Letter from Pierre Amiet with the results of analyses by the Louvre's Oriental Antiquities department on a silver statuette AO 15733Pierre Amiet

Printed: SECRETARIAT D'ETAT / A LA CULTURE / DIRECTION DES MUSEES / DE FRANCE

Printed: PALAIS DU LOUVRE (PAVILLON MOLLIEN) / TELEPHONE : 260.39.26

PARIS, 22 November 1976

Laboratoire de Recherche des Musées de France

ANALYSIS OF A SILVER STATUETTE from Ras Shamra Beginning of the 2nd millennium

(Département des Antiquités Orientales - AO 15733)

The object has a greyish, granular and heavily corroded surface. A necklace and a gold belt decorate the statuette. The object was radiographed and each of its parts was analysed, as well as the corrosion products were identified.

The statuette is made of a single piece of metal which appears dense and homogeneous. The outlines are clear and well defined, despite the corrosion of the surface. Horizontal incisions are visible at the level of the two lateral parts of the headdress (incised decoration). The gold belt is opaque and stands out clearly from the underlying metal.

The analysis by X-ray microfluorescence of the metal constituting the object, carried out on a small sample taken from the sound part of the metal, shows that it is silver containing 2,6 p. cent of copper and 0,56 p. cent of gold. The qualitative analysis by emission spectrography also revealed the presence of bismuth as well as faint traces of magnesium, iron, barium, aluminium, chromium, stilbium and lead.

The qualitative elemental analysis by X-ray microfluorescence of a sample of corrosion product reveals, besides a high silver content, the presence of zinc, strontium, a little copper and iron as well as bromine. The crystallographic analysis of the components of the corrosion by Debye-Scherrer film shows that the corrosion consists mainly of silver chloride and calcium carbonate.

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