AF 9590, a Yellow Coffin from the Egyptian Antiquities Department of the Louvre Museum: analytical methodology developped in the C2RMF within the Vatican Coffin Project - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Poster De Conférence Année : 2017

AF 9590, a Yellow Coffin from the Egyptian Antiquities Department of the Louvre Museum: analytical methodology developped in the C2RMF within the Vatican Coffin Project

Résumé

The Vatican Coffin Project is a collaboration between European institutions, museums and laboratories, for the study of the Theban "Yellow Coffins". The project wants to understand this Egyptian production from the 21st dynasty, with the ultimate aim to define workshops, practices inside a family or chronological evolutions. Those huge artefacts are 3D composite objects, hard to handle with abundant colors and partially varnished. It was therefore necessary to develop a specific methodology mainly non-invasive to understand the manufacturing process. AF9590, a coffin from Louvre Museum, is part of a 15 sets corpus and will illustrate the development in the C2RMF. Analytical classical protocol: The first phase consists of the global study, using a multi-scale and multispectral imaging (UV, IR, IRFC, VIL). These results give data about the surface state, the presence of organic materials (UV) or particular pigments such as Egyptian blue (VIL). Surface examination is performed with a numeric microscope. The XR-radiography imaging provides data about the structure of the coffin, such as assemblies or the nature of wood panels, the degradation, as well as any conservation interventions. The second phase unfolds in two parts: in-situ non-invasive analyses and ones on micro-samples. First, colors are specified on each part of the object (box and lid). FORS (reflectance spectra) determines chromophore and L*a*b* coordinates; XRF (spot around 3mm) provides the global elementary composition. In order to refine stratigraphy, pigments structure or organic identification, micro-sampling is required for each color of the coffin palette. Depending on the nature of the material, sample preparation can differ. For inorganic ones, analysis can be directly done on micro-flakes or on a cross-section (SEM-EDS, XRD, FTIR or μRaman). For organic compounds without organization, such as varnish or binder, samples are analyzed by separation techniques (GC-MS) after dissolution. Wood, an organized organic compound, is identified on sections according to three planes. Results: The surface is partially varnished with mastic from Pistacia sp. Different painting treatments have been highlighted between inner and outer walls of the coffin and also on the higher and lower part of the lid. Classical pigments from Egyptian polychromy are identified: calcite, huntite, red ochre, yellow ochre, carbon black, orpiment and three artificial pigments which are Egyptian blue and copper greens. The binder is animal glue or gum. Perspective: Because of difficulty in correctly identifying copper green (two artificial materials with copper chlorides), laboratory samples will mimic sintered and organometallic compounds, altered in chloride conditions. RPE, μRaman and FTIR, with SEM-FEG imaging, will permit to define the original structure of the pigment. For the orpiment identification, often present in the varnish layer, the lab preparations will simulate different stratigraphy, and analyzed by RBS at AGLAE in order to distinguish between mixture and superposition, before to be applied on the corpus. This entire methodology provides a complete knowledge of the coffin and gives a global view of the production. Beyond the work-shops identification, the overarching goal of this study concerns the conservation campaign of the corpus, which cannot occur without the analytical one, as evoked in the poster presented by Elsbeth Geldolf et al. during 2013 ICOM-CC meeting (Tomar, Portugal). These research studies have been developed by a PhD student, funded by the Patrima Foundation.
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Dates et versions

hal-01715060 , version 1 (23-02-2018)

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  • HAL Id : hal-01715060 , version 1

Citer

Lucile Brunel-Duverger, V Asensi Amoros, Laurent Binet, Hélène Guichard, Elsa Lambert, et al.. AF 9590, a Yellow Coffin from the Egyptian Antiquities Department of the Louvre Museum: analytical methodology developped in the C2RMF within the Vatican Coffin Project . ICOM-CC, Sep 2017, Copenhagen, Denmark. 2017. ⟨hal-01715060⟩
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