Brunetti Antonio, Porcaro Marta, Lins Sergio, di Gennaro Francesco, Anzalone Rosario Maria, Mineo Mario, Depalmas Anna
Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Università degli Studi di Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
Dipartimento di Chimica e Farmacia, Università degli Studi di Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
Materials (Basel). 2022 Jun 13;15(12):4174. doi: 10.3390/ma15124174.
The Nuragic civilization (Sardinia, Italy, XVIII-VIII B.C) developed a flourishing bronze metallurgy with strong connections with other civilizations from the Mediterranean basin. Within the large bronze production, there are some peculiar representations of human figures, known in the archaeological environment of Sardinia as bronzetti, depicting warriors, priests, and offerers. In this paper, an interesting couple of Nuragic statuettes representing offerers, one from the Pigorini Museum in Rome and another from the Musei Reali in Turin, were analyzed. They have been investigated with X-ray fluorescence integrated with Monte Carlo simulations (XRF-MC). The combined methodology provides more accurate results, ranging from the structural characterization to the identification of the corrosion layers to the estimation of the composition of the alloy of the artifact. One of the most striking results regards the heads of the offerers: both heads are covered with a thick iron-based layer, even though the whole artifacts are made of a copper alloy. To understand the reason behind this peculiar corrosion patina, several hypotheses have been considered, including the possibility that these iron mineralizations are the consequence of an ancient superficial treatment, intending to confer a chromatic effect on the figurine's head.
努拉吉文明（公元前18世纪至公元前8世纪，意大利撒丁岛）发展出了繁荣的青铜冶金术，并与地中海盆地的其他文明有着紧密联系。在大量的青铜制品中，有一些独特的人物造型，在撒丁岛的考古环境中被称为“bronzetti”，描绘了战士、牧师和供奉者。在本文中，对一对有趣的代表供奉者的努拉吉小雕像进行了分析，一个来自罗马的皮戈里尼博物馆，另一个来自都灵的皇家博物馆。它们通过与蒙特卡罗模拟相结合的X射线荧光分析（XRF-MC）进行了研究。这种综合方法提供了更准确的结果，从结构表征到腐蚀层的识别，再到文物合金成分的估计。最引人注目的结果之一是关于供奉者的头部：尽管整个文物是由铜合金制成的，但两个头部都覆盖着一层厚厚的铁基层。为了理解这种特殊腐蚀绿锈背后的原因，考虑了几种假设，包括这些铁矿化可能是古代表面处理的结果，旨在赋予雕像头部一种色彩效果。
