An-Najah Staff

 The contribution of Mössbauer spectrometry to the study of ancient pigments and paintings is presented. It was employed, along with some other methods (XRD, XRF and microscopy), to answer three particular questions related to Roman wall painting. In the first, it was used to characterize three hematite-based red pigments frequently detected in Roman wall paintings: well crystallised, poorly crystallised and disordered hematites. In the second, it was used to quantify goethite present in a celadonite-green paint from Vallon, Switzerland. The third case concerns the characterization and provenance study of celadonites used in Roman wall paintings. For geological material studied, it has permitted the characterization of three types of celadonite: one from Troodos Massif, Cyprus, and two from Monte Baldo, Italy. A first application to few samples of Roman wall painting permitted attribution of some of the samples to Cyprus deposit and some others to a deposit in Monte Baldo.