10.5286/ISIS.E/ISIS.E.RB1820633
Mr Paul Craddock
Ms Marie Vandenbeusch
Dr Anna Fedrigo
Mr Duncan Hook
Ms Fleur Shearman
Ms Laura Perucchetti
Mr Daniel O'Flynn
Mr John Taylor
Dr Winfried Kockelmann
Applying neutron techniques to the earliest large hollow cast bronze statues from ancient Egypt
ISIS Facility
2019
STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Data
10.5286/ISIS.E/ISIS.E.89942764
This study concerns the origin of large hollow casting technique. It is well known that hollow bronze casting using the direct lost-wax technique is an ancient Egyptian invention, but traditionally it has been thought that the indirect lost-wax technique was introduced later, by the Greeks. However, the results of recent studies on some smaller ancient Egyptian statues suggest the ¿Greek¿ invention of indirect lost-wax was pre-dated by several centuries, in ancient Egypt. In the proposed experiment we aim to use neutron imaging to study details of the production of three large hollow cast Egyptian statues, dated to the 9th-8th century BC. These statues have features that could suggest the use of the indirect lost-wax casting technique. This study will be fundamental to understand the development of the techniques used to cast large statues in ancient history.