Wood identification of the headrests from the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Florence

Non-invasive wood identification on parts of King Horemheb's ritual couches (New kingdom)

“…However, why use such a precious wood for small parts as lower jaw of hippo mouth? Giachi et al [11], stated that the use of cedarwood for main parts produced wastes as small fragments that could be recycled for the production of small parts or objects such as the lower jaw of hippo mouth in this study. The obtained microphotographs ( Figure 5) show the wood used for the hippo and cow heads, which was identified as Ficus sycomorus (sycamore fig).…”

“…The features that were crucially diagnostic in the identification of Cedar of Lebanon -scalloped torus margins on bordered pits in tracheid radial walls (Table 2) -can clearly be seen in Figure 4d. The wood from Cedar of Lebanon had been imported into Egypt from very early ages and had a very high reputation as a precious raw material due to its excellent technological characteristics (straight-grained, aromatic, very durable, and taking a good polish), and cedar was the tallest tree in the eastern part of Mediterranean Sea [11][12]. Such properties made cedar wood a favoured choice in ancient Egypt for making high-status coffins and funerary artefacts as well as ships and timber structures [12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

Evaluation of Bio-Based Extraction Methods by Spectroscopic Methods

“…Two samples per treatment (BT, CT and NT) per set were analyzed and three spectra per five faces were recorded, for a total of 90 spectra per set. The height of vibrational bands at 1034 cm −1 assigned to holocellulose H and lignin L, 1158, 1374 cm −1 assigned to holocellulose H, cellulose C and 1506 cm −1 assigned to lignin L were used to calculated three ratios: R1 = I(1158)/I(1506), R2 = I(1374)/I(1506) and R3 = I(1034)/I(1506) according to literature [30,31]. Bands height of spectra were measured using Rstudio software (Rstudio, Boston, MA, USA) and ChemoSpec package (Bryan A. Hanson, DePauw Univeristy, https: //bryanhanson.github.io/ChemoSpec/index.html).…”

Identifying the Wood of Historic Artefacts: Basic Information or Simply a Curiosity?

“…Although wood is a biodegradable material, in spite of this, in very distant and harsh environments, wood has been able to preserve itself as a very dry material or as a waterlogged material, where oxygen deficiency has limited or slowed down the activity of degrading organisms. This is evidenced by the numerous wooden artefacts preserved in all the collections of Egyptian museums around the world [5][6][7][8], or by the findings already musealized or in the course of musealization coming from underwater or terrestrial excavations below the water table, from the era of Roman Republic and until the Modern Age [8][9][10][11].…”