ARCHAEOMETRIC STUDIES ON EGYPTIAN OBJECTS FROM THE “MARIA AND DR. GEORGE SEVEREANU” COLLECTION
ARCHAEOMETRIC STUDIES ON EGYPTIAN OBJECTS FROM THE “MARIA AND DR. GEORGE SEVEREANU” COLLECTION

Summary/Abstract: This study is a first attempt to investigate some Egyptian objects from the “Maria and Dr. George Severeanu” Collection within Bucharest Municipality Museum. The key piece, the one that triggered the present study, is represented by a mummy’s hand (palm) with bandage remnants and a fragment of an amulet firmly attached. The opinions of some specialists from Romania and the United Kingdom led to slightly divergent conclusions, which triggered the archaeometric investigations. Other objects from this collection were used for comparison: three scarabs of different sizes and a necklace with an amulet representing the god Thoth. The investigations consisted of EDXRF, pXRF, SEM-EDX, FTIR, FTRaman, and radiocarbon dating analyses. The results and interpretations of multidisciplinary investigations led to a series of conclusions that will eventually be presented to specialists, namely: the necklace was formed during the dynastic Egypt from pieces belonging to different periods, the scarabs are also from different periods, and the mummy hand with the attached amulet are from a later period of dynastic Egypt than the one in which they were originally classified. The bandage, initially associated with a later period than the human tissue, will be re-dated using an original pre-treatment variant, for the final validation of the radiocarbon data.

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