Study of a Painted Metal Plate from a Slab Grave on the Eski-Kermen Plateau

The technological features of fragments of a polychrome painted six-petal rosette are studied on a metal plate from a slab grave on the Eski-Kermen plateau. The pigments are analyzed by means of large-scale mapping with the application of X-ray fluorescence analysis and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis. The composition of the binders is identified using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. It is found that red paint of a mixed composition of cinnabar and minium, carbon black pigment, and lead yellow were used. The paints were mixed using glue made from the bones or skins of ruminants. The increased tin content in the primer samples from the surface of the plate, the presence of resin and the complete absence of vegetable-oil traces allowed us to assume that signs of two technological operations are detected: tinning of the plate using tin and resin and painting with pigments mixed with bone glue. The traces of these operations are mixed due to the peculiarities of degradation of the adhesive paint layer and the metal base.