ARCHAEOMETRIC STUDY OF BLACK RESIN OF A LATE PERIOD COFFIN BY GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY-MASS SPECTROMETRY

This paper aims to identify black resin's composition, beginning, and uses. Black resin was a resinous material used to cover the funerary wooden artifacts in the New Kingdom. It was used for religious purposes and for covering coffins, shabti statues and boxes, stelae, human and animal statues, statue bases, and canopic chests. First, black resin was used in the era of Hatshepsut. Then, its use expanded in the era of Thutmose III. Therefore, the New Kingdom was the golden era of its use. In the New Kingdom, black resin was glossier than later times. The study utilized gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) attached with Thermal Separation Probe (TSP) unit was used to analyze the black resin sample. Black resin is made from natural resins, such as mastic, colophony, beeswax, bitumen, and unknown compounds. The layer of black resin has, in its complexes, a group of natural resins and other substances whose properties are anti-fungal and antibacterial. It also has insect repelling properties. Natural resins contain essential oil. Mastic resin was of high value in Ancient Egypt. The sample was taken from a coffin dating back to the Late period, in the 26th dynasty to be analyzed because identifying its composition helps choose the best material for chemical cleaning and consolidation. The coffin under investigation was covered externally with a ground layer and a painted layer, while internally it was covered with a layer of black resin.