Title :

Characterization of gold leaves on Greek terracotta figurines: A PIXE-RBS study

Author(s) :

Fourdrin, Chloé [Auteur]
Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France [C2RMF]
Laboratoire Géomatériaux et Environnement [LGE]
Pages-Camagna, Sandrine [Auteur]
Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France [C2RMF]
Institut de Recherche de Chimie Paris [IRCP]
Pacheco, Claire [Auteur]
Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France [C2RMF]
Radepont, Marie [Auteur]
Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France [C2RMF]
Centre de Recherche sur la Conservation [CRC ]
Lemasson, Quentin [Auteur]
Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France [C2RMF]
Moignard, Brice [Auteur]
Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France [C2RMF]
Pichon, Laurent [Auteur]
Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France [C2RMF]
Bourgeois, Brigitte [Auteur]
Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France [C2RMF]
Jeammet, Violaine [Auteur]
Histoire, Archéologie et Littérature des Mondes Anciens - UMR 8164 [HALMA]

Journal title :

Microchemical Journal

Publisher :

Elsevier

Publication date :

2016-05

ISSN :

0026-265X

HAL domain(s) :

Physique [physics]

English abstract : [en]

New insights are presented on the composition, thickness, and application of the decorating gold leaves remaining on Greek terracotta figurines, kept in the Louvre Museum. Excavated from various sites around the Mediterranean ...
Show more >New insights are presented on the composition, thickness, and application of the decorating gold leaves remaining on Greek terracotta figurines, kept in the Louvre Museum. Excavated from various sites around the Mediterranean basin, the objects are dated to the Hellenistic and Roman period (4th c. BC–1st c. AD). The thickness of the gold leaves was determined using 3 MeV H+ Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, while the gold concentration was calculated using H+-particle induced X-ray emission. On artifacts exhibiting large gilded areas, mapping permitted to define zones of interest in both well-conserved and weathered areas of the leaves for the thickness calculation. The obtained thicknesses in the different zones are in agreement within the standard deviations, thus validating the use of point measurements performed for the other objects. For the whole studied corpus, the thicknesses ranged between 160 and 710 nm for a gold concentration mostly superior to 95%, strongly suggesting an ancient purification process as well as a developed goldbeating technique during these periods in the ancient Greek world. Tin leaves were also evidenced on several figurines, but their thicknesses were not estimated due to a strong oxidation.Show less >

Language :

Anglais

Popular science :

Non

ANR Project :

La nouvelle installation d'analyse par faisceaux d'ions pour le Patrimoine culturel

Collections :

• Histoire Archéologie Littératures des Mondes Anciens (HALMA) - UMR 8164

Source :

Harvested from HAL