Science for Cultural Heritage: Technological Innovation and Case Studies in Marine and Land Archaeology in the Adriatic Region and Inland

298 Pages·2010·15.82 MB·English

by  M Montagnari Kokelj

VII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE, ARTS AND CULTURE
SCIENCE FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE
Technological Innovation and Case Studies in Marine and
Land Archaeology in the Adriatic Region and Inland
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
www.ecsac.eu
VII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE, ARTS AND CULTURE
SCIENCE FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE
Technological Innovation and Case Studies in Marine and
Land Archaeology in the Adriatic Region and Inland
August 28-31, 2007 • Veli Lošinj, Croatia
Editors
M. Montagnari Kokelj
M. Budinich
University of Trieste, Italy
C. Tuniz
ICTP, Italy
World Scientific
NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TAIPEI • CHENNAI
Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
SCIENCE FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE
Technological Innovation and Case Studies in Marine and Land Archaeology
in the Adriatic Region and Inland
Veli Lošinj, Croatia 28–31 August 2007
eds. C. Tuniz, M. Montagnari Kokelj and M. Budinich
Copyright © 2010 by The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
ISBN-13 978-981-4307-06-2
ISBN-10 981-4307-06-8
Printed in Singapore.
EH - Science for Cultural Heritage.pmd 1 1/4/2010, 2:30 PM
v
INTRODUCTION
M. BUDINICH1, M. MONTAGNARI KOKELJ1, C.TUNIZ2
1University of Trieste and 2ICTP, Trieste – Italy
The Lo!inj series of Conferences (see http://www.ecsac.eu/) focus on
interdisciplinary themes, with the aim to promote a forum involving researchers,
scholars and students from natural and social sciences and humanities. This
interdisciplinary dialogue and the active involvement of local communities and
non-specialists, with particular attention to young people, is one of the main
objectives of the European Centre for Science Arts and Culture (ECSAC,
http://www.ecsac.eu/), the main organizer of the conferences.
ECSAC has its headquarters in Mali Lo!inj, Croatia, while the Managing
Committee and the Secretariat are based in Trieste, Italy, hosted by the
Consortium for the Promotion of Study and Research in Physics, at the ICTP –
the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics. ECSAC’s
President, Paolo Budinich, at the same time President of the Trieste International
Foundation for the Progress and Freedom of Science, has been one of the key
figures in the process started in the 1960s to develop the “Trieste System” as an
international institutional scheme that promotes advanced knowledge involving
also scientists and students from developing countries.
ECSAC, ICTP and the Trieste University, promoters of the Lo!inj
Conference, belong to the Trieste System, as well as SISSA / ISAS - the
International School for Advanced Studies, AREA Science Park and the
Consortium mentioned above, who all supported the project. Besides these
partners, the institutional representatives of UniAdrion - the Virtual University
of the Adriatic-Ionian Basin (a net including both ECSAC and Trieste
University) and IAEA - the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as
scientific scholars from many European countries have guaranteed the
international dimension of the Lo!inj events.
The 7th Lo!inj International Conference on Science, Arts and Culture was
titled “Science for Cultural Heritage: Technological Innovation and Case
Studies in Marine and Land Archaeology in the Adriatic Region and Inland”. It
was inspired by recent studies on the ancient bronze Apoxyomenos, found in
1999 in Veli Lo!inj waters, carried out by the Hrvatski Restauratorski Zavod
vi
(Croatian Institute of Restoration) in collaboration with Opificio delle Pietre
Dure, the famous restoration centre based in Florence, Italy..
The Conference was held on 28 - 31 August in Lo!inj and involved 50
scientists, archaeologists and restoration experts mainly from north-eastern Italy,
Carinthia, Slovenia and Croatia, but also from other prestigious European
centres.
The aim of the conference was to discuss the contribution of physics and
other sciences in archaeological research and in the preservation of cultural
heritage. Considering that the mission of ECSAC is to promote the interaction
among the diverse cultures of the peoples from the lands on the Adriatic and
Ionian seas, the major themes were related to the history and pre-history of this
region, from greek-roman archaeology on the eastern Adriatic coasts to the
palaeoanthropology of the Neanderthals of the Vindija caves in Croatia, from
the Roman city of Aquileia to the pleistocenic cave of Homo heidelbergensis in
the Karst of Visogliano (Trieste), from the Roman ship Julia Felix of the Grado
lagoon to the ancient bronze Apoxyomenos of the Veli Lo!inj waters.
A variety of scientific disciplines provide tools and methods that are crucial
to reconstruct humanity’s past and to preserve material remains that witness the
evolution of human culture. Geology reconstructs the history of terrestrial
environments, critical for the evolution and dispersal of humans. Chemistry
explains reactions that modify materials left by human activities, including the
destructive effects of pollution. Biology has a critical role in archaeology,
particularly with the recent progress in the analysis of DNA in ancient organic
materials.
Physics has a special role in archaeology and cultural heritage, providing a
variety of non-invasive analytical methods that can characterise ancient
materials. These methods include new microscopes based on synchrotron
radiation, high-energy ions, neutrons, lasers and other radiations or particles that
can detect in-situ the structure and composition of art objects and archaeological
remains, with resolution at molecular and atomic level. High resolution satellite
imagery allows the prospection of archaeological sites over distances of several
kilometres. Also the time dimension is critical in archaeology. Physicists have
developed clocks based on natural radioactivity that provide chronologic
information on time scales from centuries to million years, from the Middle
Ages to the Pleistocene. Finally, the analysis of certain isotopes such as
nitrogen, calcium and strontium provide information that can be used to
reconstruct diets, diseases and migrations of ancient human populations.
The conference has offered the opportunity to promote the debate among
scholars and students from natural sciences, humanities and social sciences,
vii
considering the impact of the most recent scientific and technologic
developments in applications to art and archaeology.

Acknowledgements
We would like to extend our warmest thanks to the Mayor of Mali Lo!inj Gari
Cappelli who always helped and sustained the organization of the series of
conferences on Science and Culture (see http://www.ecsac.eu/) in the beatiful
island of Lo!inj. This year in particular we would like to thank the Town
Council of Veli Losinj who offered the newly refurbished theater, now Kulturni
Dom, of Veli Losinj.
This conference wouldn't have been possible without the unbelievable
dedication, kindness and patience of Morena Petrich who was responsible for
the secretariat and for all the organizative matters.
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
ix
CONTENTS
Introduction v

Program xiii

Archaeological and Archaeometric Data in the Study of the Athlete of
Croatia 1
M. Michelucci
Ion Beam Techniques for Analysis of Cultural Heritage Objects:
Collaboration between the Ruđer Bošković Institute and the Croatian
Conservation Institute 15
S. Fazinić, I. Božičević, Z. Pastuović, M. Jakšić, D. Mudronja,
K. Kusijanović, M. Braun and V. Desnica
Study by Mobile Non-Destructive Testing of the Bronze Statue of the
“Satiro” of Marsala 23
G. Guida, D. Artioli, S. Ridolifi and G. E. Gigante
Archaeometric Measurements with PIXE in Slovenia 31
Ž. Šmit
In Situ Chemical Composition Analysis of Cultural Heritage Objects
Using Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry 41
D. Wegrzynek, E. Chinea-Cano, A. Markowicz, S. Bamford,
G. Buzanich , P. Wobrauschek, Ch. Streli, M. Griesser, K. Uhlir
and A. Mendoza-Cuevas
Integrated Geophysical Techniques for the High-Resolution Study of
Archaeological Sites 55
M. Pipan and E. Forte
Thermoluminescence Dating and Cultural Heritage 69
M. Martini and E. Sibilia