Speakers
Description
From the perspective of neutron sciences, the use of neutrons for examining valuable cultural assets may appear to be an established technique. However, the use of neutrons is not yet generally known among cultural heritage specialists and in the museum community. In addition to the limited availability and accessibility of sources and beam time, there are a number of specific challenges in this field.
The application differs from fundamental research or industrial applications in that the art and cultural assets to be studied are often unique objects, which can also be very fragile and require special handling and storage. In addition, the research questions and external circumstances, such as conservation requirements or availability due to exhibitions, and object size can be challenging.
Successful application of neutrons for the investigation of cultural heritage objects requires interdisciplinary collaboration between experts, ideally from the humanities (e.g. archaeology, art history), object conservation or conservation research, and neutron science. We present opportunities and some challenges experienced in such multidisciplinary collaborations on case studies, referring to the planning and implementation of analyses as well as the processing, evaluation and subsequent interpretation of the analysis results.
