Browsing by Author "Rasmussen, Kaare Lund"
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Item Open Access Analyses of the brown stain on the Parthenon Centaur head in Denmark(Springer, 2024-01-16) Rasmussen, Kaare Lund; Rasmussen, Bodil Bundgaard; Delbey, Thomas; Bonaduce, Ilaria; Kjeldsen, Frank; Gorshkov, VladimirIn 1688 two sculptural fragments, a head of bearded man and a head of an unbearded youth, arrived in Copenhagen, sent from Athens as a gift to King Christian 5. They were placed in the Royal Kunstkammer, their provenance given as the Temple of Artemis in Ephesos, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Almost a hundred and fifty years later, in the early 1820’s they were noticed and studied by two scholars independently visiting the Kunstkammer. However, both concluded that the two heads belonged to one of the metopes decorating the south side of the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis in Athens, showing fighting between Greeks and the mythical Centaurs, part man and part horse. In the 1830’s another sculptural fragment, a horse’s hoof, obtained through the German archaeologist and state antiquary of Greece, Ludwig Ross, reached Copenhagen. It was forwarded by the Danish consul to Athens, C.T. Falbe, as a gift to King Christian 8. The inventory reads: ‘… was found on the Acropolis near the Parthenon temple and is supposed to belong to one the Centaurs on the metopes.’ The present paper focuses solely on the head of the Centaur. A brown stain was noticed on the Parthenon marbles as early as 1830 by the British Museum and has ever since eluded a deeper understanding of its genesis despite many investigations and attempts of analyses. A quite similar brown stain can be observed on the Centaur’s head in Copenhagen as well. The present study reports analyses by LA-ICP-MS, SEM–EDX, µXRD, GC–MS, and LC–MS-MS, as well as optical microscopy of five small samples sequestered in 1999 from the Centaur head curated by the National Museum of Denmark. Our analyses show that the brown stain consists of two consecutively added surficial layers of the calcium oxalate minerals whewellite and weddellite. Despite a thorough search using proteomics, we have found no viable organic precursor material for the oxalates. Our results do not solve the mystery of the formation of the brown stain, but they do further qualify the structure and characterization of the brown stain.Item Open Access Defining multiple inhabitations of a cave environment using interdisciplinary archaeometry: the ‘Christmas Cave’ of the Wadi en-Nar/Nahal Qidron, west of the Dead Sea(Springer, 2022-02-05) Rasmussen, Kaare Lund; van der Plicht, Johannes; Degano, Ilaria; Modugno, Francesca; Colombini, Maria Perla; de la Fuente, Guillermo; Delbey, Thomas; Frumkin, Amos; Davidovich, Uri; Porat, Roi; Shamir, Orit; Sukenik, Naama; Doudna, Greg; Taylor, Joan; Popović, MladenThe present study reports a series of interdisciplinary archaeometrical analyses of objects found in the Christmas Cave, which was discovered by John Allegro and his team in 1960 on the West Bank of the Dead Sea and assumed to be inhabited only in the Chalcolithic era and by Jewish refugees of the second century CE, at the end of the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Like many other Judaean desert caves, there was an abundance of organic material, especially textiles, surviving in the dry environment. In the absence of clear stratigraphy and even a proper publication of the finds, the present study shows how archaeometry can provide important insights. We analysed food crusts on ceramics by gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (GC–MS), made petrographic descriptions to estimated provenance of the ceramics, produced new radiocarbon dates from organic material and thermoluminescence (TL) dates from the pottery. It appears from the data that the Christmas Cave has been briefly inhabited or visited intermittently over a very long time, starting ca. 4000 BCE (the Chalcolithic period), and extending all the way to the Medieval period, even though there is also a concentration of dates near the period of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–136 CE). We argue, through a detailed analysis of the radiometric and TL-datings and by the artefactual evidence, that there was likely another refuge episode connected with the First Jewish Revolt during which people fled to this cave. However, we see no material connection to Qumran and nearby caves. Overall, our study demonstrates the importance of archaeometric studies in cave environments where stratigraphy is veritably absent.Item Open Access Do you dig your grave with your teeth? Potential interest of the elementary analysis of ancient ceramics regarding public health (Pre-Columbian era, Ecuador)(Elsevier, 2022-06-07) Bourdin, Virginie; Delbey, Thomas; Rasmussen, Kaare Lund; Charlier, PhilippeBackground Following several studies considering the potential toxicity of food-type containers, we hypothesized elemental analysis would help us test and classify a collection of Ecuadorian ceramic sherds from Andean and Amazonian sites. Material and methods μ-XRF spectrometer analyses were carried out on 48 ceramic sherds coming from 4 different archaeological sites. Major elements values were transformed into oxides and data were constrained to 100%, making our results semi-quantitative. A principal component analysis (PCA) was then performed on the additive log-ratio (ALR) transformed data to identify main compositional axes and plot the sherds. Besides, a hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was applied on the coordinates of the individuals from the PCA to estimate the chemical similarity between the ceramic samples. Results and discussion The lead detected on the internal face of the ceramics locally produced in Quito was generally below the limit of quantification, while the lead concentration mean in the Cosanga ceramics was 180 ± 34 μg/g. The lead concentration values in the Pucará ceramics and the type labelled Mango Montaño were of the same order. Arsenic, mercury, cobalt, chromium and antimony values proved to be below the quantification limits. The PCA on the ALR transformed data evidenced 2 main axes. The first main axis PC1 made it possible to graphically distinguish the “local Quito” ceramics from the “Cosanga” ceramics. The second main axis PC2 made it possible to refine the distribution of the samples. Three of four samples from Pucará were close to the ceramics locally produced in Quito. The HCA was applied on the first five factors to take into account about 80% of the total variance of the sample set. The dendrogram discriminated two main clusters, demonstrating a significant clustering pattern of certain fragments belonging to the same craft tradition, essentially the Cosanga ceramics vs. the Local Quito ones. Conclusion and perspectives No particular hazard was identified regarding the exposure of past populations to potentially toxic pottery. We managed through elemental analysis followed by a principal component analysis and a graphic representation to clearly identify 2 groups of pottery out of 4 different locations, 3 different periods and 4 cultural traditions corresponding to 4 different populations. We aim in the near future at testing the samples we presented for lead leachability and comparing them with ceramic samples from other locations.Item Open Access Materials and technology of mosaics from the House of Charidemos at Halikarnassos (Bodrum, Turkey)(Springer, 2022-05-16) Rasmussen, Kaare Lund; Delbey, Thomas; Jørgensen, Bjarke; Høegh Jensen, Kasper; Poulsen, Birte; Pendersen, PoulAn excavation in 1856 by Charles T. Newton and a re-excavation in 1990–93 by a joint Danish-Turkish team revealed several mosaic floors in a late-antique domus from the fifth century CE, now called the House of Charidemos. Nineteen tesserae from the floor have been analysed by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, Raman micro-spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, and X-ray diffraction. Seven tesserae were made of opaque glass, eleven from various rock/lithic materials, while one of them was a ceramic fragment. This case-study reports the first analyses undertaken of tesserae from late-antique Halikarnassos. The results show the use of recycled Sb–Mn decoloured glass and two types of red glass. A comparison with tesserae from other sites in Anatolia from the same period shows similarities in the base glass composition, but also some particularities of the colouring and opacifying agents used for the mosaic of the House of Charidemos. The characterisation of the stone tesserae shows a homogeneity in the choice of the materials of the same colours, but no certain provenance has been established in the present work mainly due to the lack of comparative materials.Item Open Access Release of lead from Renaissance lead-glazed ceramics from southern Denmark and northern Germany: Implications from acetic acid etching(Springer, 2020-05-18) Rasmussen, Kaare Lund; Milner, George R.; Delbey, Thomas; Jensen, Lisa Kathrine Ivalu; Witte, Frauke; Rehren, Thilo; Kjaer, Ulla; Grinder-Hansen, PoulLead-glazed potsherds from archaeological excavations at six Renaissance (1536–1660 CE) sites in southern Denmark and northern Germany have been subjected to etching experiments using 4 wt% acetic acid. The extracts of 45 sherds were analysed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. At one site, the ducal hunting castle of Grøngaard, Pb levels in acid extracts from glazed dishes were so high (up to 29,000 µg Pb cm−2 day−1) that acute toxic effects likely occurred if the dishes were used for serving food containing vinegar. More moderate acid-etching Pb levels were found in dishes from other sites, but they still exceed the WHO critical level if used daily. Acetic acid etching experiments performed on pipkins (three-legged cooking pots with a handle) yielded somewhat lower Pb extract values, averaging ca. 25 µg Pb cm−2 day−1. Taking into account the widespread use of pipkins for cooking, they might easily have led to a higher weekly Pb intake than the use of the moderate-level dishes. The question remains whether such high levels of Pb exposure during meals led to injurious Pb intake. Prior skeletal analyses have shown that medieval to early modern individuals from the area, especially in towns, were exposed to Pb. While exposure could have come from various sources other than lead-glazed ceramics, such as cosmetics, paint, antibacterial ointments, and lead water pipes, widely distributed lead-glazed ceramics had the potential of being a main source of Pb. How the pottery was actually used is uncertain, and it certainly was not evenly distributed across all segments of society, but the etching experiment results suggest that severe poisonous effects could have resulted from the use of lead-glazed Renaissance ceramics.