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Shedding light on the past: Optical technologies applied to cultural heritage

The year 2015 was declared the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies by the United Nations. Light plays an important role in promoting our tangible heritage through scientific studies. Continuous advances in light and photonic technologies, many of them catalysed by the invention of the laser in 1962, have made available a broad set of powerful optical and spectroscopic tools, and researchers have employed them in various analytical studies aiding archaeologists, historians and conservators in their studies and practice.

To celebrate the International Year of Light, Heritage Science presents “Shedding light on the past: Optical Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage”, a collection of articles themed around the use and significance of light in in the study of our cultural heritage.

Editor: Professor Demetrios Anglos


  2. The existence of a portrait hidden beneath The Blue Room (1901) by Pablo Picasso prompted a comprehensive technical study of this early Blue period painting. Microanalysis of paint samples was combined with refle...

    Authors: Patricia A. Favero, Jennifer Mass, John K. Delaney, Arthur R. Woll, Alyssa M. Hull, Kathryn A. Dooley and Adam C. Finnefrock
    Citation: Heritage Science 2017 5:13
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. Jackson Pollock’s Number 1A, 1948 painting was investigated using in situ scanning macro-x-ray fluorescence mapping (MA-XRF) to help characterize the artist’s materials and his creative process. A multivariate cu...

    Authors: A. Martins, J. Coddington, G. Van der Snickt, B. van Driel, C. McGlinchey, D. Dahlberg, K. Janssens and J. Dik
    Citation: Heritage Science 2016 4:33
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  4. The paint stratigraphy of the two clock faces from the tower clock of the Government Palace in Helsinki (Finland) was analysed in order to determine their original colour before restoration works. Paint cross-...

    Authors: Kepa Castro, Ulla Knuutinen, Silvia Fdez-Ortiz de Vallejuelo, Maite Maguregui, Juan Manuel Madariaga and Raili Laakso
    Citation: Heritage Science 2016 4:36
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  5. Since the ‘rediscovery’ of the Selden map of China, an early seventeenth century map of Asia, in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the importance of the map in our understanding of globalisation in the early sev...

    Authors: Sotiria Kogou, Sarah Neate, Clare Coveney, Amanda Miles, David Boocock, Lucia Burgio, Chi Shing Cheung and Haida Liang
    Citation: Heritage Science 2016 4:28
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  7. The scientific imaging of works of art is crucial for the assessment of the presence and distribution of pigments and other materials on surfaces. It is known that some ancient pigments are luminescent: these ...

    Authors: Daniela Comelli, Valentina Capogrosso, Christian Orsenigo and Austin Nevin
    Citation: Heritage Science 2016 4:21
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  8. A versatile analytical methodology is presented, that combines the application of two mobile laser-based analytical techniques, Raman microscopy and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), for the analysi...

    Authors: Zoi Eirini Papliaka, Aggelos Philippidis, Panayiotis Siozos, Maria Vakondiou, Kristalia Melessanaki and Demetrios Anglos
    Citation: Heritage Science 2016 4:15
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  9. Alchemy (1947, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice) is one of the most materic works by J. Pollock, whose palette is extensive, ranging from white to yellow, red, green, violet, blue, bla...

    Authors: F. Rosi, C. Grazia, R. Fontana, F. Gabrieli, L. Pensabene Buemi, E. Pampaloni, A. Romani, C. Stringari and C. Miliani
    Citation: Heritage Science 2016 4:18
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  10. A great number of historic manuscripts, drawings, etc., many of which are stored and/or exhibited in museums, archives and various collections contain iron gall inks (IGIs) as base scripting material. Although...

    Authors: Stamatis C. Boyatzis, Georgia Velivasaki and Ekaterini Malea
    Citation: Heritage Science 2016 4:13
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Erratum to this article has been published in Heritage Science 2016 4:39

  11. The two-wavelength laser cleaning methodology has been introduced and developed in order to meet demanding cleaning challenges in CH. The innovation lies on the combined use of two laser beams, allowing thus c...

    Authors: Paraskevi Pouli, Evi Papakonstantinou, Katerina Frantzikinaki, Anastasia Panou, Giasemi Frantzi, Costantinos Vasiliadis and Costas Fotakis
    Citation: Heritage Science 2016 4:9
    Content type: Review Published on: