Synchrotron Radiation in Art and Archaeology

In this specially themed issue of JAAS, a collection of 25 papers has been gathered that were submitted as a result of an oral or poster contribution at the SR2A-2010 (Synchrotron Radiation in Art and Archaeology) conference. This meeting was organized by Koen Janssens (University of Antwerp, Belgium), Joris Dik (Technical University of Delft, Netherlands), Robert Van Langh (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Janneke Ottens (Institute for Cultural Heritage, Amsterdam, Netherlands).

Six years after the organization of the first SR2A in Grenoble, it was a great pleasure to welcome ca. 120 participants to the conference in Amsterdam, which took place from 7–10 November 2010. The venue of the meeting was the van Gogh museum, located at the Museum Square in central Amsterdam.

The well-attended SR2A-2004 meeting, organized at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Grenoble, France) has been the start of the series of bi-annual conferences devoted to the use of synchrotron radiation (and similar types of penetrating probes) for the characterization and investigation of materials from the cultural heritage and archaeological sciences.

Previous editions of this conference have been organized by, in the vicinity of, and with the help of scientists from synchrotron facilities. The 2010 edition of SR2A on the other hand was in the hands of cultural heritage professionals and scientists employing synchrotron (and related types of) radiation for their research.

In view of the excellent facilities available at the van Gogh museum for a conference the size of SR2A and of the interest in the cultural heritage institutes situated near the Museum Square in the use of synchrotron and neutron beams for characterization of artistic and archaeological artifacts and materials, the choice of Amsterdam as a conference venue was obvious.

The conference attendees met on Sunday evening 7 November 2011 in the relaxed atmosphere of the ‘Felix Meritis huis’, a traditional Amsterdam merchant's town palace, now converted into a theatre.

While the oral sessions of the meeting took place inside the van Gogh museum, the poster session on Tuesday afternoon 9 November 2010 was organized in the meeting rooms and entrance hall of the nearby ‘Ateliergebouw’. This building houses the laboratories of the Dutch Institute for Cultural Heritage (formerly ICN—Instituut Collectie Nederland) and the conservation studies of the Rijksmuseum. During the poster session, several possibilities were offered to the conference participants to visit the laboratories and conservation studios.

During the entire conference, the attendees also had the possibility to freely visit the collections of both the Rijksmuseum and the van Gogh museum.

At the end of the conference, an award for the best poster was presented; this award was made available by the Royal Society of Chemistry via the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry and by the organizers. The winners of the award were O. Schalm. A. Cabal and P. Van Espen (Artesis University College Antwerp and University of Antwerp, Belgium) for their contribution entitled “Search of improved radiographic methods for paintings by means of state-of-the-art laboratory and synchrotron technology”.

In this specially themed issue, you will encounter a number of papers that deal with the use of synchrotron radiation or a combination of synchrotron radiation and neutrons for (non-destructive) characterization of cultural heritage artifacts and/or archaeological and artistic materials. In the papers in which neutrons are employed, usually materials or artifacts such as bronze statuettes, Japanese swords and ancient potteries are studied that very strongly absorb X-rays but are still fairly transparent to neutrons. In the papers in which only (synchrotron) X-rays are employed, a distinction can be made between papers dealing with (innovative forms of) imaging and those addressing material aspects such as (trace element) composition and alteration of cultural heritage materials. On the microscopic level, imaging and analysis of medieval armour by the combined the use of confocal XRF in combination with LA-ICP-MS is discussed while at the macroscopic level, 2D imaging of paintings using XRF signals or a combination of high energy XRF and XRD information is described. Among the alteration studies, the degradation mechanisms of the pigments cinnabar, zinc yellow and Prussian blue are elaborated upon. Next to these studies, provenance analyses of gold, silver and copper artifacts are also included.

At this point of finalization of the specially themed issue of JAAS, which also marks the end of the activities associated with SR2A-2010, it is very appropriate for us to sincerely thank Mr. Luc van't dack (University of Antwerp) for his hard work and continuous efforts to keep all logistical issues of the conference under control. Without his professional organizational skills and unbelievable efficiency it would have been much more difficult to organize this meeting. We also want to express our gratitude towards all members of the scientific committee of SR2A for their active support which allowed us to compose an inspiring scientific programme, and to the editorial staff of JAAS for the efficient manner in which the refereeing process of the manuscripts, submitted for this specially themed issue, was handled.

We look forward to seeing you at the next SR2A conference!

Koen Janssens

(on behalf of the SR2A-2010 organizers)

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