Mass spectrometry analysis used to date giant Buddhas in Afghanistan
MAR 02, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025096
Science : Studies of the ruins of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan, which were destroyed by the Taliban a decade ago, reveal new details about how they were made and what they originally looked like. The statues—originally 38 and 55 meters high—were carved into the sandstone cliffs of the Bamiyan Valley some 1500 years ago. Employing mass spectrometry analysis, a team led by Erwin Emmerling of the Technical University of Munich in Germany used organic material in the clay layers in the rubble to determine more precisely when the statues were created and found that, at one time, one was red and the other white. “The Buddhas once had an intensely colorful appearance,” Emmerling said in a statement, and they were painted over several times.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
