X-ray revealed "drafts" under the portraits of the ancient Egyptian necropolis

A team of researchers studied the painting of the Theban necropolis in Egypt using X-ray fluorescence, one of the methods of spectral analysis of matter. It allowed discover under the paint, the first sketches that the artist made 3,100 years ago.

The drawings are in the Theban necropolis near the Nile. We are talking about two tombs that date back to the reign of Ramses II (approximately 1330-1069 BC). Menna, a manager under Amenhotep III, and Nakhtamun, head of the altar of the funerary temple during the 20th dynasty of Ancient Egypt, are buried in them. The authors of the study note that the tomb of Menna is considered the apogee of ancient Egyptian painting, while the drawings of the tomb of Nakhtamun are still underestimated and little known.

The new study focuses on two drawings. In the portrait of Menna, X-ray fluorescence analysis revealed a third hand. Most likely, it was painted over when the artist decided to change the position of the left hand of the depicted. The authors noted that they did not find another reason, but just in case they warned that we do not know the aesthetic preferences of the people of that era: all of a sudden then having three hands in a portrait was a rush of fashion.

The second studied portrait depicts Ramses II. Here the paint also hid a couple of unexpected moments. One of them is a growing beard, an element atypical for ancient Egyptian painting in general and images of pharaohs in particular. The second detail is the shebyu necklace, which disappeared from the final version of the drawing. Such decoration is not typical for images of Ramses II, but archaeologists did not name a possible reason for the removal from the portrait.

Ancient Egyptian drawings have been studied for centuries, but the development of archaeological technology in recent for decades, allows scientists to make new discoveries - like this analysis of portraits from Theban necropolis.