Sustainable Heritage Management requires complex knowledge, transdisciplinary approaches, and diverse competencies to meet the multiple challenges of heritage management, policy, and research. Understanding and appreciating the links between humans, the environment, and anthropogenic, tangible cultural heritage are critical in this endeavour. Innovative accelerator science and technology...
The radiocarbon dating method, which was developed in the early 1950’s, is an essential chronometer for studying human history. An advent of the accelerator mass spectrometry AMS and a substantial downscaling of sample sizes from grams to milligrams of the material opened the doors for dating precious objects of cultural heritage.
The material studied typically is parchment, textiles,...
As well as being a picture gallery, this museum holds the largest collection of European armour in London, and one of the best collections of Indo-Persian swords and armour outside the subcontinent.
While it is possible to analyse plate armour by microscopic examination of a cut edge, or a fragment detached from a hidden interior damaged surface, such as a sample from the helmet of King Henry...
The Nuclear and Energy Research Institute – IPEN through the Multipurpose Gamma Irradiation Facility and the Electron Beam Irradiation Facilities has disinfected several tangible cultural collections from the University of São Paulo – USP. Brazilian weather conditions added to the actions of insects and fungi promote biodegradation especially in cellulose based materials. In this sense,...
Two success stories on the characterization of cultural heritage in Mexico and Chile using accelerator-based techniques will be presented and discussed.
The first case is the determination of the authenticity of the Mayan Codex of Mexico (MCM). The Mesoamerican codices are documents describing pre-Hispanic history and cosmogony. The MCM was unveiled in 1971 during an exhibition at the...
Lapis lazuli is a semi-precious blue stone, used since the VII millennium BCE for the manufacturing of small carved artifacts (e.g. jewels, seals, amulets) in the Ancient Middle East and in part of Central and Southern Asia. The Badakhshan mines in Afghanistan are generally considered the most plausible hypothesis for the origin of the lapis lazuli used in antiquity[1]; however, the limited...
A set of glazed beads was discovered in Lisbon during an archaeological survey performed on an ancient vessel. The archaeological interpretations allow a chronological framework in the period between the last quarter of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Questions arise regarding the provenance of the accounts, as these can provide clues about the route traced by the...
Neutron imaging is one of the advanced tomography techniques similar to X-ray scanning with an outstanding ability to visualize the internal structure, in a non-destructive way. Contrary to X-rays, which interact with the electrons of the atom, neutrons dominantly interact with the nucleus of the atom since neutrons are electrically neutral. Therefore, neutrons have a remarkable penetrating...
Neutron imaging is a non-destructive testing method working along similar principles as the more common X-ray imaging methods. Due to different interaction behaviour with matter it provides different and partially complementary results. Contrary to X-rays, neutrons can penetrate many metals and heavy elements relatively easy, while they show at the same time high sensitivity for some light...
Muonic X-ray Emission Spectroscopy (µXES) is a rather novel technique based upon the interaction of a negative muon beam with matter. This process leads to the production of high energy x-rays (from ~20 keV of Lithium up to ~6500 keV of Uranium), that are characteristic of the emitting atom and can be used for elemental characterization. Over the last few decades, the technique has been...
ATR-FTIR (Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier-Transform InfraRed) spectroscopy is widely used to characterize the complex composition of layers in cross-sections extracted from painted works of art. However, some limitations, such as poor contact of ATR crystal with sample or sample area of interest below the IR diffraction limit, prevail.
Recently, a novel O-PTIR (Optical- Photothermal...
Paleolithic ornated cave walls can be affected by the development of a calcitic coating called moonmilk, that can lead to conservation issues when located at the vicinity of painted or engraved areas. Moonmilk is made of calcite needles called NFC (Needle Fiber Calcite) around one micron large and tens to hundreds of microns long and presenting different morphologies. It is still being...
Introduction
Archaeometallurgy is an important field of study which allows us to assess the preservation state and value of ancient metal artifacts and better understand the ancient cultures that made them. Metallic artifacts, bronze in particular have specific characteristics that differs them to the other classes of materials. Electrochemical transformations that occurs to them mainly...
Eswatini’s rich natural and cultural heritage have received little attention from researchers over the years until in the late 1960 when excavations began in the Old Ngwenya Iron-ore Mine. Although more than 100 archeological sites have been identified through work done by researchers like Beaumont which demonstrated deep history of human occupancy spanning as far as the Early Stone Age (ESA),...
Ghana has a very rich cultural heritage comprising of several monuments, artefacts, historic and archaeological sites which can be studied, restored and developed for several purposes including Heritage preservation, education as well as Archaeo-tourism.
However, lack of scientific data in this regard tends to encourage unrestrained speculations, which largely accounts for some insupportable...
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in Ghana is a time-tested poverty driven livelihood activity that predates formal mechanised mining. Currently ASM contributes, on the average 35% of total gold output of Ghana. The sector’s gold output outstrips the combined production of the top three of the nine large scale mines in Ghana. In the last decade, however, ASM’s economic significance has...
As organic materials, artefacts like papyri are attacked by biological threats from different organisms specially fungi and mold. Insects have been also known to damage rolled papyri. Recently preservation of artefacts could be achieved by controlling biological damage, insect eradication and disinfection in different heritage materials using ionizing irradiation treatments. However,...
The clay statuettes left behind by settlers in the Mamprugu Moagduri District of northern Ghana over 1000 years ago raise more questions than they answer. The folks who created the figurines are unknown.
Some have ascribed the development of the various mounds of buried figurines to Komaland being the point of gathering of slaves who brought these sculptures from their homes, while others...
Abstract
Dixcove is settled by the Ahanta ethnic group and is located about 42 kilometers west of Takoradi, the Western Regional Capital in Ghana. It was one of the earliest states on the Guinea Coast to have encountered and commercially interacted with Europeans during the early phase of the Atlantic contact era (circa, 1485 – 1620). The main objective of the study was to establish the...
Abastract.
Marib Governorate is one of the Yemeni governorates that contains many archaeological sites, including the ancient city of Marib, the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Saba, whose historical roots go back to the beginning of the first millennium BC. There are other sites, including the Awam Temple, which is the most important ancient temple in the ancient Arabian Peninsula, and the...
The tangible heritage in Sudan is exposed to a number of problems that have strongly affected its sustainability. There are many sites that have been lost and destroyed due to these problems surrounding this heritage. These problems can be summarized in some points:
The biggest threat of tangible heritage is the natural disasters. In Sudan, they represented in floods and dredger torrents...
Tunisian National Centre for Nuclear Science and Technology-CNSTN (Tunisia) has two irradiation facilities : a 10MeV 5kW LINAC electron beam accelerator (since 2010) and Cobalt-60 gamma irradiator de 100 kCi (since 1999) used for radiation sterilization of medical devices, food irradiation and preservation of art objects.
Since ionizing radiation has been considered an efficient technique for...
With the development of radiation techniques, attempts were made to use both gamma radiation and electron beam radiation for the disinfection of various types of historical objects that were inhabited by microorganisms (e.g., fungi and bacteria) or insects, which ended up causing the objects' destruction. Natural fibres of plant and animal origin constitute the material of many valuable...
In this paper we will present the elemental analysis results on silver coins and artefacts using Ion Beam Analysis. We will explore the challenges of applying non-destructive methods on the surfaces of archaeological metals. We will compare three methods of analysis, namely PIXE, SEM-EDS and XRF and present how we resolved problems of surface alterations. The results obtained have a great...
Neutron activation analysis was used to evaluate the composition of 98 pottery samples excavated from the Oc Eo site in An Giang province. The possibility of provenance and technology of ancient pottery was investigated using Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in combination with archaeological data. The AHC dendrogram identified two primary...
The woodblock of the Nguyen dynasty of Vietnam is one of the World Documentary Heritage recognized by UNESCO. Fungi and termites play a considerable role in the deterioration of these woodblocks. Both chemical and physical methods have been developed for treatment and restoration, and their results are not as expected. Based on the merit of low-energy X-rays, such as their low shielding...
More recently, ancient gold sites have been discovered in many European countries and are not limited to other parts of the world. The earliest gold artifacts were dated to approximately 4,600 BP. Apart from date determination; a number of ancient gold artifacts were analyzed using available technology to address variety of questions. In general, the best practice on ancient artifact analysis...
The study the ancient Phoenician cult place of Kharayeb, in the rural hinterland of Tyre, southern of Lebanon, dated to the Iron Age and Hellenistic periods is particularly helpful in evaluating the complexity and variability of the so called “Hellenism” and of “Greek cultural influences” in the Phoenician world. PIXE analytical technique was used to characterize the elemental composition of...
Dahwa is an Early Bronze Age (EBA) (ca. 2600-2000BC) site located in the northern Al-Batinah region in Northern Oman. It has since 2014 been excavated by the Archaeology Department at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. Five relatively large sites concentrated in one area around the modern village of Dahwa were uncovered, marked as DH1 and DH5-DH8. Two of these sites have been subject to...
Indonesia’s Nuclear Energy Agency (BATAN) was established in 1958 in accordance with Law No. 10/1997 regarding Nuclear Energy with the main duties in conducting research, development and utilization of nuclear energy base on safety for peace and welfare. Thus, BATAN is a key player in research and innovation related to nuclear energy which covers five main areas as shown in Figure 1, that area...
Bangladesh has a rich and diversified legacy, a heritage to be proud of. With its rich history, heritage tourism in Bangladesh should have been booming. As reported by UNESCO 2020, Bangladesh has three (3) heritage sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, five (5) properties on the Tentative World Heritage List, as well as more than 509 heritage sites across the country that are under...
Since 1990, large scale campaigns of archeological excavations were undertaken in Lebanon, showing the richness and diversity of the Lebanese archaeological patrimony. Due to the geographical and historical place of Lebanon, the related findings revealed unearthed vestiges dating up to thousands of years, as old as the prehistoric age, and belonging to many ancient civilizations: Phoenician,...
The design & development of low energy electron LINAC(s) for non-destructive radiography and cargo scanning applications is reported. The industrial radiography and cargo scanning play a vital role in cultural heritage management and preservation with potentials of non-destructive testing, identification and restoration of works of art and other monuments of cultural heritage for a country...
History
In 1978, R.P. Soejono led the National Centre for Archaeological Research (Puslit Arkenas) to open laboratory of Paleoecology and Radiometry (Palrad) in Bandung. The founding of Palrad has marked the first usage of nuclear technology for archaeological researches in Indonesia. The research activities were ended on July 1, 1992 when their function was transformed into Bandung...
The use of gold-leaf glass tesserae begun in roman times along with the development of wall mosaics and established during the byzantine period. Gold-leaf tessera is a unique type of glass tessera due to its sophisticated manufacture technique - a metal leaf is enclosed between two layers of normally transparent glass. Published data on gold-leaf glass tesserae are limited and mainly focused...
This presentation focuses on restorative intervention and non-destructive diagnostic analyses conducted in two icons part of the Medieval Art Pavilion at the National Historical Museum in Tirana. The recognition of the materials used in their realization by carrying out these diagnostic tests helped us to discover their author. The two icons are the "Dormition of the Mother of God" (dated...
As with ceramics and metallurgy, glass production is a high-temperature technology invented by ancient civilizations. The material quality and manner of manufacture of glass artifacts provide insight into the technological and social progress of the societies who developed them.
Despite the abundance of Roman glass discoveries in Bulgaria, only three archaeometric studies have been...
Indra Tuna, Conservation chemist_ National History Museum of Latvia, Art Academy of Latvia, FIIC
Anastasija Silava, Conservation chemist_ National History Museum of Latvia
Application for a poster
Latvian Cultural Heritage is definitely not so recognizable and still remains mostly undiscovered for the rest of the world. Only some of our most well known painters, like Mark Rothko or Vija...
Romania has an experience of over 20 years of Cultural Heritage preservation by gamma irradiation treatment at IRASM Radiation Processing Centre, Department of IFIN-HH. The cultural heritage artefacts include archives, books, documents, wood artefacts (furniture from the Theodor Aman Museum in Bucharest, orthodox churches), wood icons, and other arthefacts made from natural biopolymeric...
Conservation Science has emerged as a scientific discipline widely applied to the research of Cultural Heritage, which has a direct impact on the work of conservators and restorers, both in the understanding and documentation of cultural goods, as well as supporting the decisions about conservation, museography, and collection management of Cultural Heritage.
On the other hand, due to the...
In archaeology, materials characterization techniques can provide information about the origin of objects, temporal assignment, manufacturing aspects, use and deterioration processes after discarding.
In the framework of the Project for Conservation and Restoration of the Giai collection of the Museum of Patagonia (PNNH-APN), we developed a working methodology for the study of cultural...
My name is Ana Paula Gómez Uribe a cultural heritage conservator and restorer. I work in the Museum Strengthening Program of the National Museum of Colombia - Ministry of Culture, and I am currently the main counterpart of the ARCAL RLA1019 project in Colombia and I coordinate the collaboration between the country's museums and the services of the Directorate of Nuclear Affairs of the...
Glass-based photographic materials are commonly found in historical cultural heritage collections.Inadequate storage conditions for these materials lead to problems of biodeterioration, mainly by fungi.
Processing by ionizing radiation with electron beam has a biocidal effect to combat fungal contamination. However, a known undesired effect on glassy materials is increased opacity which...
Peru is a country worldwide recognized for its rich cultural tradition and heritage, spanning from monumental architecture as ancient as several thousand years to historical building, objects and documents corresponding to the colony and republican periods (XV to XIX centuries).
In this context archeologists, historians and conservators face a hard work dealing with a large variety of...
Most of the ethnographic collections present in traditional museums in Brazil were formed by collectors, purchases, donations and exchanges by large encyclopedic, naturalist museums, typical of the 19th century. It is in this context, the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology (MAE-USP) collection were constituted.
The MAE has been made a big effort to guarantee their conservation. Preservation...
Industry 4.0 is a new phase that includes new technologies aiming to solve problems and bring effective solutions to complicated problems in short time. Using tools of this industry like photogrammetry technique and 3D printing as methods for detailed fabrication, it was possible to create a prothesis that helped to the restauration of an artefect found by the National Musseum of Costa Rica....
3D modeling and printing technology was sustainably used in the design of the portable X-ray based multi-technique equipment and for the sample holder used for the archaeometric studies performed with such a system, as well as in the design of the multi-level sample holder for irradiation, where other recyclable materials were also used.
Irradiation treatments in a gamma irradiation plant...
The National Archive of Chile is a public institution that safeguards 40 linear kilometers of documents from all over the country, from the year 1541 to the present. Its documents are made on different types of paper depending on the time of production. From the 16th century to the 19th century, it is mainly cotton fiber paper and from the 19th century onwards, it is characterized by different...
The aim of the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency in Bolivia is to develop, supply and commercialise nuclear technology goods and services for peaceful purposes, for which it is responsible for the construction and operation of the Nuclear Technology Research and Development Centre - CIDTN. The Centre for Research and Development in Nuclear Technology - CIDTN has the following components: Nuclear...
The general objective of this project is to make comparisons between archaeological ceramics of different styles, locations of discovery and chronologies, from the Argentine Northwest. The observation of similarities and differences in the chemical composition of ceramic materials has been useful to investigate the standardization in ceramic production, the identification of sources of raw...
A strategic scientific research project on Cultural Heritage has been formally endorsed at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) since 2015. The project aims to promote the access to the suite of nuclear methods available across the organisation, and the use of a non-invasive analytical approach in the field of cultural-heritage, archaeology, and conservation...
The National Centre for Radiation Research and Technology (NCRRT) is one of the four centres affiliated to the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (EAEA). It was established in 1972 to enable the nation to exploit the radiation processing technology for peaceful purposes in medical, industrial, environmental, basic sciences, engineering and agricultural fields and to keep up with scientific...
The International Atomic Energy Agency has designated Université Paris-Saclay as the first IAEA Atoms for Heritage Collaborating Centre in heritage sciences on Friday 17 September 2021. The new Centre will focus on five key themes linked to heritage preservation: characterising and dating materials; developing safe analysis methods; analysing and sharing data in accordance with Open Science...
During the last two decades, a huge increase in the use of accelerators-based techniques is witnessed in a wide range of scientific applications such as physics, chemistry, biology, geology, environment, materials science, among others. Exhibiting a strong interest in the fields of archaeology and cultural heritage compared to laboratory-based source, they are commonly implemented to shed...
Over the years, there has been an ever growing interest for in-situ compositional analyses in the field of Cultural Heritage (CH). A good example of this trend is provided by the noticeable increase of studies employing mobile XRF scanners. However, XRF systems have some limitations that do not affect Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) techniques. Unfortunately, at present, IBA analysis are possible only...
Ion beam accelerators and synchrotrons serve as hubs for networking and R&D at national and international level. Being medium to large-scale facilities with significant human and research infrastructure, accelerators serve to conduct fundamental and applied research, as well as to render services contributing to the achievement of several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The IAEA has...
The CARNAÚBA beamline of the Brazilian synchrotron light source, Sirius, is an X-ray nanoprobe for simultaneous multi-analytical and coherent X-ray imaging techniques, with spectroscopic capabilities in the 2.05 to 15 keV energy range. It includes X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL) and ptychographic...
Heritage Science is the transdisciplinary scientific research into cultural heritage, which provides a comprehensive access to art, cultural properties, natural assets and intangible heritage through their documentation, interpretation, preservation, and management. Heritage Science infrastructures and expertise are particularly crucial in our understanding, conservation, restauration and...
Synchrotron based techniques are widely used for the analysis of complex materials, in part due to the high brilliance of the x-ray source and the ability to tune the x-ray energy. While these characteristics often provide superior performance over traditional lab-based sources, it may also create problems with respect to the high photon flux and potential modification of the sample, which...
This talk zooms in on a project that has recently been executed in the Netherlands, and that now continues developing in an international context (within a European project, IPERION HS).
As is well known, exposure to radiation is of a cumulative nature. This fact is important for everyone involved in cultural heritage research and treatment, as this means that previous exposure of objects or...
On April 15th 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris was burning. The glass-stained windows have fortunately been preserved but were polluted by lead. These colorful iconic objects are deposited now and some of them will be studied in 2022 at the New AGLAE facility. Once restored, the precious artifacts will go back to the cathedral for centuries, hardly accessible for further physic-chemical analysis....
Infrared spectroscopy has been used for analysis of the numerous objects that may be attributed to cultural heritage. Verifying the authenticity of documents, paintings, or musical instruments are just a few examples of this type of analysis. Another vital aspect is evaluating the status of the cultural heritage artefacts, namely checking how environmental conditions of the storage or display...
In ancient times, it was common for artists to do chemistry tasks to prepare pigments, solvents, varnishes, and even their tools. Nowadays it is highly unlikely for an artist to prepare his own materials, although the relationship between art and science remains obvious for them. During the last decades, science has made its way into art through fields such as conservation and it was precisely...
The Choeung-Ek Genocidal Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is one of the 19,733 mass grave sites that have been located (DC-Cam 2004). Choeung Ek was originally a Chinese burial site where Chinese tombs still exist. It was used by the Khmer Rouge as a “killing field “and mass burial site between 1975 and 1979. The site is located about 17 kilometres (11 mi) south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Many of...
Cultural heritage artefacts such as paintings, stained glass windows and (illuminated) manuscripts are examples of complex macroscopic objects consisting of a multitude of different materials, in close proximity to or in intimate contact with one another. Given sufficient time and a number of external stimuli (such as impinging UV and visual light, variable relative levels of humidity or of...
Particle accelerators conducting Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) have proven to be a powerful tool for gaining insight into cultural heritage. For the most part, these IBA techniques are non-destructive and can be applied in a non-invasive manner. However this does require that the objects being studied are removed from their setting and taken to an accelerator facility. It is not always feasible to...
ANSTO operates four tandem particle accelerators in the Centre for Accelerator Science (CAS) at its Lucas Heights campus. All these machines are used for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and together deliver a suite of radioisotope dating capabilities (including radiocarbon and cosmogenic in-situ) that cover ages from 100’s years old to millions years old. Three are used for ion beam...
Metal artefacts are difficult to date from the time of their manufacture. It is not the age of the material that requires dating, but the time at which the material was worked into its final shape. This often involves melting and casting the metal to produce the final shape. We are interested here, in the production of some lead books, originating in and around Jordan and often referred to as...
The preservation of works of art for cultural heritage entails the need for sensitive analytical techniques that can aid in the identification of the materials that were originally used by the artist. In the case of paintings, accurate determination of major ingredients of the paint provides invaluable information for restorers and curators and most often encompasses the use of multiple,...
Due to their complex structure, cultural heritage (CH) related samples are often very challenging to analyze; besides, due to their rarity and their value these samples require to be studied by means of non-invasive or non-destructive techniques. The other great challenge in the CH artifacts analysis is the plethora of materials they are composed of, from metal to glass, to ceramic, paper, or...
We present the implementation and applications of the Neutron Resonance Transmission Imaging (NRTI) technique, performed at the INES (Italian Neutron Experimental Station)[1] beamline of the ISIS spallation neutron source [2].
This technique relies on the measurement of the neutron beam attenuation due to the resonance absorption of epithermal neutrons (0.3 eV< En < 100 eV) by the nuclei of a...
Non-destructive compositional analyses are extremely important in many cultural heritage fields. The use of negative muons (an electron analogue) has seen a resurgence in recent times, with developments occurring at several muon sources. After implanting negative muons into a sample muonic x-rays and gammas are released – these can then be detected to determine the composition of the sample....
The Ghent Altarpiece (1420s-1432) is the masterpiece of the south-Netherlandish painters Jan and Hubert van Eyck. This polyptych has been subject to an extensive restoration by the Royal Institute of Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRP, Brussels) during the last decade, a process that is not completely finished. On the panels of the polyptych that were already conserved [the outer wing panels during...
The Institute of Physics and Materials Science is specialized in characterization of biological and bio-based material including a variety of techniques and fields of application. One of them is the determination of age.
Brief description/core competencies
Chemical changes over time can be used to describe various processes. Provided these changes are slow and uniform, it is possible to use...
Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry with primary ions in the MeV range (MeV-SIMS) was employed as a new accelerator technique for the analysis of synthetic organic pigments (SOPs) and binders in modern and contemporary paints. Due to the so-called “soft ionization” of organic molecules caused by MeV primary ion beam, large intact organic molecules or larger molecular fragments are desorbed from...
