Hidden mysteries in ancient Egyptian paintings revealed. Here's how

Hidden mysteries in ancient Egyptian paintings have been revealed. How? With the use of chemical imaging. According to research published in PLOS ONE journal on Thursday (July 12), scientists used portable chemical technology to identify alterations made by the artists in these paintings. "The limited palette for example has been analysed from actual painted surfaces but also from pigments and painting tools retrieved on site," the research said.

"However, most of these studies took place in museums while the painted surfaces, preserved in funerary chapels and temples, remained somewhat estranged from this primary physical understanding," it added.

The workflow

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"The Pharaonic Civilization offers the most extended cultural continuity of the ancient world. Its highly formalized painting style is easily recognized. This consistency mainly derives from aesthetic choices but also from an organized and regulated workflow that has been theoretically reconstructed by different authors," the research said.

It is assumed that the work started with a preliminary sketch drawnin red ochre on the plastered and smoothed wall. This was followed by the application of white or coloured backgrounds, at times leaving a reserve for pictorial details, according to the research.

"Afterward, colour came, commonly with pigment mixtures and layered applications. As the last step, the final outline and details were drawn, mainly with red ochre. In a final and vital stage, paint spilling over the outline was overpainted with opaque white," the research added.

It said that this workflow was mainly based on the study of incomplete works in tomb chapelsas well as artistic projects on ostraca, pottery sherds used for sketches dating to the 18th and 19th dynasties.

The alterations to specific details of the paintings, during or after their executions were also reported but seemed to remain rather seldom.

A third arm for Menna

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The research cited an exampleof the painted tomb chapel of Menna which was discovered in 1888. The painted tomb "is indeed visible to the naked eye (Figure A). But thatwas surely not the case in ancient times."

"It has probably been made visible due to chemical interactions between the ancient materials and the migration of chemical compounds to the surface."

Figure B showedsurface of the corrected area reacts with fluorescence under ultraviolet lighting This indicated the presence of apecific organic binder or degradation product.

"This alteration is visible in a scene showing Menna and his wife adoring Osiris. This rite of adoration is visually made evident by the fact that Menna raises his two hands in front of his face. However, close observation of this area detects the presence of a third hand, somewhat hidden under the white surface layer that is used as a background," the research also said.

If this ghost hand and arm were easily detected, they remained puzzling because the factual reasoning behind this alteration remains difficult to define precisely.

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