207866

Characterization of Rock Varnish Ferromanganese Crusts on Ancient Egyptian Wall Paintings from Bahariya Oasis, Egypt

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION

Abstract

The black crust phenomenon appears clearly in the Bannentiu tomb, an ancient Egyptian tomb back to the 26th dynasty in the Bahariya oasis, one of the main iron ores in Egypt's western desert. The black crusts are attributed to the high content of Fe and Mn oxides and oxyhydroxides components in the sandstone host rock formation as cement materials. Nondestructive investigations were carried out for the collected samples using optical microscopy, XRD, XRF, and SEM–EDX analyses. The observed results indicate that silica, iron, manganese compounds, clay minerals, and other remaining elements classify the black crusts as one of the rock varnish species. The present study aims to analyze and classify the chemical composition and mineralogy of the black crusts formed on the wall paintings of the Bannentiu tomb. Moreover, the study proposes a model formation for the rock varnish on the Bannentiu tomb wall painting. The proposed simulation relies on high ratios of Fe and Mn in the host rock and the microclimatic factors that cause the migration of these elements to the surface, with the oxidization factors giving rise to oxides and hydroxides low crystallinity.

DOI

10.21608/shedet.2021.207866

Keywords

Rock Varnish - Ferromanganese - Black crusts, Iron oxides, wall paintings deterioration

Authors

First Name

Ahmed

Last Name

Elshabrawy

MiddleName

M

Affiliation

Conservation department, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University, Egypt.

Email

a7med.shabrawy@cu.edu.eg

City

giza

Orcid

0000-0001-5558-3598

First Name

Mona

Last Name

Ali

MiddleName

Fouad

Affiliation

conservation department ,Faculty of Archaeology,Cairo Unversity conservation department ,Faculty of Archaeology,Cairo Unversity

Email

monalyeg@yahoo.com

City

Giza

Orcid

0000-0001-6631-5003

Volume

8

Article Issue

8

Related Issue

29238

Issue Date

2021-12-01

Receive Date

2020-07-04

Publish Date

2021-12-01

Page Start

168

Page End

185

Print ISSN

2356-8704

Online ISSN

2536-9954

Link

https://shedet.journals.ekb.eg/article_207866.html

Detail API

https://shedet.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=207866

Order

12

Type

research articles

Type Code

1,264

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Shedet

Publication Link

https://shedet.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Characterization of Rock Varnish Ferromanganese Crusts on Ancient Egyptian Wall Paintings from Bahariya Oasis, Egypt

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023