"Treatment and Conservation of the Hollow bronze statues
in ancient Egypt"
Mahrouse, Ya, Ismail, Bb, Rifai, Mc
a
conservation department, faculty Archaeology, South valley university.
Yussri_25@yahoo.com
b
conservation department, faculty Archaeology, South valley university.
c
conservation department, faculty Archaeology, Cairo university.
Kay words: statues, Malachite, ultra sonic probe
Abstract
The main objective of this study was Treatment and Conservation Two
objects were chosen from the hollow bronze statues from the applied arts
faculty museum in Cairo :
The first object: an old Egyptian statue of a lady made from hollow bronze
and undated.
The second object: an old Egyptian statue in the royal figure from the hollow
bronze and undated. The applied study has four stages as follow:
First – documentation and recording :
this stage documents and records the archaeological objects by artistic
Description and archaeological Description with showing to methods we can
use in dating the bronze statues using artistic features as: dating by wigs,
dating by ear and dating by eye . These methods were useful in dating the
first statue that is probably belongs to the middle kingdom with identifying
three similar periods in the artistic features. The royal statue has the artistic
features which follows the realism school represented by the twelfth dynasty
and it’s similarity with king senusert III through comparing with some of his
statues.
Second- Examination and Analysis of metal core:
1- Elemental analysis of objects: the samples from the metal core were
exposed to EDXRF to know elements and alloy of the archaeological object,
The first object was of tin bronze alloy which consists of Cu, 92.5% and Sn,
5.5% in addition to some other impurities, the second object was of lead
bronze alloy which consists of Cu, 90.9%, Sn, 4.4%, Pb 4.6% .
2- Metallographic Examination of object alloy:, the examination by (PM)
after Etching by solution of ferric chloride showed (α phase of the Cu-Sn
alloys) and insoluble lead with white color, Also Scanning Electron
Microscope use with these samples which showed insoluble lead and cracks
in object alloy.
Metallographic Examination by (SEM) to sample of the metal core of the
first object showed many of the gas babbles and thus produce spongy
product.
Third- Examination and analysis of the corrosion products:
1- analysis of corrosion products: The analysis by x-rays diffraction to
corrosion products showed that more corrosion products in tow statues were
Copper Oxides Corrosion Products like Cuprite and Tenorite and Tin Oxides
like Cassiteritte, in addition to Atacamite, Also in The royal object has been
identified on other products like: Covellite, Brochantite, Malachite.
2- examination of corrosion products: Metallographic Examination by
metallographic microscope showed various colors of corrosion products like
the green color to Malachite and reddish brown to Cuprite, Also it showed
penetration to corrosion products in the alloy core. Also examination by
(SEM) showed corrosion patina in form uniform corrosion.
Fourth – treatment and conservation of the archaeological
objects:
Treatment and conservation of tow objects includes three stages:
1- Mechanical cleaning of corrosion products: using fiber glass brushes,
dental drilling Machine and ultra sonic probe apparatus .
2- Isolation using corrosion inhibitors: using Benzotriazole with the
concentration of 3% with ethanol.
3- Museum display: a glass box was made to put the object inside with
seleca Gell .
the first statue
the second statue
Cuprite
Disease bronze
Coupons of elemental analysis
The second statue from the back