ToF-SIMS is a very sensitive technique for the study of both mineral and organic compounds. The aim was to access the chemical composition and organization of the patinas deposited on African ritual statues and to see if they can be compared to ethnological reports. Specific distribution of different minerals (quartz, kaolinite, ...) or organic classes (lipids, polysaccharides, proteins, blood, ...) allows us to distinguish two types of ritual patina [5]. The patina of the most recent statuettes presents a stratigraphy which can be related to successive uses of the objects for ritual purposes, and for the older objects, the significant quantity of minerals and the lack of stratigraphy suggest that the patina was deposited according to a different recipe.
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