Themes > Science > Physics > Nuclear Physics > Applications of Nuclear Physics > Archaeology and Art


Egyptian Sculpture

Nuclear techniques can clarify the histories of archaeological artifacts and works of art by identifying elements present in trace quantities. The Colossi of Memnon, two statues created during the 14th century B.C. on the western plain of Thebes in Egypt, stand nearly sixty feet tall and weigh about 1000 tons. Each was sculpted from a monolith of quartzite. Until recently, archaeologists believed the monoliths came from a quarry in Aswan, 140 miles upstream along the Nile River. When scientists examined the statues and several Egyptian quarries by a technique called neutron activation analysis, they proved that the monoliths actually came from a quarry in Cairo -- 440 miles downstream.

Paleolithic Artifacts and the Seuso Treasure

Accelerator mass spectrometry makes it possible to apply carbon-14 dating studies to samples too small for conventional techniques. The photographs below show

Colossus of Memnon
Lawrence Berkeley Lab

two collections of items dated by AMS which probably could not have been dated by conventional methods. The left photo shows the Seuso Treasure, fourteen items forming part of a table service apparently made in the Roman Empire. Soot on the caldron which contained them dates from the middle of the third century A.D. The smaller photograph shows five artifacts found in Victoria Cave in Yorkshire, England, in 1870: a barbed harpoon, two double-bevelled points, and two reindeer bones. AMS dating showed these items to be more than 10,000 years old.

Seuso Treasure
Oxford University

Paleolithic Artifacts
Oxford University

Ancient Cave Paintings

The Research Laboratory of the French Museums, located within the Louvre in Paris, has installed an accelerator for studying artworks by nuclear techniques. Museum researchers have studied 12,000-year-old cave paintings (see below). Their analysis of milligram-size samples showed that the paleolithic artists prepared their paints by complex recipes which included a pigment, a binder, and an extender. By categorizing the paintings according to the paint recipes, they established a more accurate chronology of the cave art.

Paleolithic Cave Painting
Research Laboratory of the French Museums


Information provided by: http://www.phy.anl.gov