Abstract
The Afrasiab murals discovered in the northeast of Samarkand, Uzbekistan—the center of the ancient Silk Road—are presumed to date to the mid-seventh century during the Sogdian era. Although previous studies have examined the primary materials of the pigments used in these murals using chemical and microscopic analyses, in-depth investigations of the pigment raw material composition have not been conducted to verify the results of these studies. We applied X-ray diffractometry, Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy for the first time to identify the raw materials of ancient pigments in fragments obtained from the Afrasiab murals. The results show that lazurite, cinnabar, and amorphous carbon were used as blue, red, and black pigments, respectively. Moreover, we identified that pigments were not directly painted on the wall surface; instead, they were painted on a white undercoat of gypsum plaster, similar to other ancient Silk Road wall paintings. The results of this study can benefit the provision of more accurate information with regard to the composition of raw materials and further support the selection of appropriate substances for the purposes of conservation and restoration of Afrasiab murals.
Highlights
The Afrasiab murals [1] were discovered in 1965 in the vast palace site northeast of Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and they are currently curated and preserved in the AfrasiabMuseum of Samarkand (Figure 1)
We successfully identified the raw materials of each pigment
The characteristics of these raw materials were only hypothesized on the basis of analyses of the chemical composition and the observations of the particles
Summary
The Afrasiab murals [1] were discovered in 1965 in the vast palace site northeast of Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and they are currently curated and preserved in the AfrasiabMuseum of Samarkand (Figure 1). The murals were located on the west, south, north, and east walls of the house and depict a wide range of content [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. The northern wall mural represents ancient China—a Chinese festival, the Empress on a boat, and the Emperor hunting. The much-destroyed eastern wall mural is interpreted as a depiction of ancient India—as the land of the astrologers and of the pygmies. According to the inscriptions on the west wall paintings—on which ambassadors from several countries appear—Afrasiab murals are assumed to date back to the mid-seventh century during the Sogdian era, showing that Samarkand was the thriving commercial center in the middle of the Silk Road [9,10]
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