For the past 50 years, many museums around the world have used nuclear techniques to help preserve some of the world's most important historical and cultural artefacts. From the famous ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II to 14th century paintings by Venetian masters, radiation technology plays a role in maintaining and characterizing cultural heritage.
To celebrate this jubilee, the IAEA, in collaboration with France's ARC-Nucleart, hosted a workshop and meeting of experts in Grenoble on radiation technologies for cultural heritage preservation. With over 100 participants from Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean, experts exchanged ideas and reflected on the priceless artefacts nuclear techniques have helped to preserve and study, characterizing the age and history of significant objects.
"Before the use of nuclear techniques in conservation and preservation, heritage objects often decayed due to biological attack, or corroded and withered with time, losing part of their cultural value," said Laurent Cortella, Head of Facility Management and Research Engineer at ARC-Nucleart. "Over the last half a century, this problem has been mitigated through the use of gamma irradiation for conserving archaeological, historical and ethnographic cultural objects. We need to continue understanding how materials degraded and developing new treatment techniques so museums around the world are able to display invaluable pieces of art."
Wooden objects, for instance, are often exposed to infestations of insects, fungi and algae, putting them in danger of structural weakness and degradation. The famous early 18th century statue of Saint Maurice, the Egyptian military leader who headed the legendary Theban Legion of Rome in the 3rd century, for instance, faced significant structural weaking. Restoration experts at ARC-Nucleart exposed the statue to gamma radiation to disinfect and consolidate it and help give back its original structure.
Before restauration of the statute of Saint Maurice, the horse's legs were crushed and ruptured due to infestation by insects and growing fungi. The use of nuclear techniques allowed the statue to be reassembled to its near original form. (Photo: ARC-Nucleart)
By using computed tomography (CT) scans, experts were able to discover details about the baby mammoth, revealing Khroma to be female and identifying how her bone structure is different to other mammoths - this can help historians explain how mammoths may have lived.
Nuclear science to preserve and conserve artefacts
The IAEA has three on-going regional technical cooperation projects covering Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. An IAEA coordinated research project has supported the conservation of cultural heritage through the application of nuclear analytical techniques, such as ion beams, X-rays and neutrons for 2D and 3D artefact imaging; isotope analysis for dating objects; and radiation for preserving items of historical or cultural importance. With the expertise and collaboration of ARC-Nucleart, IAEA projects have helped experts in Brazil, Mexico and Romania conserve and characterize their own cultural heritage artefacts.
In September this year, the IAEA designated its first two collaborating centres in the area of cultural heritage: France's University Paris-Saclay and the National Centre for Radiation Research and Technology at the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (NCRRT).
Following the success of the 2017 publication, Uses of Ionizing Radiation for Tangible Cultural Heritage Conservation, the IAEA is currently preparing a new publication on standard operating features, which will be published in 2022.
"By bringing together the skills and knowledge of technical experts from various nuclear fields from nuclear imaging to radiation chemists and isotope analysts, the IAEA supports countries on how nuclear techniques can be used to preserve art and objects of historical and cultural significance - a great example of the peaceful use of atoms," said Tomo Furusawa, an IAEA Programme Management Officer and co-organizer of the event in Grenoble.
The interest in cultural heritage preservation through nuclear techniques is ever-growing. The IAEA's International Conference on Applications of Radiation Science and Technology (ICARST-2022), to be held from 22 to 26 August 2022, will also feature sessions dedicated to the topic.
