Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 102-103. (Budapest, 2005)

MARIANNA DÁGI - MÁRIA TÓTH: A Small Portrait Head of Augustus: Archeometrical Investigations

Goette 2001, 45. Remains of glue used during conservation show that the object was restored twice. The yellowish material (perhaps aged shellac?) above the left ear might presumably be the sign of an earlier restoration, while the colourless glossy material (perhaps paraloid?) used for the gluing of the fragment below the nose might be what remains of a later treatment. This fragment must originally have joined with another part of the head. The elevated baseline is caused by the specimen holder, not the sample. S. Koch and K. I. Sztrókay, Ásványtan [Minerology], vol. 2, Budapest 1967, 443-45. The problem of authenticity has been raised, but has not yet been solved. Besides the uniqueness of the material, another detail must also be discussed. The elaborate curls on the forehead are on a lower level than the roughly carved or worn upper part of the head. However, it is hardly likely that such a small artefact, in bad condition (a consequence of the nature of native sulphur, the head is badly scored with cracks), restored twice and made of an unusual, hardly accessible material, would be a fake. "[sulpur]

.. .vivum, quoá Graeci apyron vocant, nascitur solidum, hoc est glaeba; solum, - cetera enim liquore constant et conficiuntur oleo incocta-; vivum effoditur tralucetque et viret..." (Pliny, História Naturalis XXXV, 175); ["...live sulphur, the Greek name for which means 'untouched by fire', which alone forms as a solid mass

—for all the other sorts consist of liquid and are prepared by boiling in oil; live sulphur is dug up, and it is translucent and of a green colour..."] (see the translation by H. Rackham in Pliny, Natural History with an English Translation in Ten Volumes, vol. IX., Libri XXXIII-XXXV, London and Cambridge, Mass. 1952). On this topic, see also Isidorus, Origines XVI 1, 9. As the colour of sulphur depends on its crystal structure, there are several colour varieties in nature, bluish green not being extraordinary. On colour variation in sulphur, see A. A. Landman and D. de Waal, "Orbital Symmetry in Sulphur Pigmentary Chromophores," Crystal Engineering 4 (2001), 159-69. For a summary of literary sources referring to sulphur, see H. Blümner, in Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed. A. F. Pauly and G. Wissowa, ser. 2, vol. 2 A, Munich 1923, s. v. Schwefel, 796-801; An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome, vol. 3, ed. T. Frank, Baltimore 1937, 353. See J. Ogden, Jewellery of the Ancient World, London 1982, 40; M. R. Cowell, S. La Niece, and N. D. Meeks, "Analyses of Materials," in C. Johns and T. Potter, The Thetford Treasure. Roman Jewellery and Silver, London 1983, 60. On sulphur used as a core material for embossing jewellery, see G. Eggert, H. Kutzke, and G. Wagner, "The Use of Sulphur in Hollow Ancient Gold Objects," Journal of Archaeological Science 26 (1999), 1089-92. For his suggestions, see Goette 2001, 48-49.