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Yellow, red and blue pigments from ancient Egyptian palace painted walls M. Uda a,b, * , S. Sassa a , S. Yoshimura c , J. Kondo d , M. Nakamura e , Y. Ban a , H. Adachi f a Depart ment of Materials Science and Engine ering , Wased a Univer sity, Ohkubo 3-4-1, Shinjuku -ku, Tokyo 169-85 55, Japan b Laboratory for Materials Science and Technology, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan c School of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan d Department of Archaeology, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan e Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Technology Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan f Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan Abstract Yellow, red and blue pigments from the painted walls of the Malqata palace, founded by Amenhotep III, 18th Dynasty, were analyzed using PIXE and X-ray diraction (XRD). From most of the yellow, red and blue parts, goethite, hematite and Egyptian blue, respectively, were found on the basis of diractometry results. From some yellow parts , As was detec ted together with Fe spect rosco picall y, sugge sting the use of orpime nt as a yellow pigment. The red pigment seems to be natural and not man-made. This assumption is deduced from the dehydration experiment of a synthesized goethite. Ó 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 32.30.Rj; 41.75.Ak; 71.24. +q Keywords: Ancient Egypt; Pigment; X-ray analysis; Red; Blue 1. Introduction Ancient remains are expected to provide infor- mat ion on pas t tec hnolog ies . Pig ments use d in ancient Egypt are among the most attractive tar- gets to be investigated, because ancient Egyptians prepa red many kinds of pigmen ts arti®cially [1]. A representative one is the Egyptian blue, i.e. calci- um copper silicate, CaCuSi 4 O 10 . PIXE is one of the most sens it ive anal yt ical methods applied under non-destructive and touch- fre e condit ions [2]. It can be use d for analy zing ele mental concentra tions of a spe cime n bot h in vacuum and in air. The ``in vacuum'' use is ad- vantageous to detect low atomic number elements. The ``in air'' use, however, is suited for analyzing fragile or volatile or non-heat resistive specimens of a irregular shape and of a large size as in the Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 161±163 (2000) 758±761 www.elsevier.nl/locate/nimb * Corr espon ding auth or. Tel.: +81 -352 86-3 308 ; fax: +81 - 35272-9799. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Uda). 0168-583X/00/$ - see front matter Ó 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 6 8 - 5 8 3 X ( 9 9 ) 0 0 9 6 9 - 6

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