Ion Microbeam Analysis in Cultural Heritage: application to lapis lazuli and ancient coins

Giudice, A. Lo; Re, Alessandro; Angelici, D.; Corsi, Jacopo; Gariani, Gianluca; Zangirolami, M.; Ziraldo, Emma

doi:10.21014/acta_imeko.v6i3.465

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…IBA measurements were carried out at the micro-beam line of the Legnaro National Laboratory (INFN-LNL) located in Padova (Italy), using a 2 MeV proton beam. Because samples are placed in a vacuum chamber for the measurements, they were prepared following a procedure reported elsewhere [17], which is similar to the one used for SEM anaysis.…”

Section: Painting Materials Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

An Ancient Egyptian Multilayered Polychrome Wooden Sculpture Belonging to the Museo Egizio of Torino: Characterization of Painting Materials and Design of Cleaning Processes by Means of Highly Retentive Hydrogels

Manfredda¹,

Buscaglia²,

Gallo

et al. 2021

Coatings

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This contribution focuses on the conservation of an Egyptian wooden sculpture (Inventory Number Cat. 745) belonging to the Museo Egizio of Torino in northwest Italy. A preliminary and interdisciplinary study of constituent painting materials and their layering is here provided. It was conducted by means of a multi-technique approach starting from non-invasive multispectral analysis on the whole object, and subsequently, on selected micro-samples. In particular, visible fluorescence induced by ultraviolet radiation (UVF), infrared reflectography (IRR) and visible--induced infrared luminescence were used on the whole object. The micro-samples were analysed by means of an optical microscope with visible and UV light sources, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer, pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (Py-GC/MS) and micro-particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE). The characterization of the painting materials allowed the detection of Egyptian blue and Egyptian green, and also confirmed the pertinence of the top brown layer to the original materials, which is a key point to design a suitable surface treatment. In fact, due to the water sensitiveness of the original materials, only few options were available to perform cleaning operations on this artwork. To setup the cleaning procedure, we performed several preliminary tests on mockups using dry cleaning materials, commonly used to treat reactive surfaces, and innovative highly water retentive hydrogels, which can potentially limit the mechanical action on the original surface while proving excellent cleaning results. Overall, this study has proved fundamental to increase our knowledge on ancient Egyptian artistic techniques and contribute to hypothesize the possible provenance of the artefact. It also demonstrated that polyvinyl alcohol-based retentive gels allow for the safe and efficient cleaning of extremely water sensitive painted surfaces, as those typical of ancient Egyptian artefacts.

show abstract

Section: Painting Materials Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

An Ancient Egyptian Multilayered Polychrome Wooden Sculpture Belonging to the Museo Egizio of Torino: Characterization of Painting Materials and Design of Cleaning Processes by Means of Highly Retentive Hydrogels

Manfredda¹,

Buscaglia²,

Gallo

et al. 2021

Coatings

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Recent literature on archaeological coins is rich in papers dealing with silver and silver/copper alloy in historical coinage process [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”

Section: Chemical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Elemental characterization of surface and bulk of copper-based coins from the Byzantine-period by means of spectroscopic techniques

Crosera

Baracchini

Prenesti

et al. 2019

Microchemical Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Thirty-three Byzantine copper-based coins (so-called anonymous follis) from 970 to 1085 A.D. were investigated in order to determine the elemental composition both of the bulk and of the surface. The ancient coins analysed − belonging to the Thomas Bertelè Collection, now located in the Bottacin Museum of Padova (Italy) − were studied by way of physical, chemical and chemometric testing techniques. This study aims to obtain information on socio-economic aspects of the Byzantine Empire using chemical and physical data of currency as indirect indicators. First, the weight, diameter and thickness of each piece were measured, then a micro-Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (µ-EDXRF) technique was applied on a cleaned and polished area of the surface of the coin to evaluate the presence of minor elements in a non-destructive fashion. A micro-destructive sampling method for both surface and bulk samples, based on mechanically drilling the edge, was finally employed, and Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) was used for the quantitative 2 determination of Cu (the major alloying element), Pb, As, Fe, Zn, Ag, Ni, Sn and Mn (minor elements) in the powder which resulted from drilling each coin, previously dissolved via aqua regia dissolution technique overnight at room temperature.The average copper concentration of the folles was 95.9±3.1% for the bulk and 91.7±3.5% for the surface. The Pb-Cu ratio appears to be an index which can be used to discriminate between different coins, in particular for Class B (from 1030 to 1042 A.D.), as confirmed by exploratory chemometric data analysis. According to our results, all the anonymous Byzantine folles under examination were minted in much the same way and using the same mineral raw materials. Using the chemical data measured on the bulk, we can grasp that the monetary choice of the period under study excluded silver, gold and bronze (concentrations of Pb is low, while Sn resulted undetectable or unquantifiable) to turn, substantially, to a copper-only coinage (deducted the impurities given by the gangue of the starting minerals). Moreover, along the observed period of 120 years, the mass of the coins was significantly reduced (with an overall loss of material of approximately 60%).

show abstract

Analysis of Celtic small silver coins from Slovenia by PIXE and PGAA

Šmit

Maróti

Kasztovszky

et al. 2020

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ion Microbeam Analysis in Cultural Heritage: application to lapis lazuli and ancient coins

Cited by 3 publications

References 19 publications

An Ancient Egyptian Multilayered Polychrome Wooden Sculpture Belonging to the Museo Egizio of Torino: Characterization of Painting Materials and Design of Cleaning Processes by Means of Highly Retentive Hydrogels

An Ancient Egyptian Multilayered Polychrome Wooden Sculpture Belonging to the Museo Egizio of Torino: Characterization of Painting Materials and Design of Cleaning Processes by Means of Highly Retentive Hydrogels

Elemental characterization of surface and bulk of copper-based coins from the Byzantine-period by means of spectroscopic techniques

Analysis of Celtic small silver coins from Slovenia by PIXE and PGAA

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About