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Abstract A diagnostic investigation was carried out on twelfth century Byzantine wall paintings preserved in the Museum of Byzantine and Norman Culture and Figurative Arts of San Marco d’Alunzio (Messina, Italy) on the occasion of recent restoration works. First, the wall paintings were analyzed using portable X-Ray Fluorescence (p-XRF) and Fiber Optics Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS) to obtain a non-invasive preliminary identification of the original palette. Then, five fragments were sampled for a micro-stratigraphy study using Digital Optical Microscope (DOM), Polarizing Optical Microscope (POM), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) combined with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS) to characterize the mortars and the blue and black pigments non unequivocally identified through non-invasive techniques. The palette included mainly earthen pigments like red and yellow ochres, green earth, and more valuable lapis lazuli blue applied on a bone black layer; while the analysis of mortars found on the different apses showed the same manufacturing technique and constitutive materials: lime-based binder with the addition of quartz, and rare calcareous lithic fragments as aggregate. The obtained results shed light on the pictorial technique used for the wall paintings and allowed us to compare the Sicilian pictorial cycle with the coeval Byzantine wall paintings preserved in Sardinia and Southern Italy.

A diagnostic investigation was carried out on twelfth century Byzantine wall paintings preserved in the Museum of Byzantine and Norman Culture and Figurative Arts of San Marco d'Alunzio (Messina, Italy) on the occasion of recent restoration works. First, the wall paintings were analyzed using portable X-Ray Fluorescence (p-XRF) and Fiber Optics Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS) to obtain a non-invasive preliminary identification of the original palette. Then, five fragments were sampled for a micro-stratigraphy study using Digital Optical Microscope (DOM), Polarizing Optical Microscope (POM), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) combined with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS) to characterize the mortars and the blue and black pigments non unequivocally identified through non-invasive techniques. The palette included mainly earthen pigments like red and yellow ochres, green earth, and more valuable lapis lazuli blue applied on a bone black layer; while the analysis of mortars found on the different apses showed the same manufacturing technique and constitutive materials: lime-based binder with the addition of quartz, and rare calcareous lithic fragments as aggregate. The obtained results shed light on the pictorial technique used for the wall paintings and allowed us to compare the Sicilian pictorial cycle with the coeval Byzantine wall paintings preserved in Sardinia and Southern Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of CEDRUS is the property of Mediterranean Civilisations Research Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Previous studies have established the use of various blue pigments, including both local and imported varieties, in the decoration of architecture in ancient China. However, the application of these pigments in local religious architecture has been understudied. In this study, the chemical analysis of ultramarine blue pigments was conducted on a mural painting retrieved from Yongle Taoist Temple in ancient China. The results showed that both imported and local pigments were used individually in the initial drawing period of the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271–1368), whereas they were mixed in a later restoration in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1636–1912). Of particular significance, the analysis revealed the presence of lapis lazuli in a local religious relic of the Yuan Dynasty for the first time. Further analysis of the elemental proportions and associated minerals led to speculation about the origin of the lapis lazuli, which is believed to have come from Badakhshan, the northeastern region of Afghanistan, and been transported to Central China through the Silk Road. This finding shed light on the trade routes and usage of these pigments in the construction of religious architecture from the Yuan to the Qing dynasties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five archaeological plain cylinders made of lapis lazuli found in excavations at the Persepolis World Heritage Site (c.550–330 BCE) were analysed using wavelength‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectroscopy, X‐ray powder diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy techniques with the goal of characterizing the chemical–mineralogical composition and identifying the possible provenance of raw materials. Results show that these objects are made of identical resources or mines. A comparison with available data from archaeological sites and ancient quarry sites shows that these finds may have been produced from lapis lazuli from east of the Iranian Plateau (Badakhshan in Afghanistan), as they resemble several ancient objects of Iran. The results of this study suggest that Persian artists also used the ancient East‐to‐West trade route for supplying raw material to produce decorative objects made of lapis lazuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking advantage of the Raman resonance effect, we employed 405 and 532 nm excitations to (1) identify sulfur species present in lazurite, haüyne, and synthetic ultramarine blue pigments and (2) investigate the enigmatic ~485 cm–1 band found previously in Raman spectra of lazurite and haüyne collected with 458 nm excitation. In spectra of lazurite and haüyne, bands of the sulfate ion and S 2 − a n d S 3 − radicals can be seen. Spectra collected using 405 nm excitation show the enhancement of the intensity of v 1 S 2 − band and its nν1 (n ≤ 7) progression. Spectra collected using 532 nm incident light show the enhancement of intensity of v 1 S 3 − , v 2 S 3 − , and v 3 S 3 − bands and the nν1 (n ≤ 9) and ν2 + nν1 progressions of the v 1 S 3 − band. In spectra collected with 405 nm excitation, we also found features that we ascribe to the S 4 2 − polysulfide ion. These include the ν1 symmetric S-S stretching band at ~481 cm–1, the ν2 symmetric S-S stretching band at ~443 cm–1 (only present in spectra of some lazurite samples), the ν3 symmetric S-S bending at 223 cm–1 and the nν1 (n ≤ 5) and nν1+ν3 progressions of the v 1 S 4 2 − band. We observed that under laser illumination, the S 4 2 − polysulfide ion rapidly decomposes into two S 2 − radicals in lazurite while it remains stable in haüyne. In spectra of synthetic ultramarine blue pigments, only features of S 2 − a n d S 3 − radicals were observed. Finally, we verified the identity of the radical and polysulfide ions with ab initio molecular dynamics calculations. We conclude that Raman resonance spectroscopy is a powerful qualitative method to detect polysulfide and sulfur radical species with concentrations below the detection limit of conventional analytical techniques. Owing to the high stability of S 4 2 − in haüyne, this mineral structure appears promising as a host material for S 4 2 − entrapment, making it potentially useful for applications in optoelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of multivariate analysis is extremely useful when dealing with large datasets and can be applied also in provenance studies. In this work, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied for the first time to the study of the provenance of lapis lazuli rocks used for glyptic art in ancient times, on a database including four different sources in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Siberia and Myanmar. Results of the application of PCA on µ-PIXE data collected in mineralogical phases contained in lapis lazuli rocks, in particular diopside and pyrite, confirmed the role of some trace element contents as characteristics for different provenances, i.e. as provenance markers. As an additional important result, PCA seems to strengthen the role of previously found weaker markers (i.e. trace elements not sufficient alone to distinguish univocally among provenances) such as, for example, the coexistence of high Ti, V, Cr and Mn concentrations in diopside in Afghan lapis lazuli. This can be relevant when other discriminant phases like pyrite cannot be found in the sample or are not suitable for analysis. Moreover, for geological purposes and to try to distinguish among different quarries inside an extraction area, a study on intra-provenance variability was carried out on diopside data for Myanmar and Siberian samples. The separation into three groups for Myanmar samples, previously identified by means of minero-petrographic and elemental analysis, is confirmed and a partial differentiation was identified also for samples coming from the two Siberian areas of Sludyanka River and Malaya Bistraya River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yakan House is one of the historical houses in Cairo, dating back to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The house was neglected until its elements deteriorated until it was owned by a person interested in heritage who pledged to preserve it to become a cultural center to revive traditional crafts after architectural restoration. During the architectural restoration, blurred and unclear wall paintings dating back to the era of construction were discovered, and they were covered with a thick layer of mortar. Therefore, the research aims to study the discovered wall paintings and remove the plaster layer that covers them by modern mechanical, chemical and scientific detection methods. It was photographed using infrared (FTIR) and ultraviolet rays, and was examined using light microscopy and examination and analysis electron microscopy (SEM-EDAX).It has been identified that the preparation layer consists of calcite (CaCO3), quartz (SiO2) and gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O), and that the dark blue color is composed of lapis lazuli, and that the purple color is a result of mixing blue and red together, and that the brown color is a mixture of red with the black. As for the dark yellow color, it consists of iron oxide (goethite). And through the analysis (FTIR) it was found that the adhesive used to bind the coloring material is gum arabic. Then the mural was treated, and this included removing the thick mortar layer with mechanical and chemical cleaning, replacing the damaged layers of preparation, and strengthening and fixing the discovered drawings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While studying the types of materials exchanged between the kingdoms of Ebla and Dugurasu, Biga proposed (2012) that Dugurasu could be identified as a place in the Delta of the Nile. She also proposed to identify the city of DUlu— from which almost the same materials came to Ebla and had a role of intermediary between Ebla and Dugurasu— with Byblos, as already proposed by Pettinato at the beginning of Eblaite studies. These proposals, positively received by some scholars, were questioned by Archi, who argued that Dugurasu is to be sought in Iran and DUlu in Anatolia. These issues are important for the history of the relationships between Syria and Egypt; for this reason, Biga and Steinkeller recently (2021) offered a systematic examination of the data bearing on the question of Dugurasu’s identity and location. The present paper presents a synthesis of the main points in Biga and Steinkeller’s article. The recently proposed identification of the presence of monkeys among the goods arriving in Ebla solely from Dugurasu and DUlu is another strong point in favor of the proposed identifications. Thus, monkeys must be studied in much detail in the Ebla texts. This is the topic of a new article (Biga and Steinkeller, in preparation), with all the data pointing to the identification of DUlu with the city of Byblos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present article, we report the comparative results obtained from the analysis of semi-precious stones of different classes (idiochromatic, allochromatic and pseudochromatic) using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) coupled with multivariate analysis. The point detection capability of LIBS is successfully applied for the identification of spatially distributed elements at various spots/colouration/bands in the gemstone and the identification of mineral inclusion in stones samples. Since chromophores or mineral inclusions are responsible for the colouration of the stones, the sensitivity of the point detection capability allows identification of the elements responsible for the colouration of the stones. This study reveals that white bands on the lapis lazuli samples correspond to the mineral calcite also a possibility of the presence of pyrite in the stone. Based on the spectral lines of the trace/minor elements, stones are classified in different groups by applying principal component analysis on LIBS spectral data of the stones. Visually distinct coloured zones are clustered in the same group due to their similar matrix. Further partial least square regression (PLSR) analysis of LIBS spectral data has been used to investigate Si concentration in stones. Therefore, we firmly believe that the results from the present work extend the application of LIBS together with multivariate analysis for the identification of the mineral responsible for different colours in semi-precious stones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blue color of glass and ceramic glazes produced in Apulia and Basilicata (Southern Italy) between the 13th and 14th centuries and connected to the Norman-Swabian Emperor Frederick II, has been, for a long time, under archaeometric investigation. On the one hand, it has usually been associated with lapis lazuli, due to the finding of the polysulphide blue chromophores typical of lazurite. Moreover, the observation that the mineral haüyne, which belongs to the sodalite group as well as lazurite, can be blue and/or can gain a blue color after heating, due to the same chromophores, has caused this automatic attribution to be questioned, and also considering that the mineral is characteristic of the rock haüynophyre of Melfi (Potenza, Southern Italy), a location of interest for glass and pottery findings. In this paper, for the first time, several haüyne crystals were found in the blue glaze of a ceramic dish found at Melfi Castle, leading to the hypothesis that, in this case, the local haüyne-bearing source could have been used as the coloring raw material. The discovery was possible thanks to SEM-EDS and Raman analyses that, respectively, highlighted the typical numerous presence of very fine sulphur-based inclusions in the crystals and the characteristic Raman signal of blue haüyne. This study was also focused on the composition of the crystals inclusions, aided by SEM-EDS and Raman maps, since the original very fine pyrrhotite was transformed into Cu and Pb phases (copper sulphates, copper sulphides, and lead oxide) due to reactions with cations that had mobilized from the glaze, while the migration of Si from the glass allowed the transformation of the rim of the haüyne, a silica-undersaturated mineral, into a corona of small euhedral and neomorphic Pb-rich feldspars, a silica-saturated phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Universal History Studies is the property of Sabit Dokuyan and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Lapis lazuli, ana bileşeni lazurit minerali, kalsit, pirit ve diğer silikatlarla birlikte birkaç farklı mineralin bileşiminden oluşan mavi renkli, yarı şeffaf-opak nitelikli bir taştır. Lapis lazuli, doğada çok kolay bulunan bir taş değildir. Bu taşın elde edildiği dünyadaki ana üretim alanları Güney Amerika, Baykal Gölü ve Afganistan’ın Bedahşan bölgesidir. Çalışma sahamızı oluşturan Mezopotamya coğrafyasında lapis lazuli kaynağı yoktur. Buna rağmen lapis lazulinin, Mezopotamya’da erken tarihlerden itibaren tanındığı bilinmektedir. Tunç Çağı’na gelindiğinde ise Mezopotamya uygarlıklarınca özellikle de Sumerler tarafından beğenilen ve elde edilmek istenen bir taş olduğu görülmektedir. Mezopotamya uygarlıkları, bu taşı kendileri kullandıkları gibi onun Mısır ve Anadolu’ya taşınmasına da öncülük etmişlerdir.Bu çalışmanın amacı Mezopotamya coğrafyasında bulunmamasına rağmen ithalatı yapılan değerli taşlar arasında görülen lapis lazulinin, Tunç Çağı’nda Mezopotamya uygarlıklarınca hangi kaynaklardan temin edildiği, bölgeye nasıl ulaştığı, hangi alanlarda kullanım gördüğü ve bu taşa ne tür anlamlar yüklendiğini ortaya çıkarmaktır.

The authors explain why gender and women should be included in the study of medieval Germany, particularly from the year 900 to 1200. Topics include the discovery by archaeologists of traces of lapis lazuli in the teeth of a religious women who lived between 997 and 1162 in Dalheim, ownership of the Egbert psalter, an illuminated manuscript created in the late 10th century, by noblewoman Richeza of Lotharingia, and the lead plaque discovered on the grave of Empress Gisela.

Although rather distant from the Western Indian Ocean basin, the Southern Levant can be considered fairly included into trading dynamics regulating the movement and use of exotic goods, especially luxury raw materials, frequently representing the final destination for this kind of items. During the Late Bronze Age, Southern Levantine jewelry encompasses an eclectic group of differentiated artifacts, witnessing a remarkable level of artistic talent and technical expertise. The most part of the products is manufactured in gold and silver, using the decorative shares of precious and semiprecious stones originating from eastern Africa and the Indus Valley. The wealth of jewelry’s arts, and in particular the large use of stones, has given rise to a number of hypothesis that will be briefly discussed in the paper, analyzing the origins of raw material, archaeological contexts of finished products, and specialized production of personal ornaments, with particular attention to the actors and the ultimate goal of their production.

Although rather distant from the Western Indian Ocean basin, the southern Levant can be considered fairly included in the trading dynamics regulating movement and use of exotic goods, especially luxury raw materials, being frequently the final destination of this kind of items. Southern Levantine jewelry in the Late Bronze Age represents a widely eclectic group revealing a remarkable level of artistic talent and technical expertise. Most products are manufactured of gold and silver, using precious and semiprecious stones originating from eastern Africa and the Indus Valley. The opulence of the jeweler’s art, and in particular the extensive use of gemstones, has given rise to several hypotheses which are briefly discussed in the paper. The provenance of the raw materials will be examined, as well as the archaeological context of finds of finished products. The paper addresses the specialized production of personal ornaments, paying attention in particular to the players in this process and the ultimate effect of their work.

The 6th century Codex Sinopensis or Sinope Gospels (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France) is one of the most precious purple codices that survive from the Late Antique period. Together with the Vienna Genesis (Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) and the Rossano Gospels (Rossano Calabro, Museo Diocesano), it has an unusually rich decorative apparatus with scenes representing biblical episodes. It can be, therefore, considered one of the most important preserved artistic productions of the early medieval era. The manuscript has been subjected to a non-invasive diagnostic campaign to evaluate the quality of the colourants used in its decoration, to understand how the parchment was coloured, and to carry out a comparison with the Vienna Genesis and the Rossano Gospels. The techniques used were UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry with optical fibres (FORS), X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), spectrofluorimetry, and optical microscopy. Analyses highlighted the presence of ultramarine blue, which, besides the use of pure gold for the ink and paint, certifies the high value of the manuscript. In addition, this must be seen as one of the earliest examples of its use in paintings. The purple colour of the parchment was identified as orchil, a dye extracted from lichens, similar to the results of analytical investigations carried out on other purple codices, and not the expected Tyrian purple dye.

The idea of ionoluminescence 3-D imaging is introduced to provide surface structural information of luminescent samples from a depth of tens of micrometers. Application of broad ion beam in an in-air setup results in capturing high resolution 2-D images in short times. Therefore, ionoluminescence 3-D imaging is a non-destructive technique which can extract information such as inhomogeneity, porosity and roughness, especially from historical precious samples. In order to display the capabilities of the ionoluminescence 3-D imaging technique, the 3-D image of an inhomogeneous lapis lazuli sample is produced based on stereo-ionoluminescence approach. The results are indicative of high potentials of the applied imaging technique for revealing surface structural information of luminescent samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal is the property of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ultramarine blue paint layers in oil paintings can be affected by ultramarine 'disease' or 'sickness': a phenomenon described by a grey appearance and a loss of detail in the artwork. An explanation for this phenomenon is an interaction between the organic binder network and ultramarine pigment, with the pigment acting as a catalyst for the breakdown of the network. This breakdown results in micro-cracks in the paint film, which influences the appearance of the artwork. To investigate the possible catalytic property of ultramarine pigment, a test reaction – the dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether – was carried out, with and without ultramarine pigment present in a micro-reactor with in-line gas chromatography mass spectrometry. It was observed that a higher yield of dimethyl ether was obtained in the presence of ultramarine pigment, confirming that ultramarine pigment possesses catalytic properties similar to commercial zeolitic silica-alumina catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current interdisciplinary study of a funerary portrait has provided the first identification of a blue pigment on Palmyrene sculpture. The exceptional attestation of lapis lazuli on the examined portrait confirms the use of this highly valuable semiprecious stone in ancient polychromy, which was previously thought to be a later addition to the painter's palette. Considering that the archaeological record contains numerous minor objects carved from lapis lazuli, there are astonishingly few known instances of its use as a pigment. This Palmyrene discovery is only the third known example from Antiquity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new diagnostic investigation on Annunciata painting by Antonello da Messina was carried out in situ, in the Sala di Antonello of the Galleria Regionale della Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo (Sicily). It was carried out by using INTRAVEDO scanner for IR Reflectography (InGaAs detector) and XRF mapping, in order to investigate, thanks to an innovative equipment, the blue painting area, and in particular, the area between the face of the Virgin and the blue veil (on her left side). This pictorial surface, probably altered in the past by a heavy cleaning (date back to the 19th century) that involved the face and hands, was not clearly understood during the previous scientific studies. The finding here has provided an important assumption for a correct historical - artistic reading of the original appearance of the subject and represent a scientific support to clarify the conservation history which leads the painting to its current state. The new studies provided a common understanding of the available archive information, previous restorations and diagnostic investigations carried out over time.

In this article, the detailed description of a smartphone-based analytical method to turn a smartphone into a colorimeter is described and applied to mural painting replicas. The method consists of a camera characterization process, to estimate CIELAB values from RGB camera responses, correcting for potential experimental interferences, like the effect of the lighting/capture geometry or software for color modification and enhancement. Next, the estimated CIELAB descriptors were used to build a chemometric Support Vector Classifier to objectively distinguish among the colors of the different pigments. The method was validated in terms of color reproduction and classification performance.•A smartphone-based method is described to capture mural painting color.•A color gamut-specific camera characterization procedure is developed and the performance of the smartphone-based colorimeter is compared with a spectrophotometer.•A classification method based on the estimated CIELAB descriptors is validated in terms of classification performance., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Although rather distant from the Western Indian Ocean basin, the southern Levant can be considered fairly included in the trading dynamics regulating movement and use of exotic goods, especially luxury raw materials, being frequently the final destination of this kind of items. Southern Levantine jewelry in the Late Bronze Age represents a widely eclectic group revealing a remarkable level of artistic talent and technical expertise. Most products are manufactured of gold and silver, using precious and semiprecious stones originating from eastern Africa and the Indus Valley. The opulence of the jeweler’s art, and in particular the extensive use of gemstones, has given rise to several hypotheses which are briefly discussed in the paper. The provenance of the raw materials will be examined, as well as the archaeological context of finds of finished products. The paper addresses the specialized production of personal ornaments, paying attention in particular to the players in this process and the ultimate effect of their work and the ultimate goal of their production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although rather distant from the Western Indian Ocean basin, the Southern Levant can be considered fairly included into trading dynamics regulating the movement and use of exotic goods, especially luxury raw materials, frequently representing the final destination for this kind of items. During the Late Bronze Age, Southern Levantine jewelry encompasses an eclectic group of differentiated artifacts, witnessing a remarkable level of artistic talent and technical expertise. The most part of the products is manufactured in gold and silver, using the decorative shares of precious and semiprecious stones originating from eastern Africa and the Indus Valley. The wealth of jewelry’s arts, and in particular the large use of stones, has given rise to a number of hypothesis that will be briefly discussed in the paper, analyzing the origins of raw material, archaeological contexts of finished products, and specialized production of personal ornaments, with particular attention to the actors and the ultimate goal of their production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ícone: Revista Brasileira de História da Arte is the property of Universidade Federnal do Rio Grande do Sul and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ion Beam Induced Luminescence (IBIL) is a useful IBA technique which could be utilized to obtain information about the nature of chemical bonds in materials. Regarding the probed area, this non-destructive and fast technique is a suitable complementary one for MicroPIXE. Since most minerals are luminescent, IBIL is an applicable analytical technique in mineralogy. In this research work, to characterize a Lapis lazuli sample, a 2.7 MeV proton beam is utilized. After data collection and analysis of the results obtained from both techniques of IBIL and MicroPIXE, elemental maps of the sample were developed. Comparison of the results with other available ones in the literature indicates the capability and accuracy of the combination of the two complementary techniques for characterization of minerals as well as precious historical objects

This study investigates the colours and inks used in diplomatic documents of the Ottoman Empire dating from the 13th to the 20th century. Elemental and spectroscopic analyses were carried out on more than 150 documents using μ-XRF, Raman and FTIR spectroscopy; 10 documents were selected representatively for each century. In addition to the characterization of colour and ink, their use and distribution through the centuries is discussed. Analysis showed the presence of minium, vermilion, red ochre and cochineal (red pigments); lapis lazuli (ultramarine blue), azurite (blue verditer), Prussian blue and smalt (blue pigments); malachite and green earth (green pigments); massicot and yellow lead (yellow respectively orange pigments) and basic lead carbonate and zinc oxide (white pigments). All illuminations were ornamented with gold to demonstrate the power of the Empire and the Emperor. Texts were written in iron gall- and carbon-based black ink (carbon black/soot), cochineal (red) ink and gold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the importance of the stone lapis lazuli in art due to it's unique blue color which is due to the mineral lazurite along with white calcite and pyrite elements. It talks about the book A Thousand Plateaus on mining and metallurgy in the industry. It speaks about the involvement of rocks in the history of human beings. It tells about the changes in the modern world and ideologies of the human beings.

As one of the most desired and expensive artists' materials throughout history, there has long been interest in studying natural lapis lazuli. The traditional method of extracting the blue component, lazurite, from lapis lazuli, as outlined in Cennini's Il Libro dell'Arte, involves a lengthy purification process: (1) finely grind the rock; (2) mix with pine rosin, gum mastic, and beeswax; (3) massage in water to collect the lazurite. Repeating the process produces several grades of the pigment, typically referred to as ultramarine blue. Here, we investigate the sulfur environment within the aluminosilicate framework of lazurite during its extraction from lapis lazuli. The sulfur XANES fingerprint from samples taken at the different stages in Cennini's extraction method were examined. All spectra contain a strong absorption peak at 2483 eV, attributable to sulfate present in the lazurite structure. However, intensity variations appear in the broad envelope of peaks between 2470 and 2475 eV and the pre-peak at 2469.1 eV, indicating a variation in the content of trisulfur (S3-) radicals. By studying the effect of each step of Cennini's process, this study elucidates the changes occurring during the extraction and the variability within different grades of the precious coloring material. The increasing application of XANES to the study of artist's materials and works of art motivated extending the research to assess the possibility of X-ray induced damage. Direct comparison of micro-focused and unfocused beam experiments suggests an increase of the S3- radicals with prolonged exposure. Analysis indicates that induced damage follows first-order kinetics, providing a first assessment on the acceptable amount of radiation exposure to define the optimal acquisition parameters to allow safe analyses of lapis lazuli and ultramarine pigments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates and offers explanations for the distribution of specific products (ivory and lapis lazuli artefacts, “Syrian” bottles) and technologies (metrology) that have often been invoked as tracers of long-distance trade contacts and/or political units in Anatolia, northern Levant and northern Mesopotamia during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Unlike former studies investigating third and second millennia exchange networks as separate entities, we examine comparatively and systematically a large corpus of published archaeological data by adopting a quantitative and spatial approach. Through this analysis, we propose that a significant degree of similarity in the shape, infrastructure and motivations behind the development and maintenance of these long-distance exchanges existed between the third and early second millennia BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]