CAI Miaomiao ¹, LI Mingke ¹, MA Yu ², HUI Na ², JING Yaya ¹, WEI Yanfei ¹, LIU Bingbing ¹

(1. Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Lanzhou 730030, Gansu, China;
2. Qin Shihuang Mausoleum site Museum, Xi'an 710600, Shaanxi, China)

Abstract: A variety of pigments were used in the painted pottery figurines and horse-riding figurines unearthed from Murongzhi'stomb. Selected pigments were detected and analyzed by using polarized light microscope, confocal Raman microscope, scanningelectron microscope-energy spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), profile analysis and other technical means. It was found that the bright redand pink pigments are a mixture of cinnabar and red lead and both contain CaCO₃. The orange-red pigment is Fron (Ⅲ) oxide,which contains CaCO₃ and Al/Si oxides. The blue dye is indigo, which contains calcium sulfate and quartz. The black pigment iscarbon black and contains CaCO₃, while the white pigment is gypsum. There is only one painted layer on the surface of thepottery figurines, whereas the painted layers vary in thickness.
Key words: Tuyuhun; pottery painted cultural relics; pigments; Raman spectroscopy; polarized ligh