Artistic Technologies in Making Women Silver Jewelry in Sistan and Baluchistan Province

Abstract

Women traditional and indigenous metal jewelry making in Sistan and Baluchistan Province has been one of the most important decorative works used until a few decades ago. These works have been included in various designs and models. They are of the most prominent artistic technologies in Southeast Iran. They are being forgotten today and there is a need for extensive research in this field. For this reason, in the present study, it is attempted to study Baluchi women traditional jewelry making arts to investigate the methods, structures and materials used in the artworks. To this end, in the present study, 9 samples of conventional jewelries of Baluchi women are examined using metallurgical experiments optical microscopy (OM), radiography, computerized tomography scan (CT-Scan), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. Structural analysis of metal jewelry shows that the base metal of the jewelries is entirely made of silver-copper alloy with a eutectic structure by using casting methods. Moreover, the elemental and compound analysis identifies the two elements of silver and copper with the highest amount in the compound of the alloy, respectively. Also, the type of connections, the type of soldering and the type of metal core of the jewelries are examined using radiography and computerized tomography scan (CT-Scan).

Keywords

• silver jewelry
• characterization
• radiography
• metallography
• (ct-scan)
• xrf
• xrd