Abstract: In order to study how the Guanzhong soil moisture content affects the silk aging process, mulberry silk samples were embedded in tomb soil and well water.Color difference meter,microscopy, FTIR and universal testing machine were applied to test the changes in color, micro-morphology,molecular structure and extension strength in order to evaluate the aging conditions of the samples.Results suggest that silk samples degraded significantly at 20% soil moisture content while aged least at 10% soil moisture content.During the embedding process,some pink microbisporarosea formed,whose exudates greatly influnenced the silk appearance.Therefore,the soil moisture content strongly affects the silk aging.This research not only lays a solid basis for studying the ancient silk aging mechanism and conservation,but also is of great importance for the silk conservation in situ.

Key words: soil moisture content, silk fabrics, ageing, Guanzhong