Symmetry and Crystallography in Turkish Art and Culture

Satellite Conference of the ECM-25

Istanbul, Turkey, 14-16 August 2009
On occasion of the XXV European Crystallographic Meeting in Istanbul, the IUCr MaThCryst commission, in cooperation with the CrysAC commission, has organized a Satellite conference on Art and Crystallography devoted to the analysis of the crystallographic aspects of Art and Culture in Turkey and neighbouring countries an regions like Middle Asia, Caucasus, Iran, Anatolia, Middle East, including carpet ornaments and kilim frames. The Satellite conference was completed by a workshop do it yourself and a short excursion.

HSC5: Synchrotron Radiation and Neutrons for Cultural Heritage Studies

Grenoble, 7 to 13 October 2007

Part of the Marie Curie Conferences and Training Courses

SCOPE

Synchrotron and neutron sources offer recent and additional insight into the records of our cultural past. Over the last years, there has been an increasing demand for access to SR- and neutron-based techniques, and their applications in the fields of archaeological science and cultural heritage. The purpose of this Hercules Specialized Course is to give the participants an introduction to the basic principles of SR and neutron techniques (imaging, microscopy, diffraction, absorption and fluorescence, IR spectroscopy). The school will also provide cross-disciplinary examples illustrating the abilities of these techniques in a representative range of scientific cases in relation with the European cultural heritage. The lectures will cover both theoretical and experimental aspects to the attention of a non-expert audience. They will be complemented by tutorials (diffraction and XAS data processing), and practicals on a selection of artefacts taking place at several ESRF and ILL beamlines. Young scientists and newcomers at the interfaces of the disciplines of archaeology, archaeological science, art conservation and materials science are welcome.

ORGANISERS

Loïc Bertrand, Eric Dooryhee, Jean-Louis Hodeau Secretariat: N. Petricola (ESRF)

TOPICS

Introductory lectures:Â

Over the first 2 days, the HSC includes introductory talks on core SR and neutron methods (diffraction, XAS) and will also cover recent and dedicated developments in IR spectroscopy, full-field 2/3D imaging, micro-beams and microscopy, together with related tutorials.

Complementarity lecturesÂ

The last day covers a variety of archaeological and cultural heritage issues, e.g. studies of pigments, metal ware, manuscripts and parchments, tissues, ceramics and glasses.

PracticalsÂ

2 days of beamtime are planned for training and practising at the ESRF and ILL. The participants are encouraged to discuss with us the possibility to bring over their own samples as test cases and for preliminary measurements.

The preservation and conservation of our cultural heritage is a significant contemporary worldwide concern. Advanced scientific methods and techniques are essential for the identification of materials present in historic objects of cultural heritage and processes occurring therein. These methods can also help to give a deeper understanding of the technology and craftsmanship of old masters. Modern analytic methods are important in studies of authenticity and can be applied as diagnostic techniques in practical conservation.Â

The aim of the conference is to promote the development and use of X-ray and other modern techniques in order to extract information from objects of cultural heritage. The conference is also a forum to bring together scientists whose major expertise is in a high-tech field and museum professionals (art historians, conservators and curators) whose particular responsibility is the organization and preservation of collections, and to disseminate the newest results in the area of scientific investigation of art objects.