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Mycenaean ‘gold-embroidery’ and questions of craftsmanship: a combined archaeological, archaeometric and experimental approach

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Abstract

This paper offers a combined archaeological, archaeometric and experimental approach to a demanding gold-working technique attested in Early Mycenaean Greece (seventeenth-fifteenth centuries BCE). The technique, known as ‘gold-embroidery’ consisted in the application of hundreds or thousands of tiny L-shaped gold bars (< 1 cm long) on the organic hilts and pommels of bronze daggers and swords for decorative purposes. The technique required exceptional skills and was used only for adorning prestigious weapons. It is encountered in some of the wealthiest tombs of the Aegean Bronze Age, including the Shaft Graves of Mycenae, several tholoi, the Griffin Warrior tomb at Pylos, etc. In this paper, emphasis is laid on the experimental reconstruction of the technique. The reconstruction has been based on microscopic observations and data acquired through archaeometric analysis. Our goal was to identify the various stages of manufacture. Particularly important was the creation of special tools, which helped us to deal with the minute size of the gold pieces and the delicate movements involved in this technique.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author EF.

Notes

  1. 37° 43′ 48.9756'' N / 22° 45′ 23.6772'' E. DMS coordinates have been collected through the use of latlong.net.

  2. 37° 39′ 23.6484'' N / 22° 49′ 33.8556'' E.

  3. 37° 1′ 12.8172'' N / 22° 28′ 3.7956'' E.

  4. 37° 1′ 41.8296'' N / 21° 41′ 45.2688'' E.

  5. 37° 27′ 39.8592'' N / 21° 39′ 40.8276'' E.

  6. 37° 42′ 44.5716'' N / 22° 48′ 25.9812'' E.

  7. There is only a possible reference to spare L-shaped gold bars from Knossos, which have never been published; the bars are said to have been found in the Corridor of the Sword Tablets, which contained also Linear B tablets and has been dated to LH IIIA2 or the late 14th c. BCE see Evans 1935, 854; Konstantinidi-Syvridi et al. 2022, 44.

  8. The SEM images confirm the results of microscopic study, i.e. that Style B bars were homogeneous in form and made by strip-twisting, which has left marks on the main shaft and the ‘nail’ (Fig. 12), while Style A bars were varied in form, and do not show clear evidence of strip-twisting; they might have been made with the technique of block-twisting (Oddy 1977, 83–84).

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the following institutions and scholars for allowing us to study and analyze objects with ‘gold-embroidery’ decoration in their collections:

- the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, its General Director, Dr Anna-Vassiliki Karapanagiotou, the former Director, Dr Maria Lagogianni, the Head of the Collection of Prehistoric, Egyptian, Cypriot and Near Eastern Antiquities, Dr Kostas Nikolentzos, and the Head of the Department of Conservation, Physical-Chemical Research and Archaeometry, Dr Georgianna Moraitou;

- the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Argolid and its Director, Dr Alkestis Papadimitriou;

- the National Museum of Denmark at Copenhagen and especially its Director, Dr Rane Willersev, the Head of Research in the Department of Ancient Cultures of Denmark and the Mediterranean, Dr Lasse Sorensen, and the Curator of the same department, Dr Stine Shierup.

We are also grateful to the Directorate of Conservation of Ancient and Modern Monuments of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and its Director, Dr Maria Mertzani, for granting us permission to conduct archaeometric analysis of selected samples with SEM/EDS at the National Centre of Scientific Research ‘Demokritos’.

Special thanks are also due to:

- Dr Yiannis Bassiakos, of the Palaeoenvironment and Ancient Metals Study group of the National Center of Scientific Research ‘Demokritos’ for his useful advice;

- Dr Elina Stamatatou, who conducted the microscopic documentation of the sword from Dendra at the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen (as COVID-19 did not allow a visit by the authors);

- Professor Jack Davis and Dr Sharon Stocker for sharing with us information about the new examples of ‘gold-embroidery’ discovered at the Griffin Warrior tomb at Pylos;

- the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions.

Funding

There was no funding for this project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Museum, 12 Theorias Street, 105 55, Athens, Greece

    Nikolas Papadimitriou

  2. National Archaeological Museum, 1 Tositsa Street, 106 82, Athens, Greece

    Eleni Konstantinidi-Syvridi & Maria Kontaki

  3. Athens, Greece

    Akis Goumas

  4. National Center for Scientific Research ‘Demokritos’, 153 10, Athens, Greece

    Eleni Filippaki

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  1. Nikolas Papadimitriou
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  2. Eleni Konstantinidi-Syvridi
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  3. Akis Goumas
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  5. Eleni Filippaki
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Contributions

N.P. and E.K. wrote the Introduction, Section A. The archaeological contexts, and Section F. Concluding remarks. N.P., A.G. and M.K. wrote Section B. Technical observations. E.F., with contributions by N.P., A.G. and M.K. wrote Section C. Archaeometric data. A.G. and N.P. wrote Section D. Experimental reconstruction of the manufacturing process, and Section E. Comparing with the originals. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nikolas Papadimitriou.

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Appendix

Appendix

Technical specifications

Microscopic examination

Microscopic observations have been made with.

- a Leica DMS 300 Digital Microscope System.

- a handheld Dino Lite AM 3113 T digital microscope.

XRF analysis

XRF analysis aimed at determining the composition of the alloy used for the gold decoration of the examined artefacts. X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry is a well-known analytical method for non-destructive analysis for museum artefacts and metal collections (Guerra 1998; Karydas 2007; Frahm and Doonan 2013). Its features, such as the simultaneous multi-elemental detection, its wide analytical range (85–90% of the periodic table elements) and its high analytical sensitivity make it popular for analysing precious objects; specifically in the case of gold artefacts which are not covered by corrosion products or oxidation layers. Portable XRF (pXRF) can determine their chemical composition without sampling or even coming in contact with it (Markou et al. 2014). However, as far as the quantitative elemental evaluation of gold artefacts is concerned, we have to consider some surface enrichment because of burial conditions and surface treatments such as blanching, gilding, preferential removal of more reactive metals and plating (Guerra 1998; Sparavigna 2016), which could result in overestimation of the gold content.

The set-up used for the analysis was a portable/semiportable milliprobe XRF (p-mXRF) spectrometer, which is equipped with a Rhodium (Rh) anode X-ray tube, a Si-PiN detector (XR-100CR, Amptek Inc.) and a multichannel analyzer (MCA-8000A, Amptek Inc.). The beam spot at the sample position has a diameter of less than 3 mm (~ 2.5mm). For hel** the proper alignment of the sample with respect to the exciting beam and the detector axis, two laser pointers are mounted in such a way in the spectrometer head that the intersection point of their beams coincide with the cross-point of the X-ray beam and the detector axes, respectively. All items were analyzed by an accelerating voltage of 40 kV and a current of 50μA using the “filtered” mode, with a nickel filter. Each spectrum was collected for 300 s. Where the size and the geometry of the examined artefact were suitable, more measurements were performed on both sides of the artefact..

The quantification of the analytical data was performed by using Fundamental Parameter based approaches, namely the XRS-FP software (Amptek). Furthermore, the accuracy of the applied mode was ascertained by analyzing a series of gold certified reference materials (Fischerscope). Table 9 presents the compositional analysis of ternary alloys of gold-silver-copper standards.

Table 9 Compositional results (in wt%) of gold-silver-copper alloy standards by XRF. XRFa: Mean value and standard deviation of three independent measurements (analysis and data: Eleni Filippaki)
Full size table

SEM–EDS

Seven gold bars underwent examination using a SEM–EDS device (FEI, model Quanta Inspect D8334) equipped with a SUTW detector/INN. The items were examined in high vacuum mode using both the backscattered electron detector (BSE) and the secondary electron detector (SE). The BSE allows for differentiation of phases based on their atomic number(s), while the SE provides images with enhanced topographical contrast. The elemental compositions were estimated using the standard-less procedure of the built-in 'Genesis-Spectrum' software (EDAX Company), which employs ZAF matrix corrections. To achieve high values of the characteristic X-ray peaks to background ratios and thus more reliable elemental compositions, we used a high accelerating voltage (25 kV) and optimal spectra collection parameters (high count rate, long collection times (300 s), adequate DT% etc.).

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Papadimitriou, N., Konstantinidi-Syvridi, E., Goumas, A. et al. Mycenaean ‘gold-embroidery’ and questions of craftsmanship: a combined archaeological, archaeometric and experimental approach. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 16, 84 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-01980-z

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