Neutron-based techniques are very well-suited for non-destructive bulk analysis of large bronzes due to the high penetration depth of neutrons in metals [1]. Neutron tomography (NT) can give direct insights in the internal structure of objects, which can be extremely revealing in cases of inhomogeneous castings, ongoing corrosion or when the bronze contains precious hidden objects, e.g. the...
Activation analyses with neutrons provide a unique combination of advantages. The panoramic analysis of the elemental composition is flexible regarding the sample matrix, it is non-destructive, highly sensitive and reliable. Prompt gamma activation analysis (PGAA) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) are the classic methods in this field and are established in archaeometry. For...
Wall painting is one of the most recognizable legacies from the Roman period. Though rather limited in their use, lead compounds were present in the elaboration of their pigments, such as sandyx, described by Pliny. In the inner and upper layers of Roman wall paintings from the domus Avinyó archaeological site in Barcelona, lead-phosphorus compounds, together with the degradation product...
The transition from egg-based tempera to oil painting in quattrocento was a turning point in art history and influenced the creation of Renaissance masterpieces by renowned artists of the time. Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Leonardo da Vinci continued to use egg in parallel or in combination with oil and prepared paints of great complexity. Protein-oil mixtures, used as paint...
Singular alterations affecting modern oil paintings have recently drawn a great deal of attention in conservation science[1]. Although their appearance remains a rare and isolated phenomenon, they are singular through their random occurrence, their fast kinetics of development, and the difficulty in anticipating and stabilizing them[2]. For many artists, the middle of the XXth century is also...
In 2019, Operation Night Watch started at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. A wide range of macro-, micro-, and nanoscale techniques were used to study this 17th-century masterpiece by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). One of Rembrandt’s most commonly used pigments in The Night Watch (1642) is smalt, a ground potash glass colored blue by cobalt (Co) ions.[1] In this synchrotron radiation-based...
Element analysis and content visualization of a 12th century enameled reliquary pendant using Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis and Neutron Tomography (PGAI-NT)
In October 2008, a heavily corroded pendant was found during an excavation campaign in the historic district of Mainz, Germany, in an ancient dump. The reliquary pendant, made of gilded copper, is in the shape of a quatrefoil, also...
More than 200 masterpieces of Venetian Painting of the 15th and 16th century are currently subject of a long-term cataloging and research project at the Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich. In the Venice of the High Renaissance, a revolutionary change in painting style took place that had a decisive influence on the further development of European painting. The groundbreaking artistic...
The production of “Nuragic” Bronze Figurines from Sardinia represents a rich historical archive that provides key information about the iconography, the metal production and casting techniques, and on the development of metallurgy in the Mediterranean basin. Since the question about their manufacturing method still remains without definitive answer, the understanding of the Sardinian bronze...
This talk focuses on the urgent problems of synchrotron radiation damage to ancient paingtings. By the combined time resolved techniques of synchrotron radiation IR and ED-XAS in D-Line at SSRF, in situ radiation damage effect of paintings has been investigated. Results show that organic binders are easy to be damaged，especially when mixed with inorganic mineral pigments. And if the incident...
In medieval Europe it was common practice to wear amulets as lucky charms and to ward off evil. These lucky charms could for example consist of thin sheets of lead with an inscription of letters or runes scratched onto the surface. These lead sheets were then often folded several times or rolled to conceal and preserve the text but also to enhance the effect of the inscription. The study of...
Multiple bimetallic split-ear pommel swords from Northwestern Iran dated to the Iron Age (ca. 1250-800 BC) were investigated with Neutron Tomography at ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, UK. It is the first time that Iranian swords from that period were investigated with neutron techniques. The weapons were seized as part of law enforcement investigations and are pending repatriation. These...
The metallurgical investigations of medieval armours are of great interest the history of techniques [1]. Studying the nature and microstructure of the alloys provides crucial insights into the manufacturing processes used by the armourers. Indeed, the nature and heat treatment of the metal play a key role on its mechanical properties, and thus on the effectiveness of an armour. This approach...
X-ray Raman spectroscopy (XRS) allows chemical speciation deep into materials, including for low-Z elements such as carbon and oxygen, which is inaccessible using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) [1-3]. XRS has been shown to provide sufficient contrast for non-invasive 3D chemical imaging, without significant prior preparation, making it a valuable tool for cultural heritage studies [4,5]....
Determination of chemical composition can be a useful tool in provenance research of archaeological finds. The two fundamental levels of archaeometric investigation are the material characterization (i.e., the type of the matter) and the provenance identification (i.e., the source of the matter). Polished stone artefacts are especially appropriate subjects for the provenance approach since...
Paleolithic cave representations are one of the oldest forms of art from modern humans, and as such it is important to understand the coloring matters used, usually black, red or yellow. The study of black Paleolithic coloring matter has been well developed, and analytical procedures have been established [1],[2]. Instead, reds are more complicated, as the coloring matter and the cave wall...
With unprecedented hardness and transparency achieved through the firing of sand, the development of glass manufacturing in ancient times demanded tremendous technological skills. Even today, understanding its fascinating properties requires significant scientific effort and continues to intrigue researchers’ interest[1,2]. Ancient glass offers unique opportunities to comprehend its structural...
Advancing knowledge on the interactions occurring between conservation treatments and Cultural Heritage (CH) materials is a key point to plan effective conservation strategies. When dealing with inorganic-mineral products, the study of their diffusion within CH stone materials faces several analytical challenges, as non-destructive approaches, qualitative/quantitative phase analysis and high...
Archaeological textiles from temperate climates are particularly difficult to study due to their state of degradation. The main mechanism of preservation, referred to by archaeologists as mineralisation, involves the nucleation and growth of mineral phases formed from metal cations from an adjacent archaeological artefact. Mineralisation makes it possible to preserve a cast or imprint of...
Museum objects with a painted metal structure are often found within industrial, scientific and technical collections. The conservation of these objects presents a challenge because of their composite nature. The interactions between the components of the system can lead to different alteration phenomena than what would be expected for the paint or metal alone, resulting in the need for...
Infrared spectroscopy has become a routine method for studying artistic materials and monitoring degradation processes. Most studies focus on the mid infrared spectral region (MIR 600-4000 cm-1), whilst the far infrared region (FIR, 50-600 cm-1) is often neglected. However, some studies have already highlighted the potential of analyses in the far-infrared region. It was shown that many...
Provenance research, i.e. identification of possible raw material sources of various archaeological objects, preferably using non-destructive methods, is a major task in Heritage Science. Prompt-gamma activation analysis (PGAA) turned out to be successful in provenance research of obsidians. Since the early 2000s, a significant database has been built at the Budapest Neutron Centre, which...
Within this talk, the technique of Small- and Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS/WAXS) will be introduced in the context of nanostructure characterization of heritage objects especially of written artefacts or paintings.
The object of interest of the presented study is a fifteenth-century heritage object namely a set of 65 Tibetan ritual cards (tsakali) from a private collection. The obtained...
The combined use of different neutron techniques has been employed for the non-destructive compositional investigation of Roman crucible fragments discovered during an excavation in Milan (Italy) conducted by the Soprintendenza Archeologica, Belle Arti e Paesaggio of Milan in 2009.
The excavation unearthed numerous fragments of metals and crucibles related to bronze and brass production,...
X-ray beams produced by a synchrotron source have properties of high brilliance and spatial coherence that make them highly suitable for studying a range of ancient materials. For example, synchrotron X-ray methods have been used to study fossil teeth to determine the age at death of humans using X-ray micro-tomography [1] and to identify chemical elements as markers of provenance from...
We have studied amphorae of the Haltern 70 type found in excavations of a Roman settlement at Castro do Vieito in the northwest of Portugal, as well as from the known kiln sites in Baetica and Lusitania, situated in nowadays Spain valleys of the Guadalquivir and Rio Tinto, and the coast near Cadiz and Algeciras, as well as Algarve Portugal coast.
Haltern 70 amphorae were produced mainly in...
This work concerns the analytical phase of a project exploiting Synchrotron Radiation X-ray fluorescence (SR-XRF) spectrometry for the study of the composition of gold coins (Solidi) of the late Roman period. It is a project conducted at the Elettra Synchrotron in Trieste, on the study of the Treasure of Como: an exceptional discovery of 1000 late-imperial Roman coins (ca. 402-472 AD), found...
In Ancient Egypt the lapis lazuli was the most precious gemstone as it was considered a sacred stone connected to the gods. Its special dark-blue colour symbolized the night sky and the starry heavens. Due to its symbolism and its scarcity, lapis lazuli had been used from the Predynastic period onward as the material of amulets, beads and inlays in jewellery. Despite its early presence and...
The present work focuses on the archaeometric investigation of late-imperial Roman gold coins (solidi), issued by different imperial mints from pars Orientis and Occidentis and dated to about 402-472 CE. The examined coins are part of 1000 solidi of the “Treasure of Como”, a recent astounding discovery of precious and unique archaeological findings in Northern Italy [1].
The elemental...
The SNSF Sinergia project – CORINT encourages partnerships between scientists from different Swiss universities and institutes, working together for elucidating the corrosion phenomena of iron structures in various porous media. Examples of such media are reinforced concrete in buildings, iron cans in bentonite clay for nuclear waste disposal and archaeological artifacts in the ground. The...
In the Upper Palaeolithic, mammoth ivory was an important raw material for the production of tools and jewellery as well as figurative objects, which are among the oldest preserved works of art of mankind. In the caves of the Ach and Lone valleys in the Swabian Alb, which have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017, numerous objects made of mammoth ivory have been discovered in...
The field of Cultural Heritage (CH) comprises many rare, valuable, and fragile samples. For this very reason, non-invasive and non-destructive techniques are the most preferred for their analysis. Among these techniques, XRF allows a fast elemental characterization of the artifacts, detecting a high range of elements. XRF also allows quantitative analysis, which is more feasible and reliable...
In July 2023, the construction of Energy-Resolved Neutron Imaging Spectrometer (ERNI) of China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) was basically completed and passed the acceptance tests successfully. The performance parameters of the spectrometer include: the optimal wavelength resolution is better than 0.4%, the wavelength range is from 0.03 to 18Å, the neutron imaging field of view can reach...
Abstract:
Cuneiform represents the earliest form of writing developed by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia in the second half of the fourth millennium BCE. It was used for more than three millennia all around the Middle East. The cuneiform signs were typically written by imprinting wedge-shaped impressions into wet clay as a medium of writing. From the middle of the third millennium BCE, people...
Diffraction mapping of metallic objects by high energy X-ray beams is a well-established method in order to spatially resolve their macroscopic and/or microscopic strain.
We present a proof of principle of radiographic strain mapping to retrieve markings in metallic objects. The strain patterns can be analyzed by Whole Powder Pattern Fitting, Rietveld refinement or even decorrelated by...
Recently, there has been significant interest in the use of high energy synchrotron X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), and X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) techniques for cultural materials applications. Indeed, this project could be essential for identifying and characterizing of unique glass objects from Iranian plateau (2nd millennium B.C.). The accurate chemical compositions of these objects...
This contribution will present the potential of X-ray Scattering techniques to characterize the nanostructure of selected hand-made papers. Hereby, the technique of Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) has been used for fibre orientation and degree of alignment characterization. Meaning an area of roughly 20 mm × 20 mm has been raster scanned with 0.2 mm resolution and the fibre orientation has...
Ancient Chinese purple-gold glaze (zijinyou) is popular for its beautiful figuration, unique allure and fine craftsmanship. To understand the crystalline nature in the purple-gold glaze, the morphology and structure of crystals precipitated in the glaze layer of purple-gold glaze porcelain fired during the Qing Dynasty were characterized by a variety of methods combining X-ray and...
It is known that conventional materials processing processes at room or high temperatures, such as casting, extrusion, rolling, forging, and etc., can inevitably re-orientate crystalline grains and produce preferred orientation, which is called texture – the distribution function of crystallographic grains with respect to the sample coordinate system. Hence, texture analysis of archaeological...
This presentation demonstrates the applicability of Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) technique for determining the chemical composition of ancient glass finds. A sample set made of 50 Roman and Late Antique glass fragments discovered in several archaeological sites from Romania, most of them on the western shore of Black Sea, was measured with PGAA at the Budapest Neutron Centre...
The excellent craftsmanship of Oriental and Central Asian textile dyers has been renowned since ancient times. It has been suggested by experimental archaeologists that superior color brilliance and persistence are based on the use of an elaborate fermentation procedure prior to dyeing. Fermentation of sheep wool with G. candidum yeast leads to decomposition of the fatty acid interlayers...
Iron gall inks have been widely employed in West Europe since the Middle Ages thanks to the simplicity of the recipes and the difficulties to be removed, it was so widespread that many different recipes can be found. Instead, very little is known about Eastern iron gall ink recipes and especially about Greek Byzantine recipes. The ingredients composing these inks are plant extracts containing...
