Morphological and microstructural characterization of an ancient Chola bronze statuette by neutron‑based non‑invasive techniques

Morphological and microstructural characterization of an ancient Chola bronze statuette by neutron‑based non‑invasive techniques

Cantini, Francesco (Università degli Studi di Firenze (UNIFI), Dipartimento di Fisica, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Fisica Applicata Nello Carrara (CNR-IFAC), Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratorio di Tecniche Nucleari per i Beni Culturali (INFN-Labec), Sesto Fiorentino, Italy)
Creange, Sara (Rijksmuseum)
Li, Y. (TU Delft RST/Neutron and Positron Methods in Materials)
van Eijck, L. (TU Delft RST/Neutron and Positron Methods in Materials)
Kardjilov, Nikolay (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), Wannsee, Germany)
Kabra, Saurabh (ISIS Neutron and Muon Source)
Grazzi, Francesco (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Fisica Applicata Nello Carrara (CNR-IFAC), Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratorio di Tecniche Nucleari per i Beni Culturali (INFN-Labec), Sesto Fiorentino, Italy)

2024

The evolution of metallurgy is a fundamental aspect related to the knowledge of the technological level of ancient civilizations, for which the information was mostly part of an oral tradition. The ancient, preserved artefacts are the only keepers of this long gone knowledge. Most advanced non-invasive techniques provide us the key to access it. Neutron techniques are nowadays the only available approach for revealing, non-destructively and with good spatial resolution, the morphological and microstructural properties within the whole volume of densely composed artefacts such as bronze statues. Application of neutron methods allows us to learn about ancient artefact manufacturing methods and to study at a very detailed level the current conservation status in their different parts. As part of a research project dedicated to the study of ancient Asian bronzes led by the Rijksmuseum Metal Conservation Department, four statues from the Rijksmuseum Asian collection were analysed using non-invasive neutron techniques. In this work, we present the investigation of a South Indian bronze statuette depicting Shiva in the form of Chandrasekhara (AK-MAK-1291, c. 1000–1200 A.D.) by means of white beam tomography, energy-selective neutron imaging (performed on CONRAD-2 at HZB, DE, and on FISH at TU-Delft, NL), and neutron diffraction (on ENGIN-X at ISIS, UK). The application of neutron imaging revealed the inner structure of the statue and allowed us to investigate the conservation state and potential cracking on the surface and in the bulk, to understand the interconnection of the different sections of the statue, and to obtain clues about the manufacturing processes. These morphological and microstructural results were employed to guide neutron diffraction analyses that allowed us to precisely characterize compositional differences, the presence of dendrites and columnar growth peak structures related to casting. This work is a complete non-invasive analytical investigation on an archaeological bronze artefact, providing outstanding results: from a quantitative analysis of the composition and microstructure to an in-depth morphological analysis capable of unveiling details on the ancient casting methods of the statue.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d7a3f29d-a0db-4c89-acd1-29a95daa235f

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-01948-z

2024-08-28

0305-4403

Journal of Archaeological Science, 16 (3), 16-45

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2024 Francesco Cantini, Sara Creange, Y. Li, L. van Eijck, Nikolay Kardjilov, Saurabh Kabra, Francesco Grazzi