Скачать или смотреть Searching for ‘the true Colors’ of the Eastern European Chalcolithic painting Techniques

through Experimental and Archaeometrical Approaches

by Felix-Adrian Tencariu, Ana Drob, Maria-Cristina Ciobanu
Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza Iași, Iași, Romania

The Chalcolithic Cucuteni-Trypillia culture (~5000-3500 BCE) stands out within the Old Europe through the characteristics of its habitat (vast territory, mega-sites, housing architecture), technical achievements, spiritual and artistic manifestations, to name a few. Of these, the exquisite painted pottery has been the main focus of numerous typological, stylistic and technological (archaeometrical) studies. Although very promising, the painting techniques of the Cucuteni pottery were not sufficiently approached by experiment; the timid previous attempts were not systematic and did not generate valid premises. The archaeological data on which our experiments were based are the painted archaeological pottery; rare discoveries of tools and deposits of pigments used for painting; older and newer studies dealing with elemental analysis of paint samples throughout the Cucuteni-Trypillia civilization. The red, black and white preponderant colours derive mainly from mineral pigments comprising iron and manganese oxides, as well as various calcium compounds. At this stage we used raw oxides and calcium carbonate commercially available. These were combined with various bindings (organic and/or mineral) and applied as engobes and as paints on dozens of standardized clay plates; prior and/or after painting, various finishing techniques were applied to the clay surfaces (smoothing, burnishing). The samples were fired in an electric kiln at 900°C. Subsequently, a few selected techniques were applied on life size vessels, fired in an experimental kiln. Several samples of clay plates and experimental vessels were investigated using OM, SEM-EDX and micro-FTIR and compared with the archaeological data from which the experiments started. At the end of this stage, we have some hypotheses validated by experiment, noting that these are not necessarily the only techniques used by Cucuteni craftsmen to apply and bind the paints on their pottery.

#EXARC #ExperimentalArchaeology #EAC13