XRF reveals early drafts of ancient Egyptian art

By Ada McVean2023-07-18T13:30:00

An ancient Egyptian painting of a ruling man's face

Source: Martinez et al., CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Portable analytical equipment allows greater analysis of ancient artwork

Portable x-ray fluorescence imaging has revealed hidden alterations in ancient Egyptian artworks.

By analysing elemental markers in pigments, researchers uncovered changes to an arm position, sceptre, necklace and headdress in paintings at the tomb chapels of Menna and Nakhtamun near the river Nile, which date back over 3000 years.