CINNABAR FIND IN CRETAN HELLENISTIC TOMBS: PRESERVATIVE OR COSMETIC PURPOSES?

• N. Maravelaki-Kalaitzaki (Ministry of Culture, 25th Department of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, 21 Chalidon str., 731 00 - Chania, Greece)
• N. Kallithrakas-Kontos (Technical University of Crete, Analytical and Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, University Campus, 731 00 Chania, Greece )

Cinnabar is the principal ore of the mercury. In very early times artificial cinnabar or vermilion was prepared by recombining the elements mercury and sulfur. The historic source for cinnabar were the famous Almaden mines in Spain, which are still the world's most important source of mercury. Cinnabar is fairly widely distributed in nature and sources are known in England, Spain, Italy, China, Japan, California, Mexico and Peru.

The pigment vermilion has been identified numerous times in Pompeian and Roman wall paintings. The first known use of cinnabar is referred in the dolmenic burial "La Velilla", in Osorno (Palencia, Spain), where well-preserved human bones were carefully covered by large amount of pulverized cinnabar (5000 B.C.). Human bonds coated with a paint containing cinnabar were discovered in a 900-1000 A.D. tomb in a "Middle Sican" burial in Peru. Cinnabar was found in "El Algar Culture" tombs in southeast Spain, and mercury was found in an amulet in an Egyptian tomb dated around the 16th century B.C. The mercury-based composition of the cinnabar makes the preservation of the osseous remains possible by preventing the activity of destructive microorganisms. Moreover, in Paracelsus's time (15th century) people used cinnabar to treat epidemic new diseases and exanthematic typhus, while the scientific use of cinnabar in embalming arose as late as the 19th century.The pigment vermilion has been identified numerous times in Pompeian and Roman wall paintings. The first known use of cinnabar is referred in the dolmenic burial "La Velilla", in Osorno (Palencia, Spain), where well-preserved human bones were carefully covered by large amount of pulverized cinnabar (5000 B.C.). Human bonds coated with a paint containing cinnabar were discovered in a 900-1000 A.D. tomb in a "Middle Sican" burial in Peru. Cinnabar was found in "El Algar Culture" tombs in southeast Spain, and mercury was found in an amulet in an Egyptian tomb dated around the 16th century B.C. The mercury-based composition of the cinnabar makes the preservation of the osseous remains possible by preventing the activity of destructive microorganisms. Moreover, in Paracelsus's time (15th century) people used cinnabar to treat epidemic new diseases and exanthematic typhus, while the scientific use of cinnabar in embalming arose as late as the 19th century.

In the present work results are given on the investigation of cinnabar in Hellenistic family tombs, in Chania, Crete, dating back to the third century B.C. In these graves together with the corpses a number of items embedded in the ground were found. It is notice worthy a red sediment mixed with clays, which is found dispread in three tombs. These red micro-grains consist of cinnabar of high purity, as it has been proved by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) analyses supported this result.

The presence of cinnabar posed a number of questions about both its use and origin. Since the pigment has been found in restricted areas in the tombs, it seems reasonable to rule out its preservative use on the whole corpse. The hypotheses of its use as a cosmetic powder and/or its ritual use (e.g. the color might have been spread on a support unfortunately lost), seem more reliable considering that the pigment was found mixed with a clay-type material of fine grain size.