Clodoaldo Roldán García

A Unique Collection of Palaeolithic Painted Portable Art: Characterization of Red and Yellow Pigments from the Parpalló Cave (Spain)

In this work we analyze the pigments used in the decoration of red and yellow motifs present in the portable art of the Parpalló Cave (Gandía, Spain), one of the most important Palaeolithic sites in the Spanish Mediterranean region. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF) and spectrophotometry in the visible region (CIEL*a*b*color coordinates and spectral reflectance curves) were used to perform in situ fast analyses of the red and yellow motifs with portable equipment and to characterize their elemental composition and their colorimetric perception, respectively. According to the elemental composition, the intensity of the fluorescence iron signals in red and yellow motifs are higher than average values in the rock substrates. As expected, red motifs possess high values of the chromatic coordinate a* and yellow motifs possess high values of b*. This characterization was complemented with FT-IR analyses of microsamples detached from the red and yellow colored zones of a small set of plaquettes. Our results show that the artists used red and yellow pigments in the decoration likely derived from natural iron oxides as hematite and goethite.

Anàlisis no destructives: l'ús de la fluorescència de raigs x en art i arqueologia

Non destructive analysis. The use of X-Ray Fluorescence in art and archaeology. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF) is a non destructive analytical technique with excellent performance used to characterize objects of historic and cultural interest that, with the development of portable equipment, enables in situ analysis to be carried out, transporting the analytical equipment to the works of art, be they in museums, churches, archaeological excavation sites or centres for conservation and restoration. Here we will present examples of applications, carried out by the University of Valencia’s Archaeometry Unit “Unidad de Arqueometria del Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales (ICMUV)” using portable EDXRF spectrometers, which give an idea of their analytical potential for characterizing goods of cultural interest.