Transcript Slide 1

Entering into the visitor center at the Hearst Castle, we were
led through a dark room. My first glimpse of the sarcophagus
was this image.
Nine Muses is a 3rd Century (230 A.D.) Marble Roman
Sarcophagus.
It contains 9 Goddesses of creative inspiration, Apollo as the
deceased and Athena, Goddess of Wisdom on the front with
Ulysses listening to the Sirens on the sides.
Although 50 of these 9 Muse sarcophaguses were carved, this
is the only one in the world remaining in this well preserved
condition.
Zdravko Barov is one of the world’s most renouned scientists
in conservation of ancient arts.
Dr. Dane Jones heads the Chemistry and Biochemistry at Cal
Poly and is in charge of restoration of the sarcophagus for
Hearst Castle.
Apollo and Athena
Apollo’s head remains
uncarved until someone
buys the sarcophagus.
Since the hair is
unfinished, it has been
suggested that the
consumer ran out of
money.
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The marble consists of Ca
carbonates, sulfates and
hydroxides. Through
analysis of the marble,
they have been able to
trace back to the actual
quarry in Greece where the
marble originated.
The tiny red lines under the eye could be pigment from the 3rd
Century; the NITON XLt can confirm this.
Dr. Jones points out a patch of white pigment, also to be
analyzed.
Luke, a student at Cal Poly interested in XRF, analyzes the
white pigment.
He then analyzes a spot without pigment.
The sarcophagus appeared to be completely painted at one
time with a copper-like tint.
There were also small specs of black pigment on the front of
the sarcophagus.
Dr. Jones collects additional data to be downloaded into
Grams Spectroscopy Software that can be used as an engine
for manipulating and displaying mass spectral data.
The NITON XLt confirms immediately that the pigment
contains Sr, Pb, Zn and Fe - all elements available in the 3rd
Century!

A complete report of the
analysis of the data will be
available in the near
future.