Scratching the surface

Researchers have determined the original coloration of the menorah panel on the Arch of Titus.

By ATARA BECK
Scratching the surface (photo credit: Courtesy: Yeshiva University)
Scratching the surface
(photo credit: Courtesy: Yeshiva University)
An international team of scholars has provided a glimpse of the colors used to decorate the sacred vessels of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, in the first phase of a digital restoration project.
Using 3D scanning technology and non-invasive UVVIS absorption spectrometry, the team – led by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies (CIS) in partnership with the Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Rome – has successfully determined the original coloration of the menorah panel on the Arch of Titus.
The results were announced recently: Traces of yellow ochre were found on the arms and base of the menorah, which is consistent with biblical, early Christian and talmudic writings, as well as with first-century historian Flavius Josephus’s descriptions.
The Arch of Titus commemorates the Roman victory in the first Jewish-Roman War (66-73 CE), also known as the Great Revolt. It was the first of three major rebellions in Judea against the Roman Empire. The monument contains bas-reliefs of Titus’s triumphal procession in Rome, with the seven-branched menorah as the central focus.
“The menorah on the Arch of Titus has been a symbol of Jewish resolve for 2,000 years and is now the symbol of modern Israel,” affirms Prof. Steven Fine, the project’s supervisor. “To see its original golden color again is thrilling. I can’t wait to see what we find next.”
Fellow team member Cinzia Conti, an Italian archeologist, explains that “the Archaeological Superintendency supported this project because studying a monument like the Arch of Titus makes it possible to appreciate how it was made and offers a better basis for protecting and conserving it. The study of the way the reliefs were painted promises to bring the arch back to life by showing us how it looked when it was first erected.”
Dr. Heinrich Piening, senior conservator at the State of Bavaria Department for the Conservation of Castles, Gardens and Lakes, was responsible for detecting the color traces on the menorah relief. The arch had been well preserved, and the non-invasive technique prevented risk of damage.
The scholars plan to expand the search for ancient paint over the entire surface of the arch, which will also be scanned in 3D.
According to CIS, the data collected will enable the creation of a three-dimensional, digital model of the arch as it originally appeared, including the colors decorating its surface. The model will become part of the Virginia-based Rome Reborn initiative, which aims to create 3D digital models illustrating the urban development of ancient Rome.
Rome Reborn’s director, University of Virginia professor Bernard Frischer, heads the technology team of the YU project.
This project was the first to combine advances in technology and historiography in order to re-imagine the arch as it appeared 2,000 years ago. The conclusions should have major significance not only for the interpretation of Roman architecture – as no monument of that period had yet been subjected to pigmentation analysis – but also for the study of sacred vessels of the Second Temple in the first century CE and the Herodian building projects in ancient Judea.
“We want to make a very accurate 3D model of the relief,” says Frischer, a world-renowned digital archeologist. “We try to conserve and protect the actual physical remains.”
Known as a “digital humanist,” Frischer, who led a team that focused on the technical retrieval of evidence of polychromy, regularly lectures on the topic of consilience – the unity of different fields of knowledge – and he acknowledges that this project is a wonderful example of the great potential in the integration of arts and sciences.
“Only the humanities could decipher the significance [of the findings],” he asserts. “We all could make our own contributions as long as we work together. Also, what I love about this project is all the different nations working together...It’s an international project, so reflective of the age we live in.”
He adds that “when you become a scholar of Rome, you see that scholars share what they know. They’re not possessive, which is common in many other fields. It’s important that we all collaborate. No project is isolated. There’s history, art, culture, science. It’s too much for one person. We all understand that.”
Piening, too, expresses satisfaction with the group’s teamwork.
“Examining an artwork of such historical importance in an international and interreligious group of experts is a highly rewarding experience,” he says.
The participants also included senior scientist Peter Schertz of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Paolo Liverani of the University of Florence; and Yeshiva University professors Louis H. Feldman (project co-director), Lawrence H.
Schiffman and William Stenhouse. Schertz led a team that focused on the Roman context of the arch, including the topographical, artistic and political issues.
Fine’s initial interest in the menorah was piqued during high school, when he visited Neot Kedumim, a biblical landscape reserve between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
A sixth-century liturgical poet named Yannai “describes the menorah [as] being in gold of multiple colors, so I began thinking about this color question and how you could color different types of metal.”
For Fine, the emotional impact of working on the arch was profound.
“After 2,000 years, there I was, with my YU flag, facing the menorah, and I couldn’t stop staring,” he says. “Finally one of the others yells up at me to hurry. I couldn’t allow myself to touch it; it was just too close.”
He wasn’t the only one; the entire team, Jews and non-Jews, found the experience intensely moving, he says.
Discussing the “kindness and decency” of the Antiquities Authority in Rome, Fine stresses that it was always eager to help, and he dismisses as “urban legend” oft-repeated tales about the menorah still being hidden in the Vatican. It could not possibly have survived the destruction of Rome in the fifth century, he maintains.
According to Frischer, “the success of the pilot project bodes well for achieving our overall goal of digitally restoring the arch to its original glory.