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Mycenaean black inlaid metalware in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens: a technical examination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

K. Demakopoulou ,
E. Mangou ,
R. E. Jones  and
E. Photos-Jones
K. Demakopoulou
Affiliation:
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
E. Mangou
Affiliation:
Chemistry Laboratory, National Archaeological Museum, Athens
R. E. Jones
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
E. Photos-Jones
Affiliation:
Scottish Analytical Services for Art and Archaeology, Glasgow
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Abstract

Current technical interest in the nature of the black inlaid decoration on ancient metalware has stimulated an examination of some of the well-known bronze daggers, silver vessels, and other fragments, all with inlaid decoration and dating to the 16–14th centuries BC, from Mycenae, Prosymna, Dendra, Routsi, and Pylos. Results of non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis point to great versatility in working with copper (or bronze)–gold–silver alloys. The black inlaid decoration is usually copper/bronze–gold alloy with small quantities of silver. Four of the objects were also examined by X-ray radiography.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 90 , November 1995 , pp. 137 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1995

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References

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3 Marinatos, S., Hirmer, S. and Hirmer, M., Crete and Mycenae (London, 1960)Google Scholar; Xenaki-Sakellariou and Hatziliou (n. 1). Niello is produced by heating copper, silver, and/or lead with sulphur in a crucible, resulting in the formation of the black sulphides of these metals. After cooling, it is crushed to a fine powder, reheated, and then poured as a liquid, or spread, in a semi-paste-like state, onto the metal to be decorated, be it silver, gold, brass, or bronze. This technique was used extensively from the Roman period to the 19th cent. in many parts of the world. For a detailed account of niello, see La Niece, S., ‘Niello: an historical and technical survey’, Ant. J. 63.2 (1983), 279–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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14 We are indebted to Dr Annie Caubet, Département des Antiquités Orientales, Musée du Louvre, for bringing to our attention the two objects in the Louvre's collections and for suggesting the possibility of analyses being carried out on these objects. For the Byblos harp see Montet, P., Byblos et Égypte (Paris, 1929), pl. 98. 648Google Scholar; 99. 653; 100. 653, and Xenaki-Sakellariou and Hatziliou (n. 1), pl. 15. 1–2.

15 Laffineur (n. 12), 270, ‘on which (blades) both metal inlays and niello are used’.

16 We thank Ms Lorraine McEwan for the drawings in Figs. 1–4.

17 We wish to thank the British School at Athens for permission to use the Fitch Laboratory's XRF in 1992, and Dr V. Perdikatsis, of the Institute for Geology and Mineral Exploration in Athens, for the XRD. EM was responsible for the radiography and AAS, REJ for the XRF, and EPJ for examination with optical microscope and compilation of the data.

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21 On the basis of XRF analyses of LBA bronzes from the Menelaion, Mycenae, Ayios Stephanos, Kalithea in Achaia (to be published by REJ), and Nichoria, (Rapp, G., Jones, R. E., Cooke, S. R. B., and Henrickson, E. L., ‘Analyses of metal artefacts’, in Rapp, G. and Aschenbrenner, S. E. (eds), Excavations at Nichoria, i (Minnesota, 1978), 166–81.Google Scholar See now Mangou, E., Μελέτη αϱχαίων χαλϰινών αντιϰείμενων από τον Ελλαδιϰό χώρο, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Patras (1994).Google Scholar

22 see n. 5.

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25 Copper–gold alloys with fine inlaid decoration in gold silver and copper were first extensively studied in medieval Japanese sword guards made of that alloy and called shakudo. Intricate recipes for the preparation of organic reagents consisting of plant juices are employed even today, into which decorative objects made of the alloy are dipped and boiled in order to acquire the rich blue-black patina. For shakudo see S. La Niece, ‘Japanese polychrome metalwork’, in Pernicka, E. and Wagner, G. (eds), Archaeometry 90 (Basel, 1990), 87–94Google Scholar; Notis, N. R., ‘The Japanese alloy shakudo: its history and patination’, in Maddin, R. (ed.), The Beginning of the Use of Metals and Alloys (London, 1988), 315–27.Google Scholar

26 See n. 5.

27 Xenaki-Sakellariou and Chatziliou (n. 1), pl. 8. 1–2 (1874) and 3 (1816).

28 See n. 24.

29 Vermeule, E., Greece in the, Bronze Age (Chicago, 1972), 100.Google Scholar

30 Laffineur (n. 12), 275.