Conservation around the Millennium (Hungarian National Museum, 2001)
Pages - 75
I found an interesting “granulated" channel which was inlayed with some kind of unknown material and thus gained an emphasising role with dark- coloured contour lines. As the test of the third object of this type also convinced me of that it was not an optical illusion - but carefully, still before the chemical analysis -1 informed my restorer colleague of my observations who systematically examined through the still untreated finds and found numerous objects with such kind of decorations. By referring to a certain kind of population through their culture of decoration these objects can give assistance to find new connections or mean a problem to be solved. I asked dr. Márta Járó to help me in performing a chemical test and evaluation of this phenomenon. The examination were performed by dr. Attila Tóth at request. The examination was carried out by electron probe microanalysis. It proved that the metal and the composition of materials used for decorating metals are different and not similar. First I thought that the inlay material of the scratched decoration was niello with a greater proportion of copper in its composition. The execution with niello results however in a different material structure. The technique in question doesn’t refer to it -1 do not want to detail it here. The energy-dispersive technique also gave an explanation to it. Thus the alloy's composition became known but the method of execution still remained a riddle. For further professional consultation I asked the help of Katalin T. Bruder and we tried to find the key of technical execution. Upon comparison of her long test and my experience her assumption was proved by the heating test of microsample taken from the wedge-shaped engraving then the attempt to dissolve the material with petrol that here it is about an ancient “Spanish" technique in all probability. More tests were performed in order to identify the composition of both the metal and the inlays used for decoration. The analysis on the metal was performed by dr. László Költő by X-ray emission process. Via his mediation dr. Árpád Zoltán Kiss and his colleagues carried out a series of investigation on the selected objects on different measuring points and depths of material with PIXE analysis. The advantage of PIXE analysis is that this method is also suitable for non-destructive test of objects of greater size with accelerated ion beams. 3. Small strap ends from grave 2149 CONCLUSIONS OF THE RESULTS OF CHEMICAL TESTS AND MICROSCOPIC OBSERVATIONS Technique of preparation, execution The strap ends were made from bronze with casting, their surfaces were tinned and then the wedge-shaped engravings and the granulated scratches and 75
