Ancient Egyptian Pigments: The Examination of Some Coffins from the San Diego Museum of Man
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Pigments: The Examination of Some Coffins from the San Diego Museum of Man David A. Scott
The following article is based on a Symposium X: Frontiers of Materials Research presentation given by David Scott of the University of California, Los Angeles, on April 14, 2009, at the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco.
Abstract Egyptian pigments include the most successful synthetic blue pigment made, which has been in use for more than 2500 years. The nature of some Egyptian pigments, such as malachite, azurite, green earth, and calcite are briefly reviewed. The principal artworks examined here are a group of several 26th Dynasty coffins in the collection of the San Diego Museum of Man. This article examines the nature of the wooden substrate, binder, pigments, and alteration products. The conservation needs of the collection are of special importance. The pigments used in the coffins are malachite, orpiment, carbon black, calcite, and red ocher. Gum Arabic was used as a binder. Wood anatomical studies identified fig as the wood. This article also covers the degradation product, oxammite, resulting from the microbiological decay of textile threads on a Hawk Mummy.
Introduction
Pigment Studies
In ancient Egypt, the long period of development of the civilization before the Roman Period resulted in a rich and complex story as far as pigments, binders, and the underlayers on which these pigments are laid, known as the grounds, are concerned. The Egyptian civilization possessed the richest color palette of any ancient culture over a time period of some 3500 years,1,2 and, as a result, there is a great deal of work still to be done concerning the identity of Egyptian pigments, when they were used, in what context, and on which substrates. This article describes aspects of the history of a few of these materials and the investigation of some Late Period polychrome coffins in the collection of the San Diego Museum of Man.
Fascination with the art and archaeology of ancient Egypt extended back even to the ancient Greeks, during the early centuries BC, who marveled at the Great Pyramid of Giza and how it possibly could have been constructed, a question that is still not fully resolved more than 4,000 years after the pyramid’s construction. The European craze for everything Egyptian began in earnest around the time of Napoleon, 17th–18th century AD, and has continued to fascinate the public and scholars alike ever since. The story of the ancient Egyptian pigment, Egyptian blue, often has been told.3,4 It remains one of the most stable and easily made synthetic blue pigments ever produced and was made from scraps of
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copper, natron, and quartz sand heated to about 800–900°C, which produced the pigment whose principal component is the rare mineral cuprorivaite, CaCuSi4O10, together with varying amounts of a blue or blue-green glassy component. The beautiful head dress adorning Queen Nefertiti’s bust in the Berlin Museum has Egyptian blue as its background color. The use of the natural pigment lapis l
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