How technology unlocks secrets of pharaohs’ tombs – 8/5/2023 – Science

The walls of ancient Egyptian tombs can teach us a lot about the lives of the pharaohs and their surroundings. Tomb paintings show the dead and their immediate family in religious activities, at the burial itself, feasting and hunting on the banks of the Nile.

But many of these tombs have been looted throughout history and carelessly excavated by foreign treasure hunters and early archaeologists. The result was that much of the painted decorations were damaged, even though they were well preserved by the arid environment.

These damaged sections of painted decorations have been reconstructed largely by well-informed guesses. But a new study reveals that a technique called portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) is being used to study ancient materials and identify remnants of decoration that are faded or completely invisible to the naked eye.

Detailed decorations in tombs, designed to reflect status and appreciation for the dead person, reached their peak in the 18th and 19th Egyptian dynasties (1550-1189 BC) in the ancient city of Thebes (present-day Luxor). Royalty was buried in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens.

Members of the court and other high-ranking officials were buried in various locations on the west bank of the Nile, near the mortuary temples of the kings they served in life. Their tombs were cut into the rock and the rough-hewn walls of the chambers were covered with plaster, which provided a smooth surface for teams of draftsmen and other artists.

The decorative motifs they painted were not always identical, having changed between the 18th and 19th dynasties. While the former focused on vibrant scenes of natural scenery and everyday life, the later period preferred more austere religious scenes.

The inks and pigments used by the ancient Egyptians were made from ores. Therefore, they have specific chemical markers.

Yellow, for example, was achieved by grinding arsenic sulfide auripigment. The blue pigment could be created with hydrated copper chloride and the red one with iron oxide.

So, using handheld X-ray fluorescence, scientists can detect these chemical markers in the pigments to create a map of damaged areas.

PHYSICS AND EGYPTOLOGY

The fields of archeology and Egyptology have a long history of using techniques and tools created by other disciplines.

Developed in the early 20th century by British physicist Henry Moseley (1887-1915), XRF and pXRF measure the secondary x-rays emitted by material bombarded by primary x-rays. These signals can then be used to determine the elemental composition of the material.

Instead of the bulky (and immobile) analytical equipment often employed to study archaeological artifacts in the laboratory, the equipment needed to perform pXRF analysis weighs just 2 kg and can be easily taken into the field.

While pXRF has been used in the past to determine the chemical composition of ceramics and metals, a new international research project led by Philippe Martinez of Sorbonne University in France has recently employed this technique to analyze the beautiful and complex paintings found in tombs. of the nobles of ancient Egypt.

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF ANCIENT ART

This process is not only useful for reconstructing damaged sections. It also has the potential to clarify elements of artistic technique.

In the tomb chapel belonging to the 18th Dynasty Superintendent of the Fields of Amun, Menna (TT69), the research team identified a hidden arm in the tomb owner’s portrait.

This third arm, which would have been invisible when the tomb was finished, is the result of an alteration in the posture of the portrayed by the painters, for unknown reasons. In this way, the technique can show stages of the decoration process and aesthetic or technical choices made by artists thousands of years ago.

In addition to Menna’s tomb, the team also analyzed a portrait of Ramses II found in Naktamun’s tomb, traditionally dated to the 19th dynasty.

The painting contained several subtle alterations, including the shape of the royal scepter held by the ruler (perhaps to prevent it from matching the subject’s face).

The necklace worn by the king may also have been altered. The team responsible for the project argues that this change could be important for dating the tomb.

They suggest that the king was first illustrated wearing a type of necklace known as a shebyu, which was popular during the 20th dynasty, a few years after the death of Ramses II.

This original necklace appears to have been altered to another type called a wesekh, which was more popular in royal portraits during the period in which he lived. Apparently, the tomb painters originally illustrated the 19th Dynasty ruler wearing 20th Dynasty jewelry, realized their mistake, and made the necessary changes.

On the other hand, this might suggest that the owner of the tomb, Naktamun, actually lived and worked during the 20th and not the 19th dynasty and that the portrait of Ramses II is not the portrait of the living king, but of the dead ruler and deified.

Scientific analyzes are increasingly being incorporated into most aspects of Egyptological research, from the material analysis of pigments, ceramics, metals and wood to the spectroscopic analysis of ancient Egyptian papyri.

These techniques will allow performing minimally invasive or totally non-invasive research that will help preserve artifacts and prevent further damage. And they will also shed light on crucial details about the artistic and technological prowess of the ancient Egyptians.

This text was originally published here.

Nicky Nielsen is Professor of Egyptology at the University of Manchester, UK.

This article originally appeared on The Conversation academic news site and is republished under a Creative Commons license. Read the original English version here.