Scientific Research on Materials and Techniques for ancient Gold and Silver Objects

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Gold has been admired from the ancient time in all over the world, because it has the characteristic color and is not easily corroded. In ancient Japan, of course, it was the special metal to the ancient people ; but, it had been very rare until the Kofun period. Most of ancient metal objects with gold surface, which were excavated in Japan, were fabricated from copper or copper alloys. Their surfaces were treated by gilding, especially by fire gilding with gold amalgam for obtaining brilliant appearance. Some ancient gold and silver objects excavated in Japan were examined with a X-ray fluorescence analyzer and a scanning electron microscope. The gold composition in ancient gold objects was 17-23K.The suitable composition must have been selected depending on the purpose. Silver of over 92% purify was used for most ancient silver objects excavated in Japan. It was revealed silver brazing was utilized as the jointing technique.