NONDESTRUCTIVE IN-SITU IDENTIFICATION OF CINNABAR ON ANCIENT CHINESE MANUSCRIPTS

A standard, non-destructive, in situ analytical procedure has been dev eloped to test the proposal that cinnabar [mercury(II) sulphide] is th e principal component of red inks and pigments on pre-tenth century Ch inese manuscripts, Eight manuscript fragments with traces of red ink o r pigmentation, and also one textile fragment, were examined by Raman microscopy, Fourier transform near-infrared Raman spectroscopy and x-r ay fluorescence spectroscopy, Mercury(II) sulphide was unambiguously i dentified on all four paper samples with red calligraphy and on the te xtile fragment with red pigmentation, Mercury(II) sulphide was not det ected on three paper fragments with red legal or punctuation dots or o n one paper fragment with a divine image hand-painted in red, The like ly identity of the non-cinnabar pigment is madder. (C) 1997 by John Wh ey & Sons, Ltd.