The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of ancient murals in the tombs at Beni Hasan, Egypt

Abstract

The once colourful mural paintings at the Beni Hasan tombs (ca. 2100 B.C.), an important Egyptian archaeological site, are covered with an obscuring grey deposit. Qualitative observations made over the past 150 years were assembled and correlated with each other by us. Cumulatively, they indicate that recently the development of this layer has accelerated. To study this surface degradation, X-ray photoelectron spectra of fragments from the painted walls have been collected. Empirical XPS sensitivity factors have been employed to treat the data semiquantitatively. Three types of surfaces were identified. The first surface consists of CaCO3 and SiO2 as major constituents, and was the only surface identified previously. Our XPS data indicate that it also contains Al2O3, NaCl, MgO, sulphates, and phosphates as minor and trace components. The second surface consists predominantly of aluminium silicates. The third surface consists mostly of calcium carbonate. A preliminary mechanism for opaque layer formation is proposed herein. It suggests that the principal physicochemical processes are adsorption of water in the presence of carbon dioxide, followed by dissolution of the substrate walls upon which the murals were painted. This mechanism is consistent with our finding that mural deterioration is recent; it also indicates that deterioration is progressive, continuous, and cumulative. Further experiments are designed to verify the proposed mechanism. Two mechanisms proposed earlier are found to be inconsistent with at least some of our findings. Relatively recent efforts in removing obtrusive surface layers with dilute HCl were found to be performed carefully; there was no evidence of excess chlorides on cleaned surfaces. However, this finding does not provide a guarantee that murals were undamaged by HCl below the surface. It does suggest that progressive damage due to the formation of hygroscopic CaCl2 on the surface has been avoided.