The authors present a review of the advances that have been made to establish terahertz applications in the cultural heritage conservation sector over the last several years. This includes material spectroscopy, 2D and 3D imaging and tomographic studies, using a broad range of terahertz sources demonstrating the breadth and application of this burgeoning community.

A Survey of Terahertz Applications in Cultural Heritage Conservation Science

Mobile depth profiling and sub-surface imaging techniques for historical paintings : a review

Purpose – Identification and characterization of organic pigments and dyes used in works of art and cultural heritage material such as prints, drawings, manuscripts, paintings, and textiles can provide important information for dating, authentication, and conservation treatment of these objects and studying art history in general Applications of surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for this purpose have recently attracted increasing attention of both academic scientists and museum researchers This paper aims to review the latest development involving the emerging applications of SERS for the analysis of organic pigments and dyes used in works of art and cultural heritage materialDesign/methodology/approach – First, the importance of organic pigments and dyes in the studies of works of art and cultural heritage material and the challenges in their identification and characterization are briefly summarized This is followed by a discussion on sampling considerations in the context of art and archaeol

Surface‐enhanced Raman scattering for identification of organic pigments and dyes in works of art and cultural heritage material

Corning archeological reference glasses A, B, C, and D have been made to simulate different historic technologies of glass production and are used as standards in historic glass investigations. In this work, nanoseconds (193, 266 nm) and femtosecond (800 nm) laser ablation were used to study the elemental composition of Corning glasses using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The determined concentrations of 26 oxides (Li2O, B2O3, Na2O, MgO, Al2O3, SiO2, P2O5, K2O, CaO, TiO2, V2O5, Cr2O3, MnO, Fe2O3, CoO, NiO, CuO, ZnO, Rb2O, SrO, ZrO2, SnO2, Sb2O5, BaO, PbO, Bi2O3) are compared with values reported in the literature. Results show variable discrepancies between the data, with the largest differences found for Cr2O3 in Corning A; Li2O, B2O3, and Cr2O3 in Corning B; and MnO, Sb2O5, Cr2O3, and Bi2O3 in Corning C. The best agreement between the measured and literature values was found for Corning D. However, even for this reference, glass re-evaluation of the data was necessary and new values for PbO, BaO, and Bi2O3 are proposed.




Figure



The results of Corning glasses obtained by LA-ICP-MS after ablation by different laser wavelenghts presented as the ratios of the measured to the recommended values

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Critical assessment of the elemental composition of Corning archeological reference glasses by LA-ICP-MS

Quantitative analysis of alloys and glasses by a calibration-free method using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy ☆

This paper gives an overview of research activities within the pan-European network COST Action G8. COST is an EU initiative that allows the coordination of nationally funded research at a pan-European level and its activities are based on so-called actions which are networks on a specific topic covering basic and pre-competitive research. Action G8 is one of these networks and has 24 member countries.
Its first goal aims at achieving a better preservation and conservation of our cultural heritage by increasing the knowledge in art and archaeological objects through chemical and physical analyses. Furthermore Action G8 aims at creating a Europe-wide environment, in which people directly concerned with the maintenance of our cultural heritage (i.e. art historians, archaeologists, conservators and curators) and analytical scientists (i.e. physicists, chemists, material scientists, geologists, etc.) can exchange knowledge. The multidisciplinary community of action is essential as in the current economic climate it is extremely difficult for museums to develop new analytical methods or techniques. The need for collaboration with experts in state-of-the art analytical instrumentation is therefore very high and can tap-in to sources of knowledge and sophistication of equipment, which would otherwise be impossible in the small conservation and science groups in museums.

Mieke Adriaens

Papers

Non-destructive analysis and testing of museum objects: an overview of 5 years of research