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ABSTRACT
A piece of polychrome and gilded cartonnage mask was excavated by the Ministry of Antiquities in Saqqara region. It belongs to the late period. The mask upon mummy presented a gilded face with heavy wig height 30–40 cm was painted with green, black eye brow and red mouth. Cartonnage is a composite material consists of organic support contains many glued layers of linen or papyri that have ground painting layers. It suffers from many deterioration aspects (microbial pigments, and flaking most likely due to inappropriate storage. Examination study was performed to analyze and investigate the ground painting and gilding layer of the cartonnage by optical light microscopy, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results confirmed that the degradation factors affecting on the painted, gilded cartonnage was attributed to the direct effects of microbial phenomena, which have led to many deterioration forms (macro- and micro cracks, flaking, coloration, scaling and defoliation microbiological spots). Three Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus cereus, Bacillus licheniformis and Staphylococcus aureus), two Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and four fungal species (Aspergillus flavus, Botrytes cinerea, Fusarium moniliforme, and Verticillium albo-atrum) were isolated from archeological gilded painted cartonnage. Antibacterial and antifungal activities of three shapes (rods, spheres and prisms) of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were tested against the isolated deteriorated microbial species. The rod-shaped gold nanoparticles have high potential antibacterial and antifungal activity reaching to the maximum significant inhibition (8- and 9-cm inhibition zones) against the most sensitive bacterial and fungal species (B. cereus and A. flavus, respectively) accompanied with leakage of protein and nucleic acid, sugars and electrolytes. Disturbance in the blood picture of guinea pigs infected with the most resistant species (P. aeruginosa and F. moniliforme) were showed. The rod-shaped gold nanoparticles were safe and successful in curing the tested inoculated guinea pigs.