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....
