«PORTRAIT OF A LADY» OF THE BOICHUCK SCHOOL FROM THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE FUNDS. COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION RESULTS

The article features the results of the comprehensive examination of an outstanding piece from the Mykhailo Boуchuk school, «Portrait of a Lady» from the NAFAA funds. The research was done by the Associate Professor of the Department of the Technique and Restoration of Artwork of NAFAA, Tetiana Tymchenko, Ph.D, and the Leading Researcher of the Bureau of scientific and technical expertise «ART-LAB» Svitlana Biskulova, Ph.D, in connection with the planned restoration of the artwork. Since 2018, «Portrait of a Lady» has been attributed to Mykola Kasperovych (1885–1938), an outstanding painter, restorer and researcher. The reasoning is provided in the expert conclusion of the Head of the Ukrainian Art Department of the end of 19th — beginning of the 20th century of the National Art Museum of Ukraine Olena Kashuba-Volvach. The article lists the peculiarities of the techniques, technology, condition of the artwork from the NAFAA funds. In particular, it reveals the peculiarities of the preparatory drawing, imitation of the monumental art techniques by means of the easel painting, and individual techniques of working with paints. The paper specifies the time of the portrait creation, which indicates 1923 — probably, the year of the work creation, and the age of the lady from the portrait, 30 years. The technological examination of the portrait in the Bureau of scientific and technical expertise «ART-LAB» confirmed the dating of the work to the period of the 1920s – 1930s. The article clarifies important components of the portrait technology: in particular, it has been found that the ground is chalk-glue and the paints’ medium is casein-oil tempera; among the pigments the zinc white with an admixture of lead white, yellow and red ochre, Ivory black pigment (burnt bone), mixed green pigment (burnt bone and yellow ochre) were identified. The examination revealed the traces of restoration interventions of different times. The paper features a number of considerations regarding further research of Boychukists’ creativity from the point of view of technology.

Who was buried with Nestor’s Cup? Macroscopic and microscopic analyses of the cremated remains from Tomb 168 (second half of the 8th century BCE, Pithekoussai, Ischia Island, Italy)

Cremation 168 from the second half of the 8th century BCE (Pithekoussai’s necropolis, Ischia Island, Italy), better known as the Tomb of Nestor’s Cup, is widely considered as one of the most intriguing discoveries in the Mediterranean Pre-Classic archaeology. A drinking cup, from which the Tomb’s name derives, bears one of the earliest surviving examples of written Greek, representing the oldest Homeric poetry ever recovered. According to previous osteological analyses, the Cup is associated with the cremated remains of a juvenile, aged approximately 10–14 years at death. Since then, a vast body of literature has attempted to explain the unique association between the exceptionality of the grave good complex, the symposiac and erotic evocation of the Nestor’s Cup inscription with the young age of the individual buried with it. This paper reconsiders previous assessments of the remains by combining gross morphology with qualitative histology and histomorphometric analyses of the burnt bone fragments. This work reveals the commingled nature of the bone assemblage, identifying for the first time, more than one human individual mixed with faunal remains. These outcomes dramatically change previous reconstructions of the cremation deposit, rewriting the answer to the question: who was buried with Nestor’s Cup?.

Characterization of structural changes in modern and archaeological burnt bone: Implications for differential preservation bias

Structural and thermodynamic factors which may influence burnt bone survivorship in archaeological contexts have not been fully described. A highly controlled experimental reference collection of fresh, modern bone burned in temperature increments 100–1200˚C is presented here to document the changes to bone tissue relevant to preservation using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Specific parameters investigated here include the rate of organic loss, amount of bone mineral recrystallization, and average growth in bone mineral crystallite size. An archaeological faunal assemblage ca. 30,000 years ago from Tolbor-17 (Mongolia) is additionally considered to confirm visibility of changes seen in the modern reference sample and to relate structural changes to commonly used zooarchaeological scales of burning intensity. The timing of our results indicates that the loss of organic components in both modern and archaeological bone burnt to temperatures up to 700˚C are not accompanied by growth changes in the average crystallite size of bone mineral bioapatite, leaving the small and reactive bioapatite crystals of charred and carbonized bone exposed to diagenetic agents in depositional contexts. For bones burnt to temperatures of 700˚C and above, two major increases in average crystallite size are noted which effectively decrease the available surface area of bone mineral crystals, decreasing reactivity and offering greater thermodynamic stability despite the mechanical fragility of calcined bone. We discuss the archaeological implications of these observations within the context of Tolbor-17 and the challenges of identifying anthropogenic fire.

Fire Use

Fire is one of the oldest technologies of humankind; indeed, the earliest signs of fire appeared almost two million years ago. Traces of early fire use include charcoal, baked sediments, and burnt bone, but the archaeological evidence is ambiguous due to exposure to the elements for hundreds of thousands of years. Thus the origin of fire use is debatable. The first fire users may have been occasional or opportunistic users, harvesting flames and heat-affected food from wildfires. The art of maintaining the fire developed, and eventually humans learned to make fire at will. Fire technology (pyrotechnology) then became a habitual part of life. Fire provided warmth and light, which allowed people to continue activities after dark and facilitated moving into colder climates. Cooking food over or in the fire improved digestibility; over time, humans developed a culinary technology based on fire that included the use of cooking pits or earth ovens and preservation techniques such as smoking the food. Fire could even help in the procurement of food—for example, in clearing vegetation for easier hunting, to increase the fertility of the land, and to promote the growth of certain plants or to trap animals. Many materials could be transformed through fire, such as the color of ochre for use in pigments or the knapping properties of rocks for production of stone tools. Pyrotechnology ultimately became integral to other technologies, such as the production of pottery and iron tools. Fire use also has a social component. Initially, fires for cooking and light provided a natural meeting point for people to conduct different activities, thus facilitating communication and the formation of strong social relationships. The social organization of a campsite can sometimes be interpreted from the artifact types found around a fire or in how different fires were placed. For example, access to household fires was likely restricted to certain family members, whereas communal fires allowed access for all group members. There would have been conventions governing the activities that were allowed by a household fire or a communal fire and the placement of different fire types. Furthermore, the social uses of fire included ritual and ceremonial uses, such as cleansing rituals or cremation. The fire use of a prehistoric group can, consequently, reveal information on aspects such as subsistence, social organization, and technology.

Furness’s First Farmers: Evidence of Early Neolithic Settlement and Dairying in Cumbria

In 2015, excavations at Stainton Quarry, Furness, Cumbria, recovered remains that provide a unique insight into Early Neolithic farming in the vicinity. Five pits, a post-hole, and deposits within a tree-throw and three crevices in a limestone outcrop were investigated. The latter deposits yielded potentially the largest assemblage of Carinated Bowl fragments yet recovered in Cumbria. Lipid analysis identified dairy fats within nine of these sherds. This was consistent with previous larger studies but represents the first evidence that dairying was an important component of Early Neolithic subsistence strategies in Cumbria. In addition, two deliberately broken polished stone axes, an Arran pitchstone core, a small number of flint tools and debitage, and a tuff flake were retrieved. The site also produced moderate amounts of charred grain, hazelnut shell, charcoal, and burnt bone. Most of the charred grain came from an Early Neolithic pit and potentially comprises the largest assemblage of such material recovered from Cumbria to date. Radiocarbon dating indicated activity sometime during the 40th–35th centuries cal bc as well as an earlier presence during the 46th–45th centuries. Later activity during the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age was also demonstrated. The dense concentration of material and the fragmentary and abraded nature of the pottery suggested redeposition from an above-ground midden. Furthermore, the data recovered during the investigation has wider implications regarding the nature and use of the surrounding landscape during the Early Neolithic and suggests higher levels of settlement permanence, greater reliance on domesticated resources, and a possible different topographical focus for settlement than currently proposed.

Pompeii AD 79: A Natural Bone Diagenesis Experiment

This study aims at comparing the reliability of different types of apatite fractions for which collagen cannot be dated. We focused on the remains of individuals found at the necropolis of Porta Nocera near Pompeii, and for which the date of burial can be assessed independently. The dated human samples range between 1805±49 and 5570±120 14C yr BP and can display a large (up to 1200 14C yr) intra-individual age variability. We show that while a marine diet or an old-wood effect could explain the smallest age shifts, they are not able to explain the largest ones, and propose diagenesis as the main cause. The 14C depletion is likely due to the influence of the 14C-free CO2 emissions of the nearby Vesuvius volcano and the Campi Flegrei volcanic system on the age of secondary carbonate incorporated into the bone and enamel crystallites during diagenesis. This study demonstrates that in volcanic contexts, a large deviation from expected age can be measured, even in calcined apatites. Our calculations indicate that while the absolute amount of contamination is lower in calcined bones than in burnt bone and enamel apatite, its impact on the 14C age of the sample can be much higher due to the low carbon content of calcined bones.