Possibilities, Limitations, and Prospects of Using Neutron Tomography and Radiography for Preservation of Archaeological
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TALLOGRAPHIC METHODS IN HUMANITARIAN SCIENCES
Possibilities, Limitations, and Prospects of Using Neutron Tomography and Radiography for Preservation of Archaeological Heritage Objects I. A. Saprykinaa,*, S. E. Kichanovb, and D. P. Kozlenkob a
Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 117036 Russia b Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Moscow oblast, 141980 Russia * e-mail: [email protected] Received May 19, 2017; revised October 10, 2017; accepted October 18, 2017
Abstract—Some archaeological heritage objects (miniature golden vial, encolpion crosses, boulatiry) have been studied by neutron tomography and radiography. It is shown that this method can reliably be used for articles made of nonferrous and precious metals. The study of a miniature golden incense vial dated I AD yielded important data on the presence of internal filling; as for the crosses, the absence of the so-called “holy relics” in these peculiar reliquary vessels was established. The study of the Old Russian iron boulatiry did not give any information on the presence or absence of traces of images under the corrosion layer on stamp working places. The data obtained are important for further historical interpretations and choosing methods of preservation of archaeological heritage objects, museum exposure, and presentation. DOI: 10.1134/S106377451901022X
INTRODUCTION According to the acting federal legislation (Federal Law dated 25th June, 2002 No. 73-FL “About objects of cultural heritage (historical and cultural monuments) of the Russian Federation” and Federal Law dated 27th June, 2011 No. 163-FL “About ratification of the European convention on protection of archaeological heritage (reconsidered)”), one of the main directions of activity in preservation of archaeological heritage objects is to maintain the physical integrity of archaeological objects and determine the degree of their integrity in order to plan further measures for restoration, reconstruction, and study. Currently, the measures aimed at preserving cultural heritage objects [1] are considered to be mainly nondestructive methods and approaches, which simultaneously make it possible to provide the physical integrity of an object of study and derive maximally complete information about its chemical composition, presence of internal defects, and structural features. One of these approaches is the method of neutron tomography and radiography, which allows one to visualize the distribution of compositional or structural inhomogeneities in objects and materials of study and construct their virtual three-dimensional models for further analysis [2, 3]. The active application of neutron tomography and radiography in preservation of cultural (archaeological) heritage objects in the last decade can be related to
the implementation of specialized programs of IAEA (Ancient Charm project) and Council of Europe (Autentico project), in which questions of high-tech structural study of cultural heritage sites and determination of their authenticity were solved. In pa
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