Email: vvenuti@unime.it

Keywords: Neutron Diffraction, Neutron Radiography, Cultural Heritage

As widely reported in literature over the last 30 years [1], the scientific investigation aimed at the characterization of findings of historical-artistic interest, both at qualitative and quantitative level, is currently employed in order to overcome the challenges they usually pose, in terms of dating, provenance, material composition, and production technology.

In addition, the historical-artistic heritage is continuously exposed to degradation processes which, induced by natural and anthropic effects, cause harmful and irreversible modifications from the point of view of conservation. The preservation of works of art is a problem dealt with by various scientific disciplines and which requires extensive knowledge of the porous structure of materials and the effects that the external environment generates on them.

During recent years neutron-based techniques have started to play a more and more important role in archaeometry [2]. In this field, the potential of neutron methods is clearly expressed by the possibility that they offer of investigating artefacts non-invasively, i.e. without causing any damaging by the removal of material.

On one hand, thanks to the specific properties of neutron beams, neutron spectroscopy represents an excellent tool for the quantitative physical-chemical characterization of matter on an atomic scale, and is widely employed on a variety of different objects, including metals, pottery, stone, paintings, and wood [3]. On the other hand, neutron imaging techniques allow the analysis of different properties and processes including porosity, degradation effects, fluid mobility and penetration depth of consolidant products [4].

The basic principles of neutron diffraction and neutron radiography in archaeometry are here discussed, and some representative case studies are presented.

References

[1] Handbook of Cultural Heritage Analysis, D’Amico S. and Venuti V. (Eds.), Springer Nature Switzerland AG (2022), ISBN 978-3-030-60015-0.

[2] Festa G., Romanelli G., Senesi R., Arcidiacono L., Scatigno C. , Parker S. F. , Marques M. P. M., Andreani C., Neutrons for Cultural Heritage-Techniques, Sensors, and Detection, Sensors, 20 (2020) 502_1-502_15.

[3] Siouris, I. M., Walter J., A neutron diffraction study of ancient Greek ceramics, Physica B: Condensed Matter, 385-386 (2006) 225-227.

[4] Randazzo L., Venuti V., Paladini G., Crupi V., Majolino D., Ott F., Ricca M., Rovella N., La Russa M. F., Evaluating the protecting effects of two consolidants applied on Pietra di Lecce limestone: A neutronographic study, Journal of Cultural Heritage, 46 (2020) 31-41.