Characterisation of wall painting in the Sos Furrighesos necropolis (Anela, Italy)

The Sos Furrighesos necropolis (Anela) is considered to be one of the most important funerary monuments in Sardinia. The hypogeum consists of various graves, called Domus de Janas, which are decorated with Neolithic mural paintings and sculptures. This work was undertaken in order to clarify which techniques were used in the past, through the identification of pigments and binding media. The samples, scraped off from the paint surface, were studied by using various analytical techniques in order to characterise both the pigments and the binding media. The main problems concerning the characterisation were due to the small sizes (1-5 mg) of the samples and their complex nature. As regards pigments, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry analyses were performed on the samples. These techniques are well suited to the characterisation of inorganic pigments and have led to the identification of the red pigment as haematite. In order to characterise the organic binders, the samples were analysed by a procedure based on a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry technique, which allows proteinaceous and lipidic media determination in the same sample. In most of the samples, the presence of egg was suggested. © 2002 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.