This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: For centuries, people across South and Southeast Asia recorded religious teachings, literary works, legal regulations and scientific knowledge on palm leaves. Before they could be inscribed or written on, the leaves had to undergo extensive preparation, with processing techniques varying across regions and potentially leaving distinct material signatures.
Today, reconstructing how they were processed and where they originated can be challenging. An international research team has investigated what the structure and chemical composition of the material can reveal about these objects. The researchers combined X-ray analyses at PETRA III at DESY and at the ESRF with machine learning.
The work is published in the journal npj Heritage Science. The study examined 160 material entries: 85 manuscripts and 75 modern reference materials. The materials came from different collections and regions across South and Southeast Asia.
The team investigated whether their material properties could help distinguish the palm genera used, identify different stages of leaf processing and reveal possible links to geographical provenance. One key advantage of the method is that the analyses are nondestructive. No samples need to be removed from fragile historical objects.
Instead, different X-ray techniques provide information about the leaves' internal structure and chemical composition. The measurements were carried out at experimental station P62 at DESY's PETRA III X-ray source, as well as at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France. Laura Gallardo, first author of the study and a scientist at Hamburg University of Technology (TU Hamburg), emphasizes the importance of the nondestructive approach: "For rare and fragile cultural artifacts, the ability to obtain rich structural and chemical information without taking a sample is essential.
By combining several synchrotron techniques, we can read different layers of a manuscript's material history in a single experiment and compare large numbers of objects in a systematic way." The researchers combined three techniques, each of which captures different properties of the palm leaves. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) provides information about the structure and orientation of fiber networks. Wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) provides information on the relative contributions of crystalline cellulose and amorphous substances.
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