Wax finishing in Roman polychrome statuary: Ganosis on the colossal head from Dougga (Tunisia)

• DOI: 10.1016/j.culher.2021.06.013
• Publication Date: 2021-07-25T15:14:12Z
• Authors: Elisabetta Neri; Caroline Bouvier; Laurence de Viguerie; Alain Brunelle; Nesrine Nasr; Fathi Béjaoui; François Baratte; Philippe Walter
• Keywords: Polychrome; Statue; Sculpture

The material evidence for the wax finish on ancient marble statues, known as ganosis, is scarce and controversial, although Greek and Latin sources describe the recipes and cultural value of this treatment. The surface treatment of a colossal Roman head from the Roman theatre of Dougga (Tunisia), dated to the end of the second century CE, is studied by a multi-analytical protocol (video-microscope, cross section, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry of one sample). The results of this physico-chemical analysis and the comparison with ancient recipes, prove the use of ganosis on a Roman statue and explore, for the first time, the application of the recipes described in ancient sources. This result shows the potential of the Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry analysis, detecting at the same time organic and inorganic materials and their stratigraphy, to study the ancient recipes.