Metallographic study of gold amalgams and gilding technology of Medieval Islamic Gilded Objects from the Iberian Peninsula

This work deals with with the Islamic technique of mercury fire gilding that was employed in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. A gilded object from the Islamic city of Qalat Rabah would be submitted to a metallographic study in order to provide new data about this gilding technique. The objects recovered from Qalat Rabah date from the Xth to the XIVth and there appear both Muslim and Christian typologies amongst them. Mercury fire gilding technique is mentioned in the Islamic written sources, and as the Omeyad Caliphate administrates Almaden mines, one of the most important cinnabar (HgS) sites of the world, it is reasonable to think that mercury fire gilding was well known by the Islamic goldsmiths. To sum up, this paper, which combines the study of composition and morphology of the gilded layer and of the Islamic gilding technology, will contribute to a better comprehension of mercury fire gilding, an uncommon technique in central Europe, where cinnabar were scarce, but usual in the Iberian Peninsula.