Posted by Erol Abit on June 24, 1999 at 13:52:06:
In Reply to: Re: Other Alternatives on dating rugs - physical methods posted by Steve Price on June 24, 1999 at 08:25:09:
Dear Steve,
Your proposals seems to be more logical since the changes in biological properties in time is, I believe, not so fast which may give a relation
closer to linearity, unlike the physical property of radiation emissivity.
My another, perhaps less logical than my first one due to my lack of rug knowledge, is that:
We know the front side of a rug is the mirror symmetry of its back side. (Take the pictures of both side and put side by side to see this symmetry) This symmetry must be more exact at the time when the rug was woven. My assumption is that this exact symmetry is broken in time because of structural distortions due to evaporation of water and other reasons. If my this assumption is correct, this differences in front and back side may tell us somethings. Consider we have two rugs, one is back rug and
another is front rug which was woven before than back. I assume this because front rug seems older than the back. So, we have two time state too.
The difference will give us a time interval where the front rug is at one extreme state while back rug is at another extreme state. Assuming that
we know the properties (geometrical, physical, chemical, etc) of both state, we can calculate the length of time interval. This length of time interval is only a part of time interval from the date of weaving and the date of today.
Now we have to find a functional relation for the change of a property. Lets consider a simple one and also one that we are familiar with it. What about structural distortion or geometrical change of points? I belive, its change in time obeys some deterministic relations. If so, this relation will help us extrapolate the time interval we found between the front and back sides to whole time interval that we are searching.
Anyways, if this proposal can work or not is not our business. But if we want to go to a university to ask for an expert of such things, one of his/her first question will be "is the differences (geometric, physical, chemical etc) so big that our measurement devices can sense?"
Now, by simplifying and not thinking about how the method will work, do you think that the difference between "in front and back of a new rug" and "in front and back of an old rug" is considerable enough?
Regards,
Erol