Non-invasive characterization of ancient Indonesian Kris through neutron methods
- PDF / 3,654,688 Bytes
- 25 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 60 Downloads / 186 Views
Non-invasive characterization of ancient Indonesian Kris through neutron methods Filomena Salvemini1,a , Francesco Grazzi2 , Nikolay Kardjilov3 , Ingo Manke3 , Antonella Scherillo4 , Maria Gloria Roselli5 , Marco Zoppi6 1 2 3 4 5 6
ACNS, ANSTO, Lucas Heights, NSW, Australia IFAC, CNR, Sesto Fiorentino, FI, Italy HZB, Berlin, Germany ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, STFC, Didcot, UK Museo di Storia Naturale, Sezione di Etnologia e Antropologia of Università di Firenze, Florence, Italy ISC, CNR, Sesto Fiorentino, FI, Italy
Received: 1 August 2019 / Accepted: 12 May 2020 © Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This study focuses on a non-invasive characterization of a set of ancient kris by means of neutron imaging and diffraction methods. The kris (or keris) is an elongated dagger or short sword distinctive of Malaysia and Indonesia. Its complex structure results from the combination of several layers of iron, steel and sometimes iron–nickel alloy welded together in an intricate pattern that is brought out on the polished surface of the blade through the use of an etchant. Based on the tomographic analysis, four different structural arrangements were identified for the first time. Complementarily, the average quality of the ferrous materials used to produce the four kris was evaluated via time-of-flight neutron diffraction analysis. New details about the manufacturing process of a still little studied class of artefacts were derived from our investigation.
1 Introduction The kris (or keris) is the distinctive weapon of Malaysia and Indonesia. It is found in a variety of shapes depending on the geographical area and on the aim for which the blades were designed. Typically, the kris is an elongated dagger or short sword of slender proportions with a blade of rough damascened texture sharpened on both edges [1]. The most valuable part of the kris is the blade which may be straight or undulate [2]. A distinguishing property that is imparted by the pande (sword-smith) is the rough, lacking-finish quality of the blade surface. This feature has been often mistakenly called damascening due to its appearance resembling a preciously encrusted metal artefact; in reality this effect is obtained through a different technique, better known as pattern welding,
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s1336 0-020-00452-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. a e-mail: [email protected] (corresponding author)
0123456789().: V,-vol
123
402
Page 2 of 25
Eur. Phys. J. Plus
(2020) 135:402
representing the distinctive character of pamor 1 being a special design feature obtained by welding, in very peculiar fashions, metals of different compositions to the core of the blade. In order to create the base material for the blade, the smith assembles a multi-layered metal block. He starts with a central plate of steel: the core; to each side of this, he applies a bar o
Data Loading...
