Characterization of pigments and colors used in ancient Egyptian boat models

Abstract

The analyses of pigments originating from well dated ancient boat models found in Egyptian graves were used for characterization and for dating tasks of unknown objects. A nearly destruction free sampling technique using cotton buds was applied for sampling these valuable artifacts for a subsequent Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (TXRF) analysis. Two relevant collections of Egyptian object of art were at our disposal, one of the Ägyptisches Museum Berlin and the second of the British Museum London. Three groups of colors were studied, they originate from white, red and blue/green paints, respectively. The results of the analyses performed on micro-amounts of paints (< 1 μg) show that some artifacts were misclassified and belong to other epochs. Some others were retouched with modern colors. In general, it can be stated that results obtained by Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry may dissipate some uncertainties when applying classical archaeological dating methods.