6. Materials of biological origin

6.1 Origin, composition and analysis

This family of materials includes a wide variety of natural substances of diverse origins: vegetable, such as cotton or wood, animal, such as wool or leather, or human, such as hair or skin. These materials require special attention due to their extreme fragility. Their study must take into account different aspects of their life: their formation, their possible transformation by man before use (spinning, tanning, dyeing, but also heating, gluing...), as well as different alteration reactions (fossilization, degradation of organic matter...).

XAS analyses of biomaterials have mainly focused on wood, paper, parchment and, more anecdotally, feathers and animal hair. The case of odontolite, a bone- or ivory-based pigment, has...