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

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

may once have been part of a silver object or sculpture,

12 can be excluded because of the inevitable surface alterations caused by chemical reactions between the sulphur and the surrounding metals in a wet environment. The missing part of the artefact could have only made of gold, stone or precious stone. In any case, the sculptor seems to have played upon the colour of the sulphur to create an extraordinary, polychrome object. 19 BACK-SCATTERED ELECTRON IMAGE OF THE EXAMINED GRAIN AND SCANNING PHOTO OF THE SPLINTER USED FOR X-RAY DIFFRACTION ANALYSIS. MAGNIFICATION: 600 (jXA SUPERPROBE 777). I ' ' ' ' I ' ' ' ' I ' ' ' ' I ' ' ' ' ) ' ' 1 ' I 1 ' ' ' I ' ' ' ' I 1 ' ' ' I ' ' ' ' I ' ' ' ' ! ' ' ' ' I ' ' ' ' I ' ' ' ' I ' ' ' ' 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 4 18 X-RAY POWDER DIFFRACTION PATTERN OF THE RAW MATERIAL OF THE HEAD (PHILIPS PW-Î730, CuKa. 45KV. 35MA, GRAPHITE MONOCHROMATOR) MASSIVE MATERIAL (S) ISOLATED CRYSTALLITE: BaS0

4 ( BARITE) The identification of the raw material leaves a further question open, namely the location of the workshop where the Budapest portrait head was made. According to ancient literary evidence and archaeological finds, sulphur was mined in several places in Italy." The oldest and economically most important mines were in Sicily.

14 Traces of significant sulphur exploitation in the Roman period have also come to light on the island of Melos.

1

' As archaeometrical research has not identified the 'geochemical fingerprint' of sulphur, it is not yet possible to differentiate one mine from another.

16 Therefore, we can only presume that the raw material of the Augustus portrait was obtained from one of the sulphur deposits already operating as mine, and well-known