Nuclear techniques play an increasingly important role in preserving our cultural and natural heritage, concluded experts at the virtual event, Atoms for Heritage, held on the sidelines of the 65th IAEA General Conference today.
“The IAEA helps countries to use nuclear science and technology to examine, preserve and restore cultural heritage artefacts,” said Najat Mokhtar, Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, at the opening of the event. “We provide trainings and support research in this area by bringing together institutes from across the world through coordinated research projects.”
“This side event is part of the joint efforts of the IAEA and France to promote and enhance the applications of nuclear techniques for cultural and natural heritage characterisation and preservation to build bridges between people across the globe towards peace,” said Ambassador Xavier Sticker, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations and International Organisations in Vienna. Nearly 400 participants attended the event.
Nuclear analytical techniques, such as accelerator-based techniques, are powerful tools to gain a better insight into heritage materials and objects for their preservation. They are applied to analyse what cultural artefacts are made of, as well as to determine the time and place when they were created. Scientists can also use nuclear analytical techniques, such as ion beams, X-rays and neutrons, to create 2D and 3D imaging of the object with high sensitivity and accuracy.
Experts at the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland, used this technology to analyse various cultural artefacts, including 14th-18th century paintings by Venetian masters and ancient Egyptian mummies.
“By using the latest 3D technology, we can transform paintings and other 2D objects into 3D objects to examine in detail their internal structure and the materials they are made of,” said Lukasz Kownacki, Radiologist at the European Health Center Otwock in Poland. “This so-called Mixed Reality technology opens new research possibilities and education opportunities.”
Nuclear analytical techniques, such as radiocarbon dating, are also used to determine the age of cultural and natural heritage objects. Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope, which decays over time in predictable ways. Scientists examine this decay to find out how old artefacts are or the order in which certain events happened.
Experts used radiocarbon dating to determine the age of an ancient aquaculture system in the traditional Country of the Gunditjmara people in south-eastern Australia. Recently inscribed in the World Heritage List by UNESCO, it is the world’s most extensive and oldest aquaculture system dated by nuclear techniques to be 6,000 years old.
The Gunditjmara used the local volcanic rock to construct channels, weirs and dams and manage water flows in order to systematically trap, store and harvest short-finned eel called kooyang, explained Geraldine Jacobsen, Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).
“These aquaculture systems had been studied for many decades, but their age was unknown,” she said. “It was through applying ultra-sensitive isotopic analysis for radiocarbon dating that the antiquity of the systems was determined and provided evidence of the extensive history of Gunditjmara use and management of and connection to this landscape.”
Although highly sensitive and accurate, nuclear analytical techniques can, if not applied properly, potentially damage the treated artefact. The IAEA is leading international collaboration and joint efforts towards the safe analysis of cultural and natural heritage objects.
