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RADIOCARBON DATING OF ASIAN LACQUERS: MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION AND ASSESSMENT OF A PRETREATMENT METHOD PRIOR TO ACCELERATOR MASS SPECTROMETRY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2023

M Wojcieszak Open the ORCID record for M Wojcieszak [Opens in a new window] ,
J Veenhoven ,
T Van den Brande ,
S Saverwyns ,
F Lynen  and
M Boudin
M Wojcieszak*
Affiliation:
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH/KIK-IRPA), Brussels, Belgium Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
J Veenhoven
Affiliation:
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH/KIK-IRPA), Brussels, Belgium Separation Science Group, Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, Amsterdam, School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM), Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
T Van den Brande
Affiliation:
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH/KIK-IRPA), Brussels, Belgium
S Saverwyns
Affiliation:
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH/KIK-IRPA), Brussels, Belgium
F Lynen
Affiliation:
Separation Science Group, Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
M Boudin
Affiliation:
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH/KIK-IRPA), Brussels, Belgium
*
*Corresponding author. Emails: marine.wojcieszak@gmail.com, marine.wojcieszak@kikirpa.be
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Abstract

Lacquerwork technologies comprise multiple techniques depending on countries, time, and traditions. Carved Asian lacquers applied on wooden objects consist of multiple thin uncolored or pigmented layers spread over the surface. To radiocarbon (14C) date these types of objects, often only the wooden structure is used. Here we report on a set of carved lacquered objects that were dated based on stylistic form, 14C dating of the wooden structure and of the Asian lacquers. THM-Py-GC-MS and micro-Raman spectroscopy were used to confirm the molecular composition of the lacquers and helped assessing the pretreatment protocol. The lacquers analyzed contained between 20 and 50% wt carbon, thus 2–5 mg of sample were necessary for 14C dating. The dates obtained on wood and lacquers showed a reliable correlation. The results suggest that, in most cases, it is sufficient to sample a part of the lacquer layers to date an object. We advise to perform an acid pretreatment followed by a successive solvent immersion with an increasing polarity. Dating different components of a lacquered object can also help to understand previous restoration interventions that frequently occur for ancient lacquered objects. Ceramic, metallic, and other objects covered with Asian lacquers can also be dated using this approach.

Keywords

Asian lacquermicro-Raman spectroscopyradiocarbon datingTHM-Py-GC-MS
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 65 , Issue 5 , October 2023 , pp. 1193 - 1212
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Copyright
© Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH-KIK-IRPA), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of University of Arizona

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