A Study of Biodeterioration and Chromatic Alterations of Painted and Gilded Mummy Cartonnage at the Saqqara Museum Storeroom, Egypt

Abstract

Microbial biofilms have developed on the surfaces and within the painted and gilded layers of mummy cartonnage at the Saqqara museum storeroom in Giza, Egypt. SEM–EDX, XRD and FT–IR–ATR techniques were applied to analyse the coloured and gilded materials, ground layer, textile support and binder used for the cartonnage. Aspergillus niger (24.8%), Penicillium chrysogenum (21.5%) and a novel cartonnage‐biodegrading bacterium, Bacillus sonorensis (23.7%), were the most abundant microbes growing over the cartonnage surface. In addition, Aspergillus tamari (15.4%), A. fumigates (8.1%) and Fusarium solani (6.5%) were identified. The pigments comprised Egyptian blue (cuprorivaite), cinnabar (red), orpiment (yellow) and green pigment made from a mixture of cuprorivaite and orpiment. Gold leaf was used for the gilded layer, calcium carbonate and gypsum comprised the ground layer, gum arabic was the binding medium and the fibre base was a fine linen textile. Microbial colonization tests were performed on aged cartonnage replica samples made from linen and pigments of similar composition to ancient pigments found in the cartonnage. Each sample was inoculated separately with A. niger, P. chrysogenum and B. sonorensis. Yellow orpiment samples were the exception, as no colour change was detected after colonization by the examined micro‐organisms.

A combined physical–chemical and microbiological approach to unveil the fabrication, provenance, and state of conservation of the Kinkarakawa-gami art

“…5 a), one bacterial [C 4 (15)1] and two fungal [C 4 (15)2 and C 4 (15)3] strains related to S. epidermidis , Penicillium georgiense , and Aspergillus costaricaensis were isolated (Table 3 ), highlighting their great tolerance towards Hg-containing compounds 64 , 65 . Indeed, these fungal strains were responsible, among others, for the darkening of cinnabar ( Shu ), as reported elsewhere 66 . The isolation of S. epidermidis and Hirsutella strains could also derive from anthropogenic/environmental contamination, as they are human and nematode pathogens respectively 63 , 64 , reflecting the artefacts’ poor state of conservation.…”

An analytical study on the relationship between the fungal degradation and multi-component nature of paper manuscripts

“…It covered the samples numbered 1–7 from Elgohary Mosque in Al-Jamalia district and the samples numbered 8–15 reserved in the project sector at Ismael Elmofatesh Palace in ELsayeda Zeinab District, Cairo, Egypt (Figure 1). For fungi, microbial samples were cultured on five media (Ali et al , 2018): potato dextrose Agar (PDA), malt extract agar (Atlas, 2010), cellulose-czapeks agar, M40Y and dextrose sucrose cellulose agar (DSA cellulose) (Samson, 2010).…”

Reduction of borax / agar-based gel residues used to neutralize acidity of a historical manuscript with use of different paper barriers: Artificial ageing results

“…The overall change in color indices due to ageing was expressed as ΔE according to the following formula (George 1995;Ali et al 2018;Salem et al 2019),…”