ORIGINAL PAPER A multi-analytical approach to characterize an Early Bronze Age cosmetic material from Müslümantepe, Southeastern Anatolia Eyyüp Ay & Mustafa Kibaroğlu & Christoph Berthold Received: 20 September 2013 /Accepted: 13 November 2013 /Published online: 26 November 2013 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Abstract The present paper reports the chemical and miner- alogical composition of a black pigment material contained in a Syrian Bottle-shaped vessel excavated on an Early Bronze Age grave in Müslümantepe, a site located at the right bank of the Tigris River in Southeastern Anatolia. A combination of different analytical tools like state-of-the-art non-destructive μ-XRD 2 , μ-XRF and μ-Raman spectroscopy compared to classical powder XRD was used to characterize the content of the bottle. The results attest the presence of a manganese mineral (pyrolusite) most probably used for cosmetic pur- poses. This is the first evidence, which is scientifically tested, of the earliest use of cosmetics in the Upper Tigris of Southeastern Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age period, c. 2700–2550 BC . Keywords Black pigment . X-ray micro-diffraction . Upper Tigris . Early Bronze Age Introduction The use of various pigmenting materials for cosmetic purpose in ancient Near East can be attested in the third millennium BC . A series of make-up kits found within graves of the Royal Cemetery of Ur (c. 2600 BC ) contained a variety of pigments: white, black, yellow, red, blue and green. They are important sources to understand the everyday life of elite members of the ancient Mesopotamian (e.g. Moorey 1994, pp. 138–139; Rhea and Nejat 1998, p. 157). Ancient Egyptians also used a wide variety of pigmenting materials for make-up. Archaeometric studies on these materials using microscopy and micro- chemical methods revealed that they were very often lead- based compounds such as galena (lead sulphide) and cerussite (lead carbonate). Pyrolusite (manganese dioxide), chrysocolla (hydrated copper silicate) and malachite (copper carbonate) were also used (Martinetto et al. 2000, p. 298). So far, in Upper Tigris of Southeastern Anatolia, the evidence of pig- ment materials used for cosmetic purpose is absent. In recent excavations in Müslümantepe located in Upper Tigris (Fig. 1), a black pigment material contained in a small vessel in the shape of the Syrian Bottle was excavated at the Bronze Age cemetery (Figs. 1c and 2a–c). It is considered by archaeolo- gists that the material was probably used as cosmetics. In this paper, we report the mineralogical and chemical analysis carried out on this black pigment material to identify and characterize this material using a multi-instrumental ap- proach: X-ray micro-diffraction (μ-XRD 2 ), X-ray micro- fluorescence (μ-XRF) and μ-Raman spectroscopy as well as to get information about its possible custom. The results are compared to those available in the literature corresponding to other findings of pigments from archaeological sites of ancient Near East cultures. Site and sample Müslümantepe is located on the right bank of the Upper Tigris River, c. 24 km southwest of the Bismil district in Diyarbakı r province (37°48 ′ 15.90 ″ N 40°56′ 10.63 ″ E, Fig. 1a–c). The excavation was initiated in the year 2000 as a rescue excavation within the framework of the Ilisu Dam E. Ay Department of Archaeology, University of Gaziantep, 27310 Şehitkamil, Gaziantep, Turkey M. Kibaroğlu (*) Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Grüneburgplatz 1, 60629 Frankfurt am Main, Germany e-mail: kibaroglu@gmail.com C. Berthold Applied Mineralogy, Department III Geoscience, Faculty of Science, Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen, Wilhelmstr. 56, 72074 Tübingen, Germany Archaeol Anthropol Sci (2014) 6:125–131 DOI 10.1007/s12520-013-0166-z