THE STONE BLEEDING PHENOMENON AFFECTING SOME SANDSTONE INSCRIPTIONS IN THE KARNAK TEMPLES

Abstract

: Stone bleeding affecting the sandstone artifacts is considered one of the most deterioration forms that dominated the Karnak temples complex . This symptom is a serious deterioration form resulting essentially due to losing the binding material of the stone as a result of the synergistic deterioration factors and their related mechanisms (witting/drying & heating/cooling) cycles . This form is composed of an external hard crust with weak interior components that can be loosed by scratching, causing the bleeding of quartz grains. Some analytical techniques were used, such as SEM-EDX, XRD, and AAS, to define the main essence of this symptom and understand the chemical and mineralogical components. The main results of this study showed that stone bleeding is formed essentially by environmental deterioration factors, especially saline groundwater that causes the weakening of the interior components of the stone and dissolving the binding of its materials.