• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.11
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

Conservation re-treatment of dagger and scabbard in Gyeongju National Museum, which were excavated from Gyerim-ro Tomb No. 14 (Treasure No. 635) was carried out after a wide-scale dissembling in order for publishing a report and holding a special exhibition. The interior shape of the iron dagger which was disclosed by ornament plates was confirmed by X-ray investigation. The results of XRF analysis which was used to analyse compositions of the golden ornament plates reveal that having more than 3% of copper distinguishes it from other Silla gold artifacts. The conservation treatment progressed in a way that surface contaminants were removed and insecure areas were consolidated. The original shape of the iron dagger and scabbard was found after adhering and restoration. With the ornament plates staying on the iron dagger, a stand in acrylic for display and storage was made, which is able to place the dagger and scabbard in the safest way.

• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.16
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• pp.4-13
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• 2015

In most gold objects crafted using the granulation technique that have been thus far discovered in the Korean Peninsula, granules were joined using a soldering alloy of gold and silver. However, it was recently revealed through SEM-EDS analysis performed on the ornamented dagger sheath from Gyerim-ro Tomb No.14 in Gyeongju that the gold granules were joined to the surface of this sheath using an entirely different technique. The gold granules on the Gyerim-ro dagger sheath are evenly sized and shaped, the surface has a dendritic texture. Dendritic textures are a characteristic feature of metal alloys, not observed in pure metals. As a matter of fact, the gold granules were made of a ternary alloy of 77wt% Au, 18wt% Ag and 4wt% Cu. Due to this component, the alloy has a melting point below 1000℃ (approximately 980℃), which is significantly lower than 1064℃, the melting temperature of pure gold. This makes it possible to join the gold granules directly to the surface of the sheath by briefly heating them to high temperature, without the use of soldering or any other media. When examined through SEM image, the surface of the sheath showed no traces of soldering, it suggests that the granules were joined through unaided fusion.