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Cave Paintings and Rock Art

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Raman Spectroscopy in Cultural Heritage Preservation

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Abstract

Raman spectroscopic studies of artworks in rock shelters and caves is now well established and the analytical information provided has been much more than pigment studies as were first envisaged. The Raman spectra demonstrate the presence of the inorganic mineral pigments and the interaction with their rock substrates but also provide valuable ancillary information about pigment deterioration from environmental pollution and especially the biodeterioration of the art works occurring from the chemical encrustations produced by invasive biological cyanobacterial and lichen colonies, which have characteristic Raman biosignatures. Although the pigment palettes in rock art are necessarily rather simple in concept, nevertheless some interesting and novel admixtures of colourants are found to occur to produce different colour tonal conditions and the adoption of organic resins admixed with the pigments to aid the adhesion of pigments to their substrates are also evident, such as pine resins in the Seminole Valley, Val Verde, cave complex.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry & Biosciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK

    Howell G. M. Edwards

  2. Department of Archaeology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Peter Vandenabeele

  3. MONARIS, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France

    Philippe Colomban

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  1. Howell G. M. Edwards
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  2. Peter Vandenabeele
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  3. Philippe Colomban
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Edwards, H.G.M., Vandenabeele, P., Colomban, P. (2023). Cave Paintings and Rock Art. In: Raman Spectroscopy in Cultural Heritage Preservation. Cultural Heritage Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14379-3_8

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