A Study of the Deterioration of Egyptian Limestone Sculpture

"The decay of some Egyptian limestone sculptures during storage ina museum environment has been investigated using a variety of analyticaltechniques. (..) The results suggest that the mineralogy of the limestone,in particular the clay content, and the level and nature of soluble salts,particularly of soluble nitrates, are important factors in determining thenature and degree of any decay. The results also indicate that differenttypes of limestone were used at different sites which accounts for thehigh proportion of badly deteriorated sculpture attributed to sitesaround Thebes and Abydos. This also suggests a possible techniquefor determining the provenance of Egyptian limestone objects."