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Gandharan art developed in the Himalayan area in the early centuries CE. It has been investigated mostly from an iconographic point of view, missing, until very recently, a systematic technical investigation of materials and techniques. Recently our team began performing chemical analyses of the traces of the polychromy originally covering statues, reliefs and architectural decorations, to discover the ancient painting techniques and artistic technologies. This paper presents the results of the analytical investigation (optical microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry) of pigments, ground layers and binders of a new group of samples taken from stucco architectural decorations (2nd–3rd/4th centuries CE). The samples were collected directly at an archaeological site in the Swat Valley, ensuring the exact knowledge of their stratigraphic provenance, as well as the absence of any restoration treatment applied prior sampling. The results are discussed in the wider context of Gandharan polychromy investigated so far by our team, as found in sculptures and architectural decorations preserved in museums (in Italy and France) and in archaeological excavations in Pakistan. The aim of this research is to shed light on the materials and techniques of this Buddhist ancient art from this region and on the influences exerted on it from Eastern and Western artistic traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is to characterize the binder and aggregate fractions of sixteen mortar samples from the bell tower of the St. Nicholas church at Pisa, using X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), simultaneous thermogravimetric/differential scanning calorimetry analysis (TG/DSC), optical microscopy (OM) and electron microscopy equipped with a microanalysis system (SEM/EDS). The analytical procedure used for studying the mortars is based on TG/DSC analyses performed on the binder fractions, obtained by disaggregation of the mortar samples, and on micro-analytical data directly collected on the mortar binders combined with chemical, mineralogical (qualitative composition) and petrographic (modal composition) data measured on the bulk mortar samples. The collected data indicate that the examined samples are hydraulic lime mortars with natural river sands (average binder/aggregate ratio 1:1), except for two of them which are artificial pozzolanic mortars with cocciopesto . The most probable raw materials used to produce the mortars are the binding materials obtained by firing carbonate rocks locally available, cherty limestone and subordinately Mt. Pisano marble, and the Arno River sands or, more likely, natural admixtures of Arno and Serchio River sandy sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous researchers point out the emergence of human symbolism is related to the evolution of the complexity of human cognition. Red mineral pigments have been used extensively, particularly with anatomically modern humans, for various purposes. However, the management and supply of these pigments during prehistoric periods remains poorly investigated. Still today, the limited application of physico-chemical analyses often leads to a simplistic attribution of these pigments as ochre. The studies of data from recent literature presented in our paper show a progressive introduction and exploitation of cinnabar ore, to achieve a red pigment, from the seventh millennium BC. In this panorama, the new data obtained from the analyses of samples of artefacts from La Marmotta (Italy) show a wide use of cinnabar in central Italy from the early Neolithic and attest to the earliest use of this ore in the western Mediterranean area. • Pigments can provide insight into changes in the traditions and symbolic practices of human groups during prehistoric times. • XRF and Raman analyses are used to determine pigment composition. • Residues on personal ornaments at La Marmotta (Italy) attest to the first use of cinnabar in the Western Mediterranean. • The chrono-cultural diffusion of cinnabar in the Mediterranean basin follow the arrhythmic wave of the Neolithisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]