• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.22
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• pp.87-98
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• 2008

Microstructures and chemical compositions of 24 bronze mirrors recovered from the Korean peninsula were examined using the scanning electron microscope equipped with the energy dispersive spectrometer in an effort to characterize the treatments applied on their surface. Their provenance and chronology are mostly unspecified except for two objects from a Koryo burial site. In antiquity the surface of bronze mirrors was frequently finished by mere polishing when their tin content was high enough to guarantee the required reflectivity. In many cases, however, their surface was given a special treatment. The most typical treatment was to coat the surface with tin in two different processes referred to as wipe-tinning and amalgam-tinning. In wipe-tinning only tin was used, but in amalgam-tinning tin and mercury were used together. The surface was often coated with mercury in a process known as mercury-polishing. The present mirrors showed that all these techniques were in fact practiced, not only on the reflective surface but, in some cases, on the decorative surface. The detection of mercury played a crucial role in the assessment of a specific technique applied in each mirror. Mercury often remained in the substrate in the form of sulfide and thereby allowed the method of surface treatment to be estimated even when the coated layer was completely lost. The future study is expected to uncover the regional and temporal variation of the surface treatments to the better understanding of bronze mirrors with respect to provenance and chronology.