, has met every year since 1982 to discuss chemical, analytical, biological, historical and technological aspects of natural and synthetic dyestuffs. The TTT contributed to 37th DHA edition with an oral communication, providing an overview of the research developed since the project’s foundation in 2011 and main outcomes. Moreover, this contribution emphasized the value of the work conducted by researchers of DHA.

The 37th Dyes in History and Archaeology Meeting took place from 25-26 October 2018 at Caparica Campus, near Lisbon (Portugal). Hosted by IST (Universidade de Lisboa), Diocesan Museum of Santarem (Diocese of Santarem), the Department of Conservation & Restoration and Requimte (NOVA Faculty of Sciences and Technology) and Instituto de Estudos Medievais (NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities) this year’s edition gathered once more a colorful group of textile professionals. Raquel Santos (TTT member) gave an oral communication presenting the work that has been developed by the project and its collaborators.

Textile research within the TTT project has ranged from assembling inventories to conducting stylistic, iconographic and archival studies, aiming to place objects in their historical, artistic, technological and socio-cultural contexts.

Analytical interdisciplinary collaboration has been developed as well: textile fibres identification and metal threads or dyes characterization, provide useful data to identify geographical origins of raw materials and finished textiles, to establish possible connections between textiles, or to develop improved conservation treatments for their preservation. This communication also presented various research projects, in which the study of colours and dyes turned fundamental to successfully establish questions of origin, date, trade and taste of historical textiles within the scope of TTT and the Portuguese Expansion. It highlighted the importance of textiles relative to other art forms and emphasized the value of the work conducted by many researchers of DHA in view of the study and preservation of historical as well as contemporary textiles.