billfoster Wrote:
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>I think a scanning electron microscopic picture of
>a cast of the surface would definitively answer
>the question. If, as I suppose, the statues were
>polished, the microscopic scratches from this
>operation would show up clearly.


Photograph by Jon Bodsworth [www.egyptarchive.co.uk]

Here is an example of a New Kingdom period (18th Dynasty) statue fragment of Amenhotep III wearing the Khepresh crown. It is a granodiorite porphyry from the Aswan quarries (a.k.a black granite). The bust shows 2 stages of finishing ... the face is polished and the headdress is left partially rough (they painted the headdress and understood that when polished quartz is painted the paint generally beads as it dries making it susceptible to pealing over time). Note the feldspar phenocryst in the lips, eye, and cheeks, nice examples of lapidary carving. On the headdress you can see the pitting typical of percussion carving with feldspar being more susceptible to fracture than the quartz. They have also to ground off the some of the quartz relief to smooth the surface a little on the headdress giving it a very rough partial polish. We know the statue is carved by percussion and lapidary technique and not melted or molded, since the feldspar phenocrysts which are crystals are cut, intact, and undeformed on the surface.

Archae Solenhofen (solenhofen@hotmail.com)

> Bill
>
> for there are rest and healing in the
> contemplation of antiquities - Mark Twain