Abstract.
The authenticity and provenience of what is known as the Francisco Pizarro’s Banner of Arms, stored at the National Museum of Colombia and related to the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, has been the object of debate amongst both historians and conservation experts for the last two centuries. In this study, a multi-analytical approach has been adopted to assess if the materials used in the making of the banner were compatible with the historical period assigned by historians. 25 micro samples were collected in different sections of the banner and subjected to microscopic, chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques to characterize the materials. Selected samples were also subjected to radiocarbon dating analysis. Analytical results enabled the identification of silk as the main fabric used in the making of the banner; cochineal, brazilwood and indigo were used as natural dyes while metal threads were utilized for decorative purposes. Paper with animal adhesive was used as the supporting material. The manufacturing technique together with radiocarbon dating data suggest the banner to be an original textile from the 15-16th centuries, possibly made at the time of King Charles I of Spain.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M.E. King, Am. Antiq. 43, 89 (1978)
A.W. Smith, J. Soc. Archiv. 20, 25 (1999)
I. Good, Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 30, 209 (2001)
E.A. Strand, K.M. Frei, M. Gleba, U. Mannering, M.L. Nosh, I. Skals, Eur. J. Archaeol. 13, 149 (2010)
I.C.A. Sandu, M.H. de Sá, M.C. Pereira, Surf. Interface Anal. 43, 1134 (2011)
T. Ferreira, H. Moreiras, A. Manhita, P. Tomaz, J. Mirão, C.B. Dias, A.T. Caldeira, Microsc. Microanal. 21, 2 (2015)
M. Járó, Metal Threads in Historical Textiles, in Molecular and Structural Archaeology: Cosmetic and Therapeutic Chemicals, edited by G. Tsoucaris, J. Lipkowski (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2003) pp. 163--178
M. Járó, Gold Bull. 23, 40 (1990)
M.A. Hubbe, C. Bowden, BioResources 4, 1736 (2009)
K.D. Vickerman, Papermaking: Then and Now. A History of Hand Papermaking from Its Beginning, Plus a Process for Using Natural Fibers To Make Paper, ERIC-Educational Resources Information Center (1995)
R.I. Burns, Pac. Hist. Rev. 50, 1 (1981)
E. Rosenberg, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 391, 33 (2008)
K. Lech, M. Jarosz, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 399, 3241 (2011)
C. Mouri, V. Mozaffarian, X. Zhang, R. Laursen, Dyes Pigm. 100, 135 (2014)
I. Petroviciu, F. Albu, A. Medvedovici, Microchem. J. 95, 247 (2010)
M. Wilding, Optical microscopy for textile fibre identification, in Identification of Textile Fibers, edited by M.M. Houck (Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, England, 2009) pp. 133--157
P. Garside, The role of fibre identification in textile conservation, in Identification of Textile Fibers, edited by M.M. Houck (Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, England, 2009) pp. 335--365
M.L. Ryder, T. Gabra-Sanders, Text. Hist. 16, 123 (1985)
A.M. Donald, Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy, in Polymer Science: A Comprehensive Reference, edited by T. Hashimoto, H.W. Spiess, M. Takenaka, Vol. 2 -- Polymer Characterization (Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2012) pp. 539--545
M. Ballard, R.J. Koestler, C. Blair, N. Indictor, Historical Silk Flags Studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry, in Archaeological Chemistry IV, edited by R.O. Allen (American Chemical Society, Washington DC, USA, 1989) pp. 419--428
L.K. Herrera, A. Justo, A. Duran, M.C.J. De Haro, M.L. Franquelo, J.L. Perez-Rodríguez, Appl. Phys. A 99, 391 (2010)
N.D. Bernardino, D.L.A. de Faria, A.C.V. Negrão, J. Archaeol. Sci. Rep. 4, 23 (2015)
L. Bellot-Gurlet, S. Pagès-Camagna, C. Coupry, J. Raman Spectrosc. 37, 962 (2006)
S.W. Lewis, Analysis of dyes using chromatography, in Identification of Textile Fibers, edited by M.M. Houck (Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, England, 2009) pp. 203--223
A. Serrano, A. Van den Doel, M. van Bommel, J. Hallett, I. Joosten, K.J. van den Berg, Anal. Chim. Acta 897, 116 (2015)
I. Surowiec, A. Quye, M. Trojanowicz, J. Chromatogr. A 1112, 209 (2006)
A. Manhita, L. Balcaen, F. Vanhaecke, T. Ferreira, A. Candeias, C.B. Dias, J. Cult. Herit. 15, 292 (2014)
J.M. Challinor, J. Anal. Appl. Pyrolysis 37, 185 (1996)
T. Ohra-aho, M. Tenkanen, T. Tamminen, J. Anal. Appl. Pyrolysis 74, 123 (2005)
U. Zoppi, Q. Hua, G. Jacobsen, G. Sarkissian, E.M. Lawson, C. Tuniz, L. Laurencich Minelli, Nucl. Instrum. Methods B 172, 756 (2000)
M.E. Fedi, A. Cartocci, F. Taccetti, P.A. Mandò, Nucl. Instrum. Methods B 266, 2251 (2008)
U. Mannering, G. Possnert, J. Heinemeier, M. Gleba, J. Archaeol. Sci. 37, 261 (2010)
D. Hobbs, Mar. Mirror 80, 388 (1994)
K.A. Cerulo, Sociol. Forum 8, 243 (1993)
C. King, Mar. Mirror 38, 84 (1952)
R. Shanafelt, Polit. Life Sci. 27, 13 (2008)
F. Lennard, N. Pollak, C. Lin, W.-P. Chen, J. Inst. Conserv. 36, 3 (2013)
L. Castelblanco, El estandarte de Francisco Pizarro: Caracterización del textil que alberga el museo nacional de Colombia, Bachelor Thesis, Externado University, 2013
S.K. Vyas, S.R. Shukla, J. Text. Inst. 107, 191 (2016)
S. Takeda, in Encyclopedia of Insects, Second Ed., edited by V.H. Resh, R.T. Cardé (Academic Press, San Diego, 2009) pp. 117--119
V. Jauzein, P. Colomban, in Handbook of Tensile Properties of Textiles and Technical Fibers, edited by A.R. Bunsell (Woodhead Publishing, 2009) pp. 144--178
D. Badillo-Sanchez, D. Chelazzi, R. Giorgi, A. Cincinelli, P. Baglioni, Polym. Degrad. Stab. 157, 53 (2018)
L. Fernández, Tratado instructivo y practico sobre el arte de la Tintura: reglas experimentadas y metódicas para tintar sedas, lanas, hilos de todas clases, y esparto em rama (Blas Roman, Madrid, 1778)
D. Huang, Z. Peng, Z. Hu, S. Zhang, J. He, L. Cao, Y. Zhou, F. Zhao, React. Funct. Polym. 73, 168 (2013)
N. Luxford, D. Thickett, J. Inst. Conserv. 34, 115 (2011)
J. Liu, D. Guo, Y. Zhou, Z. Wu, W. Li, F. Zhao, X. Zheng, J. Archaeol. Sci. 38, 1763 (2011)
E. Phipps, J. Hecht, C.E. Martín, The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530–1830 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004)
M. Gutiérrez-Poch, Is There a Southern European Model? Development of the Pulp and Paper Industry in Italy, Spain and Portugal (1800–2010), in The Evolution of Global Paper Industry 1800–2050, edited by J.-A. Lamberg, J. Ojala, M. Peltoniemi, T. Särkkä (Springer, Netherlands, 2012) pp. 211--242
T.G. Weiszburg, K. Gherdán, K. Ratter, N. Zajzon, Z. Bendő, G. Radnóczi, Á. Takács, T. Váczi, G. Varga, G. Szakmány, Anal. Chem. 89, 10753 (2017)
J.L. Perez-Rodriguez, A. Albardonedo, M.D. Robador, A. Duran, Microsc. Microanal. 24, 574 (2018)
J.V. García Marsilla, Los colores del têxtil. Los tintes y el teñido de los paños en la Valencia medieval, in L’Histoire à la source: acter, compter, enregistrer (Catalogne, Savoie, Italie, XIIe- XVe siècle), edited by G. Castelnuovo, S. Victor (Université Savoie Mont Blanc, 2017) pp. 283--315
E.S.B. Ferreira, A.N. Hulme, H. McNab, A. Quye, Chem. Soc. Rev. 33, 329 (2004)
J. Edmonds, Medieval Textile Dyeing (John Edmonds, 2012)
M.R. Schilling, A. Heginbotham, H. van Keulen, M. Szelewski, Stud. Conserv. 61, 3 (2016)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
The EPJ Publishers remain neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Badillo-Sanchez, D.A., Barrocas Dias, C., Manhita, A. et al. The National Museum of Colombia’s “Francisco Pizarro’s Banner of Arms”: A multianalytical approach to help uncovering its history. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 134, 224 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2019-12747-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2019-12747-2