The cultural heritage provides a unique and invaluable window into our past. Unfortunately, environmental factors like UV radiation, humidity, moisture, insects, and microbes expose our cultural artifacts, accelerating deterioration and often leading to destruction. Conservation measures could help slow the rate at which museum objects decay. This study uses women's clothing made of luxurious fabrics that families have inherited. It is impermissible to damage nationally significant items, justifying the wardrobe selection. The clothing was stored under harsher conditions (humidity, temperature, insects) than museum artifacts experience for extended periods (5-70 years). Fabric samples were cut into 120 x 2 mm warp test strips. Yarns were unraveled to create 15 mm wide warp strips with 2.5 mm fringes. Five samples were used per test. The fabrics were irradiated at 1, 3 and 7 kGy under ambient conditions (60-70% RH, 23°C) using the Tunisian Gamma Facility at 13.48 Gy/min. Microbiology showed significantly reduced bacteria and fungi survival with increasing dose versus untreated samples. Colorimetry showed minimal visually indistinguishable color changes at 7 kGy. Gamma irradiation at suitable doses is thus a powerful conservation technique for artifacts, with minimal impact on tested properties.

Keywords: Textile Artefacts, Gamma radiation, Color change, mechanical behavior.