Posted on 12/08/2007 8:43:01 PM PST by blam
Ancient Blood Found On Sculptures From Kingdom Of Mali
A new, highly-sensitive analytical test was used to confirm the presence of blood in the coating of this animal-like artifact used in ancient Mali rituals. (Credit: Pascale Richardin, Center for Research and Restoration for the Museums of France)"
ScienceDaily (Dec. 8, 2007) — Scientists in France are reporting for the first time that sculptors from the fantastically wealthy ancient Empire of Mali -- once the source of almost half the world's gold -- used blood to form the beautiful patina, or coating, on their works of art. Pascale Richardin and colleagues describe development of a new, noninvasive test that accurately identifies traces of blood apparently left on ancient African artifacts used in ceremonies involving animal sacrifices.
Archaeologists often had reported or suspected the presence of blood on many African artifacts, the study points out. However, accurately identifying the presence of blood was difficult because of the tiny amounts of blood remaining over the ages.
The researchers describe use of three highly sensitive tests -- time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, infrared microscopy, and X-ray microfluoresence -- to identify iron-bound (the chemical fingerprint of blood) on the patina from seven Dogon and Bamana sculptures from Mali. The technique, which caused virtually no damage to priceless artworks, also is suitable for identification of blood on other ancient artifacts, the study states.
The article "Identification of Ritual Blood in African Artifacts using TOF-SIMS and Synchrotron Radiation Microspectroscopies" is scheduled for the Dec. 15 issue of ACS' Analytical Chemistry.
Adapted from materials provided by American Chemical Society.
Actually, they have been using Protein Residue Analysis to isolate blood (and a lot of other ancient proteins) for over 15 years now.
Wonder if they have any chance of identifying the halotype of the blood.
The Britts have been making blood pudding for generations. One shouldn’t waste a food source to make paint. ‘Tis nearly as foolish as using corn to fuel a car.
/s
“KEYWORDS: aids; ancient; blood; hiv; mali; sculptures”
Some of your keywords are stupid. Flat out stupid.
Today—perhaps—but it could be found to be tainted animal blood.
Ping... Don’t know if this is appropriate for the GGG ping list, but thought I’d ping you just in case. :)
A friend of mine is fond of a type of wine from South Africa and on the bottle they warn that blood is used to purify, and I understand that is not uncommon. The blood takes out the impuritites. Cow blood I think. Gross.
The Protein Residue Analysis identifies the type of protein down generally to the family level. That means dog, coyote and wolf could not be separated from each other, but they could be separated from bear, pig, human, etc.
I don't know if the haplogroup/haplotype could be identified. It would certainly be worth a try. The contamination would seem to be a large problem though with items that are handled so much.
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Thanks LibertyRocks and Blam. |
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