ASSESSMENT OF DETERIORATION PROCESS IN EXPOSED CARVED LIMESTONE FALSE DOOR OF ABUSIR ARCHAEOLOGICAL AREA

Abstract

Carved limestone false door dating back to the late Sixth Dynasty or the First Intermediate Period in Abusir archaeological area suffers from many physiochemical and mechanical deterioration factors, which lead to various deterioration phenomena, such as distort the carvings, decorations, the disappearance of paint, cracks in different depths, and salt calcification. It was found in the fill of Shaft 5 in the tomb AS 79 at Abusir South, Excav. No. 9/AS79/2015 and located in the storeroom of Czech Excavation in Abusir area. The current work aims to study the type of limestone which the false door is made of, and to know if there were colors on the false door or not, also to know if there were deterioration mechanisms that affect the carved limestone false doors of Abusir to evaluate the deterioration ratio in stone structure and the effects of surrounding environmental factors on stone. The investigation and characterization processes of archaeological limestone samples were carried out by polarizing microscopy (PLM), optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX) micro-analysis system, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results revealed that the limestone material of the false door belongs to micrite limestone with very fine grains and needs to be conserved.