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5th International Congress on Chemistry for Cultural Heritage

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Science, and in particularly chemistry, plays an important role in the sustainable preservation of our cultural heritage through the investigation of ancient materials with the aim of understanding their technologies and degradation process. State-of-the-art analytical instrumentations and methods, which are always being improved, allow access to information from surviving works of art and provide the tools for the diagnostic and protection of Cultural Heritage. 

EuCheMS, the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (http://www.euchems.eu/about-us/what-is-euchems/) aims to nurture a platform for scientific discussion and to provide a single, unbiased European voice on key policy issues in chemistry and related fields. The EuCHEMS Working Party on Chemistry for Cultural Heritage (ChemCH) was initiated with the 2010 International EuCHEMS congress promoting dialogue on the role of chemical science and technology for Cultural Heritage. Since then, the ChemCH conference has been organised every other year, with previous editions in Ravenna in 2010, Istanbul in 2012, Vienna in 2014 and Brussels in 2016 . The 5th ChemCH was held in Bucharest in 2018. 

Heritage Science has been a proud supporter of the ChemCH conferences since the journal was founded. As with the two previous conferences, a selection of the most significant contributions of the 2018 edition were compiled in this special issue.

Edited by Dr Elena Badea

  2. In this paper we analyzed a batch of 64 clay weights from three archaeological sites located in Romania (Gumelniţa, Măgura-Jilava, and Sultana) that belong to Kodjadermen-Gumelniţa-Karanovo VI cultural complex...

    Authors: Bogdan Manea, Mircea Lechintan, Gabriel Popescu, Theodor Ignat, Vasile Opriş, Florin Constantin, Mădălina Dimache, Valentin Parnic, Roxana Bugoi and Cătălin Lazăr
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:88
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. The spontaneous chemical alteration of artists’ pigment materials may be caused by several degradation processes. Some of these are well known while others are still in need of more detailed investigation and ...

    Authors: Jonas Simoen, Steven De Meyer, Frederik Vanmeert, Nouchka de Keyser, Ermanno Avranovich, Geert Van der Snickt, Annelies Van Loon, Katrien Keune and Koen Janssens
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:83
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  4. Historical museums and depositories contain collections with a number of lead objects or historical documents with lead seals. Lead is a metal which has good corrosion resistance under atmospheric conditions. ...

    Authors: Sarka Msallamova, Milan Kouril, Kristyna Charlotte Strachotova, Jan Stoulil, Kateryna Popova, Pavla Dvorakova and Miloslav Lhotka
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:76
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  5. Leather artefacts in historical collections and old leather bookbindings in archives and libraries frequently show a variety of visible changes which alter their appearance and ability to be used, such as powd...

    Authors: Elena Badea, Cristina Carşote, Emanuel Hadîmbu, Claudiu Șendrea and Maria-Cristina Lupaș
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:68
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  6. Red is undoubtedly one of the principal colors in Iranian carpets. During the twentieth century, a golden era for Iranian carpet production and export industry, madder was still one of the primary constituents...

    Authors: Zohreh Chahardoli, Ina Vanden Berghe and Rocco Mazzeo
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:57
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  8. In-depth technical and art historical research into Jan Steen’s (ca. 1626–1679) oeuvre has been a focus at the Mauritshuis since 2012, as part of the Partners in Science collaboration with Shell. The aim of th...

    Authors: Marya Albrecht, Onno de Noord, Sabrina Meloni, Annelies van Loon and Ralph Haswell
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:53
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  12. Nowadays the use of laser technology as a highly precise tool for the cleaning of paintings is gaining ground. The development of a non-invasive analytical protocol aimed at thorough assessment of the treated ...

    Authors: Patrizia Moretti, Magdalena Iwanicka, Kristalia Melessanaki, Evdoxia Dimitroulaki, Olga Kokkinaki, Melissa Daugherty, Marcin Sylwestrzak, Paraskevi Pouli, Piotr Targowski, Klaas Jan van den Berg, Laura Cartechini and Costanza Miliani
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:44
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  13. Biocodicology, the study of the biological information stored in manuscripts, offers the possibility of interrogating manuscripts in novel ways. Exploring the biological data associated to parchment documents ...

    Authors: Sarah Fiddyment, Matthew D. Teasdale, Jiří Vnouček, Élodie Lévêque, Annelise Binois and Matthew J. Collins
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:35
    Content type: Review Published on:

  14. In this research, we propose an advanced system for the cleaning of wax-based coatings applied on indoor bronzes. To this aim we developed a new kind of eco-friendly gel based on PHB (poly-3-hydroxybutyrate) u...

    Authors: Jia Yiming, Giorgia Sciutto, Silvia Prati, Emilio Catelli, Monica Galeotti, Simone Porcinai, Laura Mazzocchetti, Chiara Samorì, Paola Galletti, Loris Giorgini, Emilio Tagliavini and Rocco Mazzeo
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:34
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  15. The city of Nájera, located in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, hosts an alcazar of Arab origin, which became the residence of the king of Pamplona-Nájera and later of the duke and duchess of Nájera. From t...

    Authors: Estefania Calparsoro, Uxue Sanchez-Garmendia, Gorka Arana, Maite Maguregui and Javier G. Iñañez
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:33
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  16. The impact of solvent exposure on oil paintings and the differences between solvent application methods are longstanding topics in cleaning studies. Solvent exposure is ideally kept to a minimum, because solve...

    Authors: Lambert Baij, Alina Astefanei, Joen Hermans, Francine Brinkhuis, Heleen Groenewegen, Louise Chassouant, Sofia Johansson, Garry Corthals, Caroline Tokarski, Piet Iedema and Katrien Keune
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:31
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  17. Many objects of culture heritage, comprised of leather, need to receive the right treatment to be restored and to elongate their lifespan. Determination of the degradation degree and even better the type of th...

    Authors: Gabriela Vyskočilová, Matthäa Ebersbach, Radka Kopecká, Lubomír Prokeš and Jiří Příhoda
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:26
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  18. In illuminated manuscripts, a reliable identification of oxyanion pigments such as azurite by rFTIR is simple, as several combination and overtone bands are strongly enhanced compared to transmission mode. How...

    Authors: Wilfried Vetter, Irene Latini and Manfred Schreiner
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:21
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  19. Lead used to be a common material for setting seal to historical documents. Lead seals formed parts of historical documents as a guarantee of their legal validity. Disinfectants are commonly used during the re...

    Authors: Sarka Msallamova, Milan Kouril, Kristyna Charllote Strachotova, Jan Stoulil, Kateryna Popova and Pavla Dvorakova
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:18
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  20. In conservation science, the identification of painting materials is fundamental for the study of artists’ palettes, for dating and for understanding on-going degradation phenomena. For these purposes, the stu...

    Authors: Alessia Artesani, Marta Ghirardello, Sara Mosca, Austin Nevin, Gianluca Valentini and Daniela Comelli
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:17
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  21. Liquid chromatography with UV–Vis and mass spectrometric detection (LC–DAD–MS) was applied to the identification of dyes and biological sources in samples from nineteenth to twentieth century ethnographic text...

    Authors: Irina Petroviciu, Iulia Teodorescu, Florin Albu, Marian Virgolici, Eugenia Nagoda and Andrei Medvedovici
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:15
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  22. Modern art materials introduced since the end of XIX century include a large number of formulations of synthetic polymers and pigments, whose degradation processes and best preservation conditions are a major ...

    Authors: Jacopo La Nasa, Greta Biale, Francesca Sabatini, Ilaria Degano, Maria Perla Colombini and Francesca Modugno
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:8
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  23. Mosaics, one of the most important decorative artworks in the Roman culture, were usually elaborated with a set of tesserae joined with lime or others binders to form geometric or figurative decorations. The i...

    Authors: Iker Marcaida, Maite Maguregui, Héctor Morillas, Nagore Prieto-Taboada, Marco Veneranda, Silvia Fdez-Ortiz de Vallejuelo, Alberta Martellone, Bruno De Nigris, Massimo Osanna and Juan Manuel Madariaga
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:3
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  24. Micro-samples from 57 original paint tubes used between 1904 and 1909 by the Norwegian painter, Harriet Backer were studied with inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectroscopy (ICP–OES). This accurat...

    Authors: Francesco Caruso, Sara Mantellato, Noëlle L. W. Streeton and Tine Frøysaker
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:1
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  25. Assessment was performed of the air quality related risk to the conservation of cultural heritage objects in one urban and one rural indoor location in Romania, with expected different air quality related cons...

    Authors: Terje Grøntoft and Octaviana Marincas
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:73
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  26. Alum-treated wooden artefacts suffer from extreme deterioration, and the stability of these objects and the salts they contain to variations in climate conditions is an important issue. Responses of potassium ...

    Authors: Caitlin M. A. McQueen, Calin C. Steindal, Olga Narygina and Susan Braovac
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:66
    Content type: Research article Published on: