The statue of Karomama, a testimony of the skill of Egyptian metallurgists in polychrome bronze statuary

The statue of Karomama, a testimony of the skill of Egyptianmetallurgists in polychrome bronze statuary

Elisabeth Delange a, Marie-Emmanuelle Meyohas b,Marc Aucouturier c,*

a Département des Antiquités Egyptiennes, Musée de Louvre, Paris, Franceb 10, rue Simon Dereure, 75018 Paris, France

c CNRS, Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France,Palais du Louvre, Porte des Lions, 75001 Paris, France

Received 20 June 2004; accepted 12 January 2005

Abstract

The statue of Karomama, Divine Adoratress of Amon during the XXII° Dynasty, is one of the masterpieces of the Department of EgyptianAntiquities, Louvre Museum. It has been recently restored, for the first time since the restoration by Alfred André done in 1896. That operationled to a description of the circumstances of the former restoration. It allowed to better understanding, through the detailed examination of thedecoration, the techniques of polychromy on bronze pieces of art, as they were practiced by Egyptian metallurgist craftsmen. A comprehen-sive laboratory characterization of the different parts of the statue has been performed: X-ray radiography to evidence the mode of casting ofthe statue itself, of the assembled parts as the arms and the wig and of the base; analyses by non-destructive ion beam techniques on theparticle accelerator AGLAE of the various inlays present on the statue and on the base. The results show an impressive juxtaposition of variousmetal alloys (gold, gold–silver and gold–copper) used to obtain a polychrome effect. The detailed examination and the analyses have evi-denced for the first time the presence of an intentional patina on the inlays present in the wing quills of the statue and on the inlaid hieroglyphsof the base. This black patina, referred in the Egyptian texts as Hmty-km, was in general observed as a background on the Egyptian objects butis here reported for the first time on inlays. It is moreover demonstrated that several copper–gold alloys and perhaps several recipes are usedto obtain a blackish coloration on various copper–gold alloys. Those observations are discussed in view of the existing literature about “blackbronzes” or “black copper”.© 2005 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Egypt; metallurgy; Metal polychromy; Copper-base alloy; Black bronze; Patina; Inlaying; Restoration; De-restoration

1. Introduction

Unlike the other departments of the Louvre Museum, inthe Department of Egyptian Antiquity there is not any historyof the restoration. Objects were however always inspectedand prepared before being exhibited to the public. It was apractice, a habit; but people were not conscious that they wereentering in the History of the piece of work, in the history of

its conservation. The statue of Karomama1 is one of the scarceexamples for which we are able to follow more or less itsmaterial history, and this is indeed a sign of its large reputa-tion. It is an exceptional piece of work, known by everybody,used to illustrate many developments about Egyptian civili-zation. It is involved in all subjects: the Later Period to whichit belongs, the situation of woman in Egypt, the rites whichtook place in the temples, the techniques and know-how ofthe metallurgists.

A recent restoration of the statue performed under the aus-pice of the Louvre Museum, associated with a thorough

* Corresponding author.E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Aucouturier).

1 Inventory N500; H = 59.5 cm total, 52.5 for the statue; base L = 35 cm,l = 12.5 cm.

Journal of Cultural Heritage 6 (2005) 99–113

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examination and extensive laboratory investigations, broughtthe opportunity to precise its recent history and to describethe techniques of metal polychromy used by the Egyptianmetallurgists [1,2].

2. History, iconography, epigraphy

The statue of Karomama [3–6] is prestigious by the per-sonality of the purchaser; Champollion himself bought it dur-ing his journey to Egypt in 1829, very proud to “rapporter-au Louvre- le plus beau bronze découvert en Egypte”, as hesaid [7].

Ten years before the trip of Champollion, several largebronze statues were unearthed from an uncertain cachette ofKarnak temple. This exceptional discovery is very famous,even if the incomplete records are still mysterious.Yanni, alsoknown as Giovani Athanasi, who was digging for the accountof Salt, took the care to scatter these statues and indeed not tolet them known altogether. For instance, one of those largefigures, in a poor state of preservation, was already in theLouvre in 1826, as a piece of the Salt collection, before thedeparture of Champollion to Egypt, in 1828. It is thus evi-dently not by accident that Champollion wished to dig him-self in one given sector of Karnak. But it was too late: ’’tousles bronzes qui proviennent de mes fouilles de Karnak, à15 ou 20 pieds au-dessous du niveau actuel de la plaine,sont dans un état d’oxydation complet, ce qui ne permetpas d’en tirer parti’’, he wrote. Bringing together severalrecords, one can guess that he had an eye upon acquiring thestatue of Karomama which he could finally obtain in Alexan-dria from the cunning Yani. As usual after a victory, Cham-pollion yields a terse sentence “J’ai eu son beau bronze dereine...” [7]. He immediately dates it from the Libyan period,the XXIIth Dynasty, on the IXth century B.C.

One Egyptian cubit high, Karomama (Fig. 1) is walkingon a base, bare footed, wearing a gown down to half-ankles,following the classical tradition. She was shaking two sis-trum, which have disappeared from her closed fists. The shortwig surrounds her face widely, bringing the hairs on the fore-head but hiding the ears. The uraeus with its missing headslides under the modius (Fig. 2), which is a kind of smallcushion on which was supported a double feather, that alsodisappeared. The pleated gown with wide sleeves leaves thearms free. A large eight-tiered collar covers the breast andthe shoulders and fits shape to the body. It is formed by analternating pattern of plants and geometric designs. Downfrom the chest, the body is wrapped in a pleated dress withlarge wings of birds with mixed spoils of the falcon and thevulture. The head of the former hawk is visible on the back(Fig. 3), and its wings are crossing nearby the navel (Fig. 4).Two large wings quills slide along the legs down to the limitof the robe. It is thus of hybrid nature, half-woman and half-bird. To the first look of someone familiar with the Egyptianshapes, the effigy of the divine spouse in then assimilated tothe goddess vulture Mut, herself spouse of the god Amon;

this follows an iconographic association already known forthe queens of the New Kingdom; but it is also associated withthe falcon which drapes the divine figures, as the headlessOsiris statue of the Brooklyn Museum [8].

The long face (Fig. 5) has very achieved and refined details,little inlaid almond-shaped eyes, a slightly aquiline nose, avery delicately hemmed mouth. It shows up a severe expres-sion. This does not prevent authors from being seduced bythe femininity of the figure; one has abundantly spoken abouther slender proportions, her thin waist, her round breast placedsomewhat low, her generous hips, and her agile arms. All thefeatures are characteristic of the feminine ideal during theLibyan period, as Karomama is herself the reference for thatstyle [9].

Fig. 1. The statue of Karomama. Musée du Louvre, Département des Anti-quités Egyptiennes. © Georges Poncet.

Fig. 2. Detail of the wig top. © Georges Poncet.

100 E. Delange et al. / Journal of Cultural Heritage 6 (2005) 99–113

Inscriptions inlaid onto the base inform us about her trueidentity (Fig. 6): “She is beloved of Amon-Ré, her divinespouse, with pure hands, Divine adoratress”, and qualifiedwith titles equivalent to those of a king: “mistress of the TwoLands”, “mistress of the crowns”. Her names enclosed incartouches give the essence of her being, following an actualtheological program as for the names of the pharaohs: “(Sata-

mon Moutemhat) Daughter of Amon, Mut is in front”, or“Karomama (Merit-Mout) Beloved of Mut”. This explainsher hybrid cloth with vulture wings and reveals of her cultduty.

Divine adoratress, she is a virgin entirely devoted to thegod, spouse of Amon in the Karnak sanctuary, assimilated toMut, but in her flesh being she allows the god to be alwaysrevivified, because she is “the wife and the hand of god”, sheresuscitates his flame and all his vital energy. This is why, as

Fig. 3. Falcon head on the back. © Georges Poncet.

Fig. 4. Waist and crossing of the falcon wings. © M-E. Meyohas.

Fig. 5. The face. © Georges Poncet.

Fig. 6. (a) A view of the base. © Georges Poncet (b) Transcription of thehieroglyphs of the base by N. Couton-Perche.

101E. Delange et al. / Journal of Cultural Heritage 6 (2005) 99–113

a sovereign of Karnak, she accomplishes the cult duties forthe god, dedicates the offers, is allowed to offer the supremegift of the statuette of goddess Maât ([3], p. 86–87). But shehas the proper privilege to shake gently the two sistrum fordiverting and pacifying the god, and, as detailed by the dedi-cation, in her specific role of goddess Tefnut [10].

The statue was created to “perpetuate her name in thetemple of Amon”, but also, according to the inscription, to beplaced in the divine bark in front of the Amon statue whenthe god was brought in the procession. It was made on therequest of the person who was in charge of all material needsof the queen, the overseer of the household of the divine Ado-ratress, Iahtefnakht. Himself also, as “god’s father”, ap-proached the statue of the god in the performance of his cultduties, with Karomama. His other title justifies the choice offabricating the statue in bronze with fine inlays, because as“overseer of the treasure”—if one decomposes thepictograms—chief of the house of gold and silver, one under-stands that he is the responsible for the precious metals fromwhich the statue is fashioned, being allowed to dispense themfreely. He was then proud of the piece of work that he ordered,and qualifies it as well in the rest of the inscription as “gra-cious image”. The divine adoratress is presented in her spe-cific role, more prestigious than any genealogy she couldclaim for, for which no allusion is done on the statue: she isneither queen, nor daughter of queen; the statue does not referto any historical personality.

The scarce existing relics [5,11–13] concerning the divineAdoratress Karomama do not reveal anything about her clois-tered life in the important sanctuary, but a few historical scrapslead to substantiate that her action took indeed place duringthe first half of the IXth century B.C., under the pontificate ofthe Great Priest to Amon Horsaise, under the reigns ofOsorkon—well-known in the Egyptian Antiquities Depart-ment of Louvre for his gold pendant—and Takelot II [14,15].

Then, the celebrity of Karomama comes from the techni-cal refinement of the statue, even if it has known dark hoursfor a long time. The enthusiasm of the beginning, when itwas purchased, went smaller when time passed. We knowthat the statue was not in good condition when Champollionbought it: according to his own word, big “packs” of oxida-tion were present, and he writes to his colleague Dubois inthe Louvre: “Je suis sûr que vous embrasserez la princessesur les deux joues, malgré l’oxyde qui les masque tant soitpeu et qui s’est fait jour en forme de bosse entre les deuxépaules” [7].

Its aspect might not have improved with time, as finallyBénédite, responsible for the Department in 1896, had it “dis-simulated in a hidden showcase, the less in view in order toconfine its poor state of conservation.... A thick gangue wascovering it from head to feet, all the rich system of inlayswas embedded under slag” [4,16]. It had a mutilated appear-ance because of its missing right eye, “the poor little one-eyed queen” as Chassinat called her [16]. One may have anidea of the gangue which wrapped the statue by looking tothe recently renowned object, the famous crocodile of the

Munich museum, totally unshaped, where remains of gold,only visible by who was looking for them, were enough todecide a loosening of the external corrosion products [17].Moreover, the earth core inside the casting of the statue hadbeen, according to Bénédite [4], wetted by water infiltrationsfrom the flood of the Nile and induced cracking of the statueat various places. It was even totally broken at the level of theright shoulder. The description is dramatic; the author speaksof devastation, of a too hard ordeal for a so delicate object,and finally confides Karomama to the expert hands of AlfredAndré, the well-known restorer.

The technical descriptions were in agreement with the stateof knowledge at that time, still approximate and vague: thehieroglyphs of the base should be inlaid with a “red” metal,copper or pink gold, or with red gold, showing up from akind of dark brown niello work, which is nothing else thanthe tiny lace formed by the bronze lineaments; or these hiero-glyphs should be inlaid with electrum, pale gold and silver.Despite the missing information, one nevertheless under-stood that “...the luxury was profusely spread. Foils of goldcovered a great part of the cloth, and, entirely without lacuna,the bare parts” [4]. Elsewhere, one guesses that the largefeathers of the vulture spoil were “filled with added pieceswhose nature is not known ...but nothing is left”.

In summary, we have a very little insight on how the aspectof the Karomama statue appeared. The restoration interven-tion and the laboratory analyses described below shall bringus a better approach and lighten our sight.

3. Description of the former intervention,de-restoration and restoration

Bénédite, complaining about the poor conservation plightof Karomama, came to the conclusion: “its condition is how-ever not completely desperate. Looking carefully to thebronze, Mr. Chassinat, attached to the museum, believedthat the thick gangue covering it from head to feet was notso tight that one should not be able to have care of it witha minimum of industry. The effort was worth attempting.When rid of the most part of its slag, the chest appeareddecorated with a refined network of gold and silver inlays,in a perfect condition” [4]. He concluded “Mr. André wentthrough these diffıculties and Karomama, delicately and hon-estly restored, appears to us as one of these privileged monu-ments which are neither too much nor too little preservedfrom the biting of time”.

At the time of that former intervention, around 1896 [4],the statue has been tightened with its base by using a heavyfixing system. But, a crack on the top of the base testified ofits fragility as it had to bear the all weight of the statue. More-over, the statue itself was strongly cracked on its lower part.Indeed, during transportation or handling, it was maintainedunder the arms and was supporting all the weight of the base.It was thus necessary to relieve the base of the weight it hadto support and to separate the base from the statue. The statue


had to be neither pasted nor fixed by any mechanical tighten-ing system which could again induce stresses.

A thorough study of the bronze surface should be associ-ated to that intervention. Indeed, if the quality of that piece of

work and the preserved inlays show that it was elaborated byusing the most refined techniques, the metal corrosion andthe dimension of the vacancies are such that its original aspectis completely hidden to the sight. In our attempt to reveal thetiniest signs linked to the decoration that it received, and inassociation with the laboratory analyses described below, wetried to find how this bronze cast appeared to the Egyptianeyes.

The effort and the industry leading to the elimination ofthe gangue may be the origin of the numerous cracks runningthrough the statue and the base, and which probably did notexist before, because Bénédite was only mentioning smallcracks and one burst at the level of the right shoulder. Theradiography (Fig. 7) shows the fragmented state of the upperpart, not visible with naked eyes, and the photograph takenduring de-restoration (Fig. 8) shows the fragmented state ofthe lower part. The surface has probably suffered some losses,but we are not able to specify their importance, as precisedocuments from periods earlier than the intervention are lack-ing.

How was effected the restoration by Alfred André? It wasquite difficult to give an appreciation by a simple examina-tion. Indeed, a large number of green-tinted refillings werepresent on the surface of the statue and of the base and hidthe cracks and the restorations. The whole reverse side of thebase was overlaid by a cloth coated with black-tinted plaster(Fig. 9). Two big threaded rods (Fig. 8) were set throughoutand screwed on the reverse side onto screw-nuts in order totighten the statue. On the lower part of the cloth of Karo-mama, between the legs, one could disclose the presence ofplaster. The very large cross-section of the rods (more thanone centimeter) and the presence of plaster, about which onecould suspect that it was entirely filling the statue, were indi-cating that the intervention had been a heavy one. The work

Fig. 7. X-ray radiographies. (a) general view; (b) detail of the robe © C2RMFT. Borel. Fig. 8. Lower part of the statue, during de-restoration. © M-E. Meyohas.


done at the end of the XIXth century could only be appraisedand documented thanks to the de-restoration operation.

That de-restoration intervention was long and difficult,because of the large stiffness contrast between the restora-tion materials and the bronze. Indeed, the bronze is nearlyentirely mineralized which means that it is no more presentas a metal but transformed into cuprite (cuprous oxide) andmalachite (copper carbonate). This makes the piece muchmore brittle and breakable and explains why it is presently sofragmented.

The statue was separated from its base. This base suffersfrom large vacancies: three third of one of the large sides aremissing and this had been repaired with a tin-welded brassplate; so is also repaired the vacancy on the top of the base.The restorations were shielded with a hard material, prob-ably a pasted plaster colored in green in order to copy mala-chite. The inside of the base is entirely strengthened by brassplates, as one may see from the photograph taken after takingoff the plaster-coated fabric (Fig. 9). Those metallic elementswere screwed and welded together, and that made them par-ticularly difficult to disassemble2.

The surface of the base is very uneven, because the resto-ration cleaning was only aimed to reveal the written parts.The bare metal appears in some places, whereas other placesare covered with cuprite. The inlaid hieroglyphs are only verypartly preserved. On the not-written parts, a thick layer ofcorrosion products is preserved, constituted of cuprite cov-ered by an irregular layer of malachite. Some efflorescenceof copper chloride (an unstable active corrosion product)appears on several places.

On the statue as on the base, the cleaning (or rather thegangue elimination, as mentioned by Bénédite) gave prefer-ence to the parts decorated with inlays and to the face. Thiscleaning discovered the cuprite layer, of brown–red aspect,leaving some areas of malachite on more perturbed places.

In order to reach the threaded rods which were firmly tight-ening the statue on its base, it was necessary to unglue thefragments of the lower part (Fig. 10). It was then confirmedthat the statue was filled with plaster mixed with rosin. Noth-ing was left of the original mould core. Indeed, Bénéditethought that it was responsible for the degradation of the pieceof work. The surface of the unfastened fragments is coveredwith copper sulfate as a consequence of the interaction withplaster.

The threaded rods were rising up to the breast level. Theyhad been notched in order to form splinters to better clutch tothe plaster subsequently poured inside the statue (Fig. 11).This arrangement turned out to be efficient, as it took us muchindustry to disassemble it. Disassembling the feet was par-ticularly difficult, because they were entirely drilled with athread on which the two rods were forced to screw.

After fastening the statue, a new and lighter assemblingsystem was designed in order to be able to separate easily thestatue from its base. Two brass tubes (1 cm diameter and ca35 cm height) were placed inside the statue to replace thethreaded rods. The tubes pass through the feet and the legsusing the large holes drilled in the course of the precedingintervention. They rise up to the waist and are cut flush withthe feet soles. They are fixed by an epoxy resin pasted on aglass fiber fabric. The resin studs are set on places easy toreach after disassembling the fragments of the gown front;this is in order to ensure an easy reversibility of the process.

2 We must here thank Isaure d’Avout who brought an important contribu-tion to that long and thorough work.

Fig. 9. Reverse side of the base, during de-restoration. © M-E. Meyohas.

Fig. 10. The statue during de-restoration. © M-E. Meyohas.


Two brass rods sliding inside the tubes should support thestatue and relieve the base from its weight. They should froma certain viewpoint play the function of the pre-existing ten-ons, whose one has disappeared. However, this system couldnot avoid some swinging when the showcase, standing on awooden floor, was vibrating. Consequently, we finally pre-ferred to keep one single rod, sliding in the tubes of the rightleg; this allows an easy separation of the statue from the base.We added to this device an external fixture which sustainsalso the statue under its arms (Fig. 1)3.

The surface of the statue and of the base was only cleanedwith solvents, without further intervention. In true, the regionswhere the epidermis could be uncovered had already been soin the XIXth century, probably somewhat drastically; theinlays were then abundantly scratched. On the other moreperturbed regions, the conservator had been quite respectfulof the piece, as fortunately he did not apply any of the chemi-cal process currently in use at that period. We felt that a morepronounced loosening by methods presently available wasnot possible without taking the risk of loosing informationand even some decoration. For instance on the very disturbedbottom of the gown, a well preserved decoration is visible onthe radiography (Fig. 7), but we did not loosen it, becausegold particles are mixed with the corrosion products. We mayin the future have at our disposal more adapted methods.

4. Detailed examination

The surface was carefully examined with naked eyes andunder a binocular magnifying glass, in order to attempt adescription of the manufacturing process and better under-stand how handicraftsmen were playing with colored con-trasts on the surface of the piece. Indeed, we nowadays knowthat a large number of Egyptian bronzes did not show up amonochrome metallic aspect as supposed before, but, like

stone and wooden statuettes, they were polychrome. The poly-chromic effects were obtained through very various tech-niques which evidence a very sophisticated knowledge of themetallurgical art. Since about 20 years, a large number ofinvestigations attempted to specify the nature of the coloredeffects and the methods to obtain them. In the Louvre for thelast 15 years, processing of a large number of bronze statu-ettes from the Egyptian Antiquity Department confirmed formost objects the use of colored decorations, even if they nolonger bare any information as a consequence of a previouscleaning by means of chemicals.

The statue was elaborated by the lost wax direct castingtechnique, evidenced by the presence of a mould core, aboutwhich we only have a written testimony, and by the uneventhickness of the metal (Fig. 7). Casting was performed in sev-eral parts:• the body, from the head down to the tip of the tenons. The

core ended probably at the down edge of the skirt, the feetand the tenons were in bulk metal. The head is round as abowl, without ears;

• the wig, whose radiography does not show up the way ofassembling, topped by a modius used as a socket;

• the two arms, in bulk metal, equipped with a tenon andfixed by a pin of rectangular cross-section (Figs. 7 and12).

The under side of the sleeves was closed by a metal plateletfixed by a strap folded on the sleeve, where it was probablywelded (Fig. 12).

The two sistrum, today missing, were elaborated apart, per-haps in another metal.

The top of the headdress, also manufactured indepen-dently, was fixed on the modius. That headdress was prob-ably constituted of high straight feathers analogous to the ones

3 That fixture has been realized by Karim Courcelle, responsible of themounting workshop of the Louvre.

Fig. 11. The tightening rods of the former (1896) intervention, and the feet.© M-E. Meyohas.

Fig. 12. Detail of the arm setting. © Georges Poncet.


appearing on God Amon [15], but probably smooth, withoutdecorated cavities. These leaves might be flanked by lateralhorns. They might have been supported on a frieze of uraei(the snakes) as one can see on the example of a small bronzehead (ca. 6 cm) recently found in Karnak [18].

The wax model was thoroughly hand-carved in previsionof the decorations to be applied afterward on the metal cast:• a median line is carved under the arms and on the legs in

order to maintain the gold foil further laid on them(Fig. 12);

• the socket (Fig. 2) was incised to anchor the material whichreceived the missing crown;

• shallow cavities and slots were spared to receive inlays:on the pectoral, on the waist, on the crossing line of thetwo wings embracing the body, on the scale decoration ofthe wings, at the bottom of the robe;

• on the location of the wing quills, cavities with a bulgedbottom were carved following the shape of the body(Fig. 4);

• the hair curls were finely decorated with parallel ridges(Fig. 13).

The radiography shows that the base was mould as a singlecast.

After casting and assembling, the statue was nearly entirelyfoil-gilded. Gold foil remains are visible on the arms and thelegs (on the arms, the present gold foil fragments seem tohave been put back in place, as one may be surprised by theirsomewhat systematic alignment: they were perhaps foundmixed together with the corrosion products and one may haveretrieve them to put them back; or maybe they were simplyreplaced). Gold particles were also found on the face, on thehairs, on the pleated dress, on the wing quills. The only placeswhere no gold particles were found are the background of the

pectoral, the background of the little scaled feather, and thebase. We do not know how the gold foil was pasted.

After gold foil application, the eyes and the inlaid decora-tions were set to place. The eye cavities (Figs. 5 and 14) werefilled with a gray-looking material, on which was set the eye’swhite and the brown-black translucent iris (the right eye hasbe redone, the iris is black and not translucent). A fine metal-lic inlay surrounds the eye. The eyebrow has lost its inlay.

The inlaid decorations had been cut out from metallic foilsand placed into the cavities, in order to be level with the bronzesurface. The inlaid decoration of the pectoral is an outstand-ing piece of work. Several metals are alternating to bring par-ticularly elaborated sequences (Figs. 15 and 16): on the chess-board of the first rank, gold and a silvery metal are alternating,as well as on the petals and the floweret decoration; but in thefloral pattern with three petals recalling stylized lotuses andon the band decorated with a floral pattern recalling lily,appears an other inlaid metal which has sometime the shineof bare copper, sometime the aspect of copper covered with aslight metallic-gray veil, and sometime the aspect of cuprite,that is dark red. Each frieze is separated by a double goldstrand.

On the back, the decoration of the pectoral follows iden-tical to that of the front (Fig. 16). The 14 inlays of the coun-terpoise have a copper-looking aspect; maybe they were alsocovered by a gray patina veil, but they have been stronglycleaned up.

The waist (Fig. 4) is underlined on both sides by a goldstrand and is decorated by three gold parallel sticks recallingtriglyphs separated by square cavities whose inlays are nowentirely missing. The ornament revealed by the radiographyon the bottom of the gown (Fig. 7b) is similar, but it is toppedby an incomplete triangular pattern.

The falcon feathers are inlaid by a gold strand on theirperiphery and a V-shaped pattern inlaid with a silvery metaladorns the central part (Fig. 17).

On the bulged background of the wing quills, one couldnot disclose any inlay visible with naked eye. One could imag-ine several kinds of decoration: precious metal, but also glasspaste, lapis lazuli, Egyptian blue (e.g. the cavities filled with

Fig. 13. Detail of the wig. ©C2RMF D. Bagault.

Fig. 14. Left eye. © C2RMF D. Bagault.


Egyptian blue on the Iuny’s shawabti preserved in the BritishMuseum [2], or the green glass paste on an Osiris statuettealso preserved in the British Museum [2]). But Chassinat [16]saw the skirt long feathers inlaid by a metal “the exact natureof which we do not know ....unless it might be this kind ofred copper which fills the hieroglyphs”. Examination undera binocular magnifying glass finally revealed the existence ofa tiny metallic foil fragment with a copper aspect (Fig. 18),covered with a grayish veil very similar to what was locallyobserved on the pectoral. The wing quills were thus inlaidwith metal, and the shine of these blades was contrasting withthe gold of the edges, as we may remind that the long feath-ers were entirely coated with gold foils before placing theinlays.

One may think that the crossing of the wings, underlinedby a cuprite blade (Fig. 4), was inlaid with the same metal, asit could have that aspect on the pectoral.

The base (Fig. 6) wears also numerous inlays: the hiero-glyphic signs. Some of them have a somewhat deep black

metallic shine (Fig. 19); others have the aspect of the darkred cuprite.

5. Laboratory analyses, questions and investigationmeans

All those observations are shedding light only partly, anda large number of interrogations are raised by them about theoriginal aspect of the piece of work.• How could the so sophisticated inlays of the pectoral and

the scale decoration of the edge of the cloth show up onthe bronze which constitutes their background? Was thisbronze patinated?

• How did the waist golden inlays show up, as this waistwas, just as the pleated bodice, entirely foil-gilded beforethe application of the three sticks? Could gold receive apatina?

Fig. 15. The collar inlays. (a) View on the front © Georges Poncet; (b) gra-phic transcription by N. Couton-Perche.

Fig. 16. The collar inlays. a) View on the back © Georges Poncet; (b) gra-phic transcription by N. Couton-Perche.


• What was the aspect of these inlays which sometime appearlike bare copper, sometime keep a dark gray patina, some-time are entirely transformed into cuprite, on the pectoral,on the crossing of the wings and in the wing quills?

• Are the inlays of the base with a darker metallic shine,sometimes also transformed into cuprite, of the samenature?

The aim of the laboratory investigation was thus to identifythe materials used for the confection of the statue: alloys ofthe main cats, of the arms, of the headdress, of the base, ofthe various inlays, and materials of the preserved left eye. Itwas also necessary to understand the nature of the gray andblack patinas observed on some inlays.

The investigation methods had to be entirely non-destructive. One exception to that rule was nevertheless admit-ted: the precise analysis of the cast alloys of the statue bodyand of the base has been performed on small quantities (lessthan 10 mg) of unaltered metal sampled by micro-drillingwith a 1 mm diameter drill. The analysis methods used areatomic emission spectroscopy [19]4 or proton-induced X-rayemission (PIXE) on the metal chips. All other analyses wereperformed thanks to the particle accelerator AGLAE. Thatequipment provides a beam of high energy particles (here3 MeV protons) in open atmosphere, which allows a non-destructive elemental analysis of the surface region throughthe PIXE method [20]. This analysis does not take into accountpossible variations of the composition from the surface intothe depth. For patinas and corrosion layers analyses, it iscoupled with the RBS method (Rutherford backscattered par-ticles spectrometry) which give access to the in-depth distri-

bution of the composition along the first micrometers fromthe surface [21]. The identification of the surface patina orcorrosion compounds is obtained by X-ray diffraction.

6. Composition of bulk alloys (statue, wig, arms,and base) (Table 1)

The alloys of the statue body and of the base were the onlyto be precisely analyzed through AES or PIXE on chips. Theothers (headdress, arm) are analyzed by PIXE on the surface,i.e. across the corrosion product layers. This brings an

4 The reference given here is a recent restatement on inductively coupledplasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) method. The analysisreported below is older (1981) and was effected with a less precise directlycoupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (DCP-AES) equipment.

Fig. 17. Small falcon feathers. © Georges Poncet.

Fig. 18. Small patinated inlay observed in a wing quill (detail). © C2RMFD. Bagault.


unavoidable error due to the contribution of the surface com-pounds, leading probably to an overestimation of the tin andlead contents; this is well evidenced by the PIXE analysisdone on some points of the statue body (pectoral, leg) belong-ing to the body principal cast.

The principal body and the arms seem to be cast from thesame alloy, a bronze with 4% tin and 0.6% lead. This is nottrue for the wig, elaborated with unalloyed copper contain-ing ca 1% lead, and for the base cast from a bronze muchmore rich in tin (more than 12%).

Gold residues were found on the hairs. Why was the wigcast from an unalloyed copper, different from the statue bodyand the arms? The question remains open.

7. Materials of the left eye

The preserved left eye is constituted of a white and a darktranslucent iris (Fig. 14). Both were analyzed by PIXE. Itwas not possible to reach with the accelerator particle beamthe mounting material surrounding the eye’s white.

The eye’s white is a calcium oxide or carbonate (this kindof analysis does not detect carbon). It is undoubtedly a lime-stone, a material easy to work and polish.

The analysis of the iris shoes is that of obsidian (Table 2)[22]. The deepness of Karomama’s sight is due to the choiceof that high quality stone.

8. Inlays analysis

Table 3 gives the PIXE analysis results for the inlays ofthe pectoral (Fig. 20), of a gilding foil of the arm (Fig. 21), ofthe wing quill inlay (Fig. 18), and of the base hieroglyphs(Fig. 19). The analysis on metal bare surfaces (marked withan asterisk in the table) may be considered as quantitativelyexact; but the analysis on the patinated zones is approximate,because of the contribution of concentration gradients.

As already mentioned, the pectoral inlays are of four dif-ferent alloys: a white alloy containing gold and silver in equalcontent, assimilated to electrum (the flower sepals); nearlypure gold (the flower petals), a gold–25% copper alloy con-taining a few % of silver with a somewhat copper color (the“points”), and the counterweight inlays alloy (34% copper,60% gold and 6% silver).

The gold film pasted on the arm is a nearly pure gold. Noth-ing distinguishes it from a modern fine gold, and the question

Fig. 19. Analyzed inlaid hieroglyphs. © C2RMF D. Bagault.

Table 1Analysis of bulk alloys (weight %)

Analyzed points (analysis method) Cu Sn As Sb Pb Zn Fe Au Ag* Statue (1981, AES) Bal = 94.5 3.67 0.49 0.22 0.59 0.03 0.39 0.01 0.04* Base (2003, PIXE) 90 12.6 <0.01 <0.08 0.1 <0.1 0.16 <0.03 <0.03Statue: leg, pectoral (PIXE) > 85 Ca. 5 0.5–1 0.2–0.5 1–5 0–0.5 0.5–3 – –Arm (PIXE) > 90 Ca. 5 Ca. 0.5 < 0.05 1–5 < 0.05 Ca. 0.3 – –Hairs (PIXE) > 95 < 0,05 Ca. 0.4 < 0.05 Ca. 1 < 0.05 Ca. 1 – –

* Quantitative analysis on sampled chips.

Table 2PIXE analysis of the left eye iris (weight %, impurities in ppm): obsidian

Main components (wt.%) Impurities (ppm)SiO2 Al2O3 Na2O K2O CaO Fe2O3 Ti Mg Mn Zr73 14 4 4.6 0.9 2.7 1000 2000 500 Present


to know if it was replaced or refastened in the course of theXIXth century restoration remains unanswered.

The inlay of the wing quill (Fig. 18) is in a copper–goldalloy containing some silver. One may compare it with thealloy of the counterweight inlays; the figures of concentra-tions of the very small and patinated wing quill inlay couldbe somewhat mislead, but the analogy persists and might leadto think that the counterweight was also covered with a patinaeliminated by the XIXth century cleaning (Fig. 16).

The inlaid base hieroglyphs (Fig. 19) are of a copper–gold–silver alloy (ca. 1% gold and 4% silver) which immediatelyreminds a typical “black bronze” (see below).

Dark patina of the hieroglyphs and of the wing quills inlaysPIXE analyses do not bring information on the in-depth dis-tribution of elements from the surface. Thus, the analysismethod had to be changed.

The patinated inlay of the hieroglyph Men on the baseupper face was submitted to X-ray diffraction (Fig. 22). Whencompared to the diagram obtained on corroded parts (con-firming the presence of cuprite, malachite and chlorides), thediffraction diagram on the hieroglyph is simple: the layer isonly cuprite Cu2O. It was not possible to obtain a diffractiondiagram on the too small wing quill inlay.

Fig. 23 shows one example of the results obtained by RBSanalysis on the same hieroglyph Men of the base, as an experi-mental RBS spectrum exploited by simulation through theSIMNRA simulation code [21,23]. It demonstrates that thepatina is indeed a copper oxide very fine layer (a few microme-ters thick), containing noticeable amounts of gold and silver.In the case of the wing quill inlay, the layer is even stronglyenriched with gold.

The gray patinas of the base hieroglyphs and statue wingquills inlays have thus all characteristics of the intentionalpatina of the black bronzes: a fine cuprite layer enriched withgold [24,25]. On the other hand, whereas the alloy of the hiero-glyphs belongs indeed to the family of black bronzes, the wingquill alloy is very different, much more rich in gold.

9. “Black bronze”, “black copper”, “corinthium aes”and “shakudo”

The term of “black bronze” may refer at the same timeeither to a particular surface chemical treatment, the oldestpresently known, of copper–gold alloys, or to the particularalloys used as substrate for that treatment. The interest of mostresearch works on those patinas is based on the fact that thatprocess, attested since ancient Egypt during the XVIIIthdynasty (and even much earlier, as soon as during the MiddleKingdom [26]), appeared also in the Minoan and Mycenaeancivilizations during the second millenary BC. It was then suc-cessively attested in the Roman world under the name of“Corinthian bronze” (Corinthium aes) (1st–4th centuries AD),and from the 14th century onward in Japan were it is stillpracticed to color in black sword hilts or inlays of art objectsmade in “shakudo” (a copper–gold alloy containing 1 to 4%gold) [25]. Some authors even point out the existence of suchblack patinated copper–gold alloys in India during the 1stmillenary BC, and in China during the 1st millenary AD.

As far as Egypt is concerned the difficulty of the transcrip-tion of the hieroglyphic signs which describe this type of pro-

Table 3PIXE analyses of the inlays (weight %)

Analyzed points Cu Sn As Sb Pb Zn Fe Au Ag* Pectoral, sepal 1.2 – – – 0.2 – 0.1 51.7 46.8* Pectoral, petal 0.6 – – – – – 0.4 97.8 1.7* Pectoral, “point” 25.5 – 0.1 – – – 0.3 70.2 3.7* Pectoral, counterweight 34.5 <0.1 – – – – 0.1 59.5 6* Arm gilding 5.3 0.2 – – – – 0.3 93.9 –Wing quill inlay Ca. 60 – – – – – Ca. 0.2 Ca. 38 Ca. 2Hieroglyph sign men of the base Ca. 90 Ca. 1.5 Ca. 1 – – – Ca. 0.5 1.5 4Hieroglyph sign w of the base Ca. 90 Ca. 4 Ca. 0.3 – – – Ca. 1 0.3 Ca. 4

Asterisks * refer to analyses on bare (non-patinated) surfaces.

Fig. 20. Detail of the analyzed inlays of the collar. © C2RMF D. Bagault.

Fig. 21. Detail of the analyzed gold foil on the arm. © C2RMF D. Bagault.


cess has lead to an evolution of their interpretation. First readas Bia, the word was later understood and read as Hsmn-Km(literally black bronze), today a third hypothesis is proposedin the light of the new analyses: Hmty-Km, literally “the blackcopper” [26]. It is true that, after being cleared from theiroriginal patina, the dark red hieroglyphic signs on the base ofKaromama statue, in a different alloy than the copper-likebarrettes of the necklace counterpoise, may be used to con-firm that hypothesis, because these are alloys with a high cop-per content, appearing to our eyes as “copper”. It is interest-ing to recall that this metal seems to rank among the preciousmetals, in the royal texts, after gold and silver, lapis lazuliand turquoise. It is always mentioned before bronze, copperand tin, indicating its high value.

Amongst all that world family of “black bronzes” or “blackcoppers”, the composition of the bulk alloys, copper-basedand containing always gold as an addition, may vary: moreor less gold content, presence or not of silver or arsenic inten-tionally added, etc. One should then more likely speak, not ofa single recipe on a single alloy, but of a set of recipes onvarious alloys. The recent analyses of the Mycenaean dag-gers [27] tend indeed to prove that some “true” bronzes (con-taining tin) have been alloyed with gold in order to be pati-

nated in dark brown. Moreover, the recent comments of atranslation of the Zosimos manuscript, the Panopolis alche-mist, preserved in the British Museum, mention that as soonas during the 3rd centuryAD, several chemical treatment reci-pes were known, at least for darkening the Corinthian bronzes[28,29]5.

The most interesting deduction of the present study is thatit is possible to find, in the same Egyptian workshop, two oreven three different alloys intentionally patinated in gray orblack, with definitely different compositions, one with a lowgold content (less than 1%), the others much more alloyed(up to more than 40% gold).

10. Conclusion

The restoration of the statue of Karomama brought a fulldocumentation of the restoration work done at the end of theXIXth century. Moreover it saved that masterpiece of workfrom an irreversible degradation for the future.

5 Recent fruitful studies conducted by S. Descamps, chief curator of theAGER department of the Louvre Museum, have been of great help for thisbibliographic analysis, and we wish to thank her.

Fig. 22. X-ray diffraction diagrams. (a) on corrosion products (base); (b) on the hieroglyph men of the base.

Fig. 23. RBS spectra (experimental and simulated) obtained under proton particles. (a) on corrosion products (leg of the statue); (b) on the hieroglyph men of thebase.


The detailed observation of the statue and its base, accom-panied by the results of laboratory investigations, bring impor-tant information on the polychrome techniques mastered bythe Egyptian metallurgists during the first millenary BC. Theyreveal that the necklace-ousekh is made of at least five differ-ent alloys. One of them happens to be unknown until nowand one should reverse the apparent color relationship: whatappeared, even for competent eyes, as being possibly identi-fied as a “black bronze”, precisely the background of the neck-lace, on which abound the oppositions of noble metals, is notblack bronze. The alloy showing up a “blackened” or “brown-ish” aspect is not situated where we were expecting it.

The investigations raise also new questions:• The base is cast with an alloy richer in tin that is more

yellow than the statue alloy, 12% against 4%. Was it inorder not to bring two much contrast with the gilding ofthe latter?

• The inlays which appear with the color of bare copper, orkeep a dark gray patina, or are sometime transformed incuprite, on the pectoral, in the counterweight, at the cross-ing of the wings and on the wing quills, are made with oneor eventually two different copper–gold alloys. Theirpatina, when it is preserved, shows all characters of a vol-untary patina. Is this a new kind of “black bronze”?

• The base inlays, with a dark metallic shine, sometime trans-formed into cuprite, are consistent with what is known onblack bronze or black copper.

Cooney, who first highlighted that surface treatment [30] pro-posed the following assumption that “black bronzes arereserved for those objects which received inlays with pre-cious metals”, but all inlaid bronzes “do not belong in thislisting even though it is inlaid bronze”, “curiously as thefamed bronze statue of Queen Karomama”. He was true aboutthe pectoral, but he did not have the means and the knowl-edge to infer that the inverse contrast may also exist, by twoprocesses:• black copper is not only used as the background of a deco-

ration but may become an inlay on a yellow color bronze,as on the base with a high tin content – black on yellow;

• the alloy inlaid in the wing quills, which does not belongto the proper black bronze family should have contrastedwhen patinated with a dark color against the gilded back-ground: again black, gray or brown on a golden yellowbackground.

Those two occurrences are completely new in Egypt.From the art history viewpoint, all those techniques were

coming from a long tradition in the Later Period and Karo-mama is not an isolated masterpiece. The statue is belongingto a series of precious objects with a liturgical character. Oneexample is contemporaneous with the XXII° dynasty: thecounterweight of menat-pectoral preserved in Berlin, with thename of a vizier of King Osorkon II [31]. Horsaiset, “prophetand Mayor of Thebes” shows himself as a child god wavinga sistrum in front of the goddess Sekhmet [32]. One mightsuggest that this piece came from the same Theban work-shop.

This is why the main gift of Karomama today is to alert usabout the polychromic effects on metallic statues, much moresubtle than they show up on a first sight, much more elabo-rated, playing with interspersed alloys and with the effectsobtained with patinas, themselves various.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank:• Isaure d’Avout, for her contribution to the restoration work

and Karim Courcelle, chief of the mounting workshop ofLouvre Museum.

• Catherine Bridonneau and Nathalie Couton-Perche, fromthe Egyptian antiquities department, Louvre Museum.

• At the C2RMF: Thierry Borel for X-ray radiographies,Benoît Mille and David Bourgarit for alloy analyses,Joseph Salomon and Brice Moignard for ion beam analy-ses on the AGLAE accelerator, Michel Dubus for X-raydiffraction, Dominique Bagault for some photographs.

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Documents

The statue of Karomama, a testimony of the skill of Egyptian metallurgists in polychrome bronze statuary