The more highly Raman scatteringpigments such as vermilion could be readily identified, however, the intense background fluorescence in some spectra made some pigments, such as red ochre, much more difficult to identify unambiguously as shown in the two spectra. [...] Using the spectrometer in confocal mode does have the effect of reducing fluorescence which often impairs the use of this technique on ageing artifacts, making material identification less certain, while microtoming the samples was found to produce completely clean, flat surfaces from which clear Raman spectra could be obtained and the pigments, therefore, identified unambiguously.