2016

XXIV IUCr Congress, Hyderabad

• The CrysAC Commission actively participated in the organization of the 24th Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography to be held in 2017 in Hyderabad.

Gilberto Artioli and Alicja Rafalska-Lasocha, as the members of the International Programme Committee (IPC) of this Congress, were involved in the organization of plenary and keynote lectures as well as a number of microsymposia connected with the investigations of the objects of cultural heritage. They took part in the meeting of the International Programme Committee in Hyderabad in spring 2016.

1st CrysAC Workshop 2016

• The commission started to organize CrysAC workshops. The first CrysAC workshop, Cultural heritage authentication and forensic science, was organised in Krakow (Poland) on 18 May 2016. The programme for the first workshop is available at: http://www.biurokarier.chemia.uj.edu.pl/conf/x-ray16/programme

X-ray and other techniques in investigations of the objects of cultural heritage

The CrysAC Commission was also a co-organiser of the scientific international conference 6th Meeting on X-ray and other techniques in investigations of the objects of cultural heritage which was held in Krakow (Poland), 19-21 May 2016 (A. Rafalska-Lasocha, G. Artioli and P. Bezdička). More at: http://www.biurokarier.chemia.uj.edu.pl/conf/x-ray16

ECM-30, Basel

Organization of Microsymposium MS 48 Crystallography in art and cultural heritage at ECM-30 Basel, Switzerland (chair: A. Rafalska-Lasocha, H. Stoeckli-Evans)

1. A. Zürn (Artist Researcher based in Biel, Switzerland), MAKING GOLD: Recent Developments and New Perspectives
2. K. Janssens (University of Antwerp, Department of Chemistry, Belgium), Micro-XRPD, XRPD tomography and MA-XRPD: three related methods to better understand structural alterations in cultural heritage materials
3. M. Emami (Department of conservation and archaeology, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran), Crystallographic interpretation of mineral decompositions via Rietveld refi nement strategy for clustering ancient ceramics*
4. P. Bezdicka (Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the CAS, Husinec-Rez, Czech Republic), Provenancing of clay-based pigments in paints using quantitative X-ray micro-diffraction analysis

* Owing to the absence of Prof. Emani, Alicja Rafalska-Lasocha gave a talk Commission on Crystallography in Art and Cultural Heritage.·

• The Commission is also a co-organizer of the 6th Interdisciplinary ALMA Conference to be held in Brno, Czech Republic in 2017 (Petr Bezdicka - chair of the organizing Committee, G. Artioli, A. Rafalska-Lasocha - members of the IPC). More at: https://www.alma-lab.cz/eng/alma-conference-2017

Publications

In 2016 the members and consultants of CryAC published the following results of their work in the area of cultural heritage:

Books:

• E. Makovicky, Symmetry: Through the Eyes of Old Masters, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co., 2016

Papers:

• Jean-Marc Castera (2016), Persian Variations. Nexus Netw. J. 18, 223-274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00004-015-0281-5
• Emil Makovicky (2017), On the Kond style of Islamic tiling: a study in practical Islamic geometry. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei, 28, 35-51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-016-0571-1
• Emil Makovicky and Nicolette Makovicky (2017), Nonperiodic Octagonal Patterns from a Jali Screen in the Mausoleum of Muhammad Ghaus in Gwalior and Their Periodic Relatives. Nexus Netw. J. 19, 101-120. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00004-016-0316-6
• Istvan Hargittai (2016), James D. Watson 88 - the discovery of the double helix was an iconic event in structural chemistry. Struct. Chem. 27, 419–428 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11224-015-0688-3
• Istvan Hargittai (2016), Michael Polanyi - pupils and crossroads - on the 125th anniversary of his birth. Struct. Chem. 27, 1327–1344. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11224-016-0816-8
• Istvan Hargittai (2016), Ambiguity of Symmetry. Isr. J. Chem. 56, 907–924. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.201600063
• Istvan Hargittai (2017), Generalizing crystallography: a tribute to Alan A. Mackay at 90. Struct. Chem. 28, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11224-016-0766-1
• Artioli G. and Quartieri S. (2016), The contribution of geoscience to cultural heritage studies. Elements 12, 13-18. https://doi.org/0.2113/gselements.12.1.13
• Artioli G.: XRD - X-Ray Diffraction. In: Allan S. Gilbert (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology. Springer, Heidelberg-Berlin. Pp. 1019-1025, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-4020-4409-0

Special Journal Issues

• Alan L. Mackay and Generalized Crystallography. Edited by I. Hargittai, Struct. Chem. Special Issue, February 2017 (Vol. 28, No. 1)
• Earth Sciences for Cultural Heritage. Edited by G. Artioli G. and S. Quartieri S., Elements Vol. 12, No. 1, 2016.

Other projects

Gilberto Artioli, Powder diffraction in art and archaeology, International Tables for Crystallography, volume H (in preparation for publication).

Celerino Abad-Zapatero continued collaboration with Mr Painton Cowen to incorporate scientific content into the 'rosewindow' site (http://therosewindow.com/TheRoseWindow2/Rose-numbers.htm)

The CrysAC Website

A new CrysAC website was prepared. Now it is available at: https://www.iucr.org/resources/commissions/crysac

Photo credits: 24th IUCr Congress; ECM30 website; Alicja Rafalska-Lasocha