The Dragon Of Paria Vermilion

Dyes and Pigments, 2014

From the blood of dragon, 2018

Human bones from the neolithic site of Perdigoes in Portugal have tested positive for mercury. This paper considers the implications and origins of the mercury and provides XRF evidence for the presence of HgS as opposed to elemental mercury in the bones. Portable XRF can be used as a non- detsructive method for the identification of heavy metals in archaeological human bone.

In the majority of cases, the red color of cinnabar on objects of cultural heritage is well preserved, though turning black is often claimed and has been the subject of investigations. To evaluate conditions for the stability of the pigment and understand the reactions, in this paper the problem is approached from various viewpoints. First of all the natural form cinnabarite is compared with the artificially prepared pigment vermilion. This establishes a differentiation of types in terms of quality, depending on structural impurities. With regard to the pigment’s reactions influencing the discoloration, the most commonly mentioned environmental factors, such as radiation or halogens, are evaluated. In relation to various usages, the pigment’s structural stability is then viewed in connection with adjacent pigments, glues, and the substrate, which may lead to a brown or black coloration or even the release of mercury, whereas the color is preserved in most cases when used on lime or in ink and lacquer. Due to the materials’ properties, attention is drawn to the fact that discoloration to a brownish-black is not necessarily a sign of damage and harmful reaction products, but may indicate good preservation of the painted material, provided that the mercury can be bound in the substrate.

Open Access-Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2021

This article summarises the history of cinnabar, from its first uses in burials to modern oils on canvas. After a brief introduction on mercury and contamination issues, the article gets to the heart of the topic. First, mercury-based minerals significant for studying pigments, i.e. cinnabar, metacinnabar, hypercinnabar and calomel, are presented. Structural information and properties precede an overview of the geographic distribution of cinnabar deposits. The following section addresses the multiple uses of cinnabar, divided into funerary use, decorative use, lustre and Chinese lacquer production. The use of cinnabar for writing (ink), medicine and cosmetics is briefly described, and a shortlist of uncommon finds is further provided. The following section approaches inherent but less known topics such as cinnabar procurement, trade, production technology, application and alteration. An entire section is dedicated to calomel before concluding with an overview of the analytical methods for the characterisation and provenance investigation of cinnabar. Keywords Cinnabar-metacinnabar-hypercinnabar. Vermilion and pigment analysis. White mercury and calomel, corderoite and terlinguaite. Archaeometry and archaeology well as an overview of glass-based pigments (Cavallo and Riccardi 2021) are also presented. Furthermore, two papers on cosmetic (Pérez-Arantegui 2021) and bioactive (antibacterial) pigments (Knapp et al. 2021) provide insights into the variety and different uses of these materials.

Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society

Journal of Archaeological Science, 2012

Archaeometry, 2008

The present study investigates and compares the vermilion red color change phenomenon in an oil painting executed on wood from the 18 th century stored at the Archaeological Museum Store of Manial Palace Museum, Cairo and a mural painting executed using Tempera from the Greco-Roman Periodin a destroyed archeological house next to Medinet Madi Temple, (35kms far from Fayoum city). The vermillion red color may change to dark red, brown, or grayish-white due to the exposure to the environmental conditions and pollutants, the common role of both light and chlorine as the main factors of red discoloration, some impurities in color components, as well as the dissolved salts and organic media used in painting. The blackness of the color was detected after doing an analytical study to identify the damaged products of the vermillion red using different methods of analysis (i.e. microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Energy Dispersive X-rays and Infrared). The change to gray color in oil paintings due to the presence of the prokovite was associated with cinnabar. In the mural painting, it resulted from the conversion to black hypercinnabar, not to the resin.

Analytical chemistry, 2005

Imaging secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is applied for the first time to paint cross sections with degraded vermilion (red mercury sulfide) paint to cast new light on the well-known problem of its light-induced darkening. The static SIMS data are combined with light microscopic, electron microscopic studies and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis to identify and localize the various reaction products. The spatial distribution of atomic and molecular species in paint cross sections of the native vermilion and the reaction products leads to the formulation of a new hypothesis on the reaction mechanism of the photodegradation of vermilion where two black and white reaction products are formed sequentially. Under the influence of light, some of the vermilion (HgS) is converted into Hg(0) and S(0). In this process, the chlorine ions, present in the native vermilion, act as a catalyst. We propose that the Hg(0) is deposited on the surface of the remaining HgS as elementary mercury nan...

Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 2010