Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 14
The Colossus of Memnon.
The photograph shows one of two massive
statues (each about 20 m high) that once flanked the entrance to the mortuary temple
of Amenhotep III, a pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, on the west bank of
the river Nile near Thebes. The statues were sculpted during the fourteenth century
B
.
C
.
E
., each from a single block of quartzite. One of the statues was damaged in antiq-
uity during an earthquake and, since then, it produces at sunrise a musical sound. The
ancient Greeks related this sound to the mythological king Memnon calling to his
mother. The present condition of the statues is not good, mainly because quartzite is
prone to weathering.
that determining the nature and relative amounts of trace elements in the
rock may contribute to distinguishing between samples from different
sources and to the provenance of archaeological soapstone (Truncer et al.
1998; Kohl et al. 1979).
1.8.
PIGMENTS
Pigments
are intensely colored and finely powdered solids used (mainly in
paints) to impart color to other materials. Since early antiquity most pig-
