**2. Materials and Methods**

#### *2.1. Samples*

Two leather puppets from the *Tholu Bommalu* collection stored at the International Puppets Museum "Antonio Pasqualino" were studied. Seven samples were collected by rubbing mildly sterile stubbons on the surface of the puppets, wet with distilled water, five from Rama (D816-4, D816-5, D-816-7, D816-9, D816-15) (Figure ¯ 1a) and two from S¯ıta¯ (D817-2, D817-4) (Figure 1b).

#### *2.2. Visible Light Micro-Reflectance Spectroscopy Analysis*

Visible Light Reflectance spectra were acquired through a BWTEK fiber optic spectrophotometer Exemplar LS, coupled to a microscope through a fiber optic cable and a specific adaptor. Sampling stubbons were observed at the microscope in order to individuate the most colored areas and, under illumination with an external light source (Tungsten lamp), visible light reflectance spectra were acquired. Three spectra were recorded for every stubbon (integration time: 4 s; scans: 5; integration step: 1 nm) and an average spectrum was obtained. For the spectral assignment, first derivative and apparent absorption (Log(1/R) conversion, where R is the Reflectance) analyses of the spectra were performed to confirm information deriving from simple reflectance spectrum [9–11,39]. In order to minimize interference of the cotton substrate, spectra of the stubbon were acquired where no dye particles or spots were present, and after processing, the deriving apparent absorption spectrum was subtracted, as a blank, from the sample ones. All the spectra were attributed through comparison to reference materials spectra, literature, and databases [9–11,40].
