This newsletter has been reviewed in keeping with Science X’s editorial procedure
and insurance policies.
Editors have highlighted the next attributes whilst making sure the content material’s credibility:
fact-checked
relied on supply
proofread
Adequate!
The analyzed centaur head from Parthenon temple, Nationwide Museum of Denmark. Credit score: John Lee, Nationwide Museum of Denmark
× shut
The analyzed centaur head from Parthenon temple, Nationwide Museum of Denmark. Credit score: John Lee, Nationwide Museum of Denmark
On the Nationwide Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, there’s a marble head that was once as soon as a part of the traditional Greek Parthenon temple at the Acropolis in Athens. The pinnacle initially belonged to a centaur determine and was once a part of a scene depicting the Greek mythological Lapiths’ combat in opposition to the centaurs (legendary creatures that had been half-horse, half-human).
For causes that experience but to be defined, portions of the centaur head are covered with a skinny brown movie, as are a number of different marble fragments from the Parthenon. The mysterious brown movie was once first tested through the British Museum in 1830.
Again then, makes an attempt had been made to decide if the colour originated from historical paint, but it surely was once sooner or later concluded that it may well be a results of a chemical response between the marble and the air, or that the marble contained iron debris that had migrated to the skin, coloring it brown.
Oxalic acid, algae and fungi
“There were many makes an attempt to give an explanation for the atypical brown movie. In 1851, German chemist, Justus von Liebig, carried out the very first medical investigation and made up our minds that the brown movie contained oxalates—salts of oxalic acid. This has been showed through later analyses, however the starting place of the oxalates has remained a thriller,” says Professor emeritus Kaare Lund Rasmussen, a professional in chemical analyses of ancient and archaeological artifacts, Division of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, College of Southern Denmark.
At the side of College of Southern Denmark colleagues Frank Kjeldsen and Vladimir Gorshkov from the Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bodil Bundgaard Rasmussen, former head of the Antiquities Assortment on the Nationwide Museum of Denmark, Thomas Delbey from Cranfield College in England, and Ilaria Bonaduce from the College of Pisa, Italy, he has revealed a systematic article describing the result of their investigations into the brown-colored centaur head from the Nationwide Museum.
The object is revealed in Heritage Science.
“We particularly sought after to inspect whether or not the brown movie will have been shaped through some organic organism, equivalent to lichen, micro organism, algae, or fungi. This concept were steered earlier than, however no particular organism were recognized. The similar is going for the speculation that it might be remnants of implemented paint—most likely to offer protection to or tone the marble floor,” says Kaare Lund Rasmussen.
For his or her investigations, the analysis crew was once allowed to take 5 small samples from the again of the centaur head. Those samples underwent quite a lot of analyses in SDU’s laboratories, together with protein research and so-called Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry.
“We discovered no strains of organic topic within the brown layers—most effective from our personal fingerprints and most likely a chook egg that broke at the marble in earlier period. This does not end up that there by no means was once a organic substance, but it surely considerably reduces the chance, making the speculation of a organic organism much less possible now,” says Kaare Lund Rasmussen.
In a similar fashion, it’s now much less most likely that the marble floor was once painted or preserved, in keeping with the researchers, who additionally in particular looked for strains of paint. Historical paints had been generally in accordance with herbal merchandise equivalent to eggs, milk, and bones, and no strains of such components had been discovered within the brown stain on my own.
The thriller stays
Thru their investigations, the analysis crew additionally came upon that the brown movie is composed of 2 separate layers. Those two layers are roughly similarly thick, round 50 micrometers each and every, and so they range on the subject of hint part composition. Then again, each layers comprise a mix of the oxalate minerals weddellite and whewellite.
The truth that there are two distinct layers argues in opposition to the speculation that they had been created through the migration of subject matter, equivalent to iron debris, from the inner of the marble. It additionally contradicts the speculation that they resulted from a response with the air.
Air air pollution may be not going for one more reason; the centaur head has been indoors in Copenhagen since earlier than fashionable industrialization started within the 18th century. In reality, this makes the heads on the Nationwide Museum specifically treasured in comparison to the marble items at the Acropolis, of which some have most effective lately been introduced indoors.
“As there are two other brown layers with other chemical compositions, it’s most probably that they have got other origins. This might recommend that any individual implemented paint or a conservation remedy, however since we have not discovered strains of such components, the brown colour stays a thriller,” concludes Kaare Lund Rasmussen.
How the centaur head got here to Denmark
The centaur head, along side some other head from the Parthenon temple, got here to Denmark in 1688 as a present to King Christian V. It was once introduced through the Danish captain Moritz Hartmand, who served within the Venetian fleet and was once provide all the way through the bombardment of the Acropolis in Athens in 1687. An important a part of the Parthenon temple was once destroyed. The centaur head was once positioned within the Royal Kunstkammer, which later was the Nationwide Museum, the place it’s been exhibited ever since.
Additional info:
Kaare Lund Rasmussen et al, Analyses of the brown stain at the Parthenon Centaur head in Denmark, Heritage Science (2024). DOI: 10.1186/s40494-023-01126-9
