ArticleAnalytical and bioanalytical chemistry2025
Characterization of ultramarine blue in Roman wall paintings: case study from Volsinii (Bolsena, Italy).
Article in Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The identification of blue pigments in Roman wall paintings provides crucial insights into the materials, artistic techniques, and trade routes in the antiquity. The present study focuses on the analysis of a blue pigment lump discovered at Ponticello (Bolsena, Italy) initially thought to be Egyptian blue. The lump pigment is compared with two synthetic ultramarine pigments (Poggi and Divolo), "Herculaneum blue," Egyptian blue, and natural lapis lazuli from Monte Somma, Italy. Through a multi-analytical approach that comprehends energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectroscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), the pigment was univocally identified as natural lazurite, the primary component of lapis lazuli. Chemometrics, including principal component analysis (PCA), was applied to the ED-XRF data to reveal patterns in the elemental composition of the samples. This finding is significant as ultramarine blue was a rare and expensive material in Roman times, which was traditionally sourced from distant regions like Afghanistan. While this study does not aim to determine the geographical provenance of the pigment, it offers important insights into Roman artistic practices, economic resources, and trade networks. Future research will explore the chemical composition of the pigments present in the frescoes from the archaeological area of Volsinii to provide important further insights into ancient material exchanges.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.