Physics techniques to the rescue of the distant past
2026 editorial revision
Atoms and radioactivity are among the tools available to historians and archaeologists in laboratories associated with museums. They have become discreet but effective aids in preserving objects from the past, dating and identifying them, reconstructing their history and the way in which they were created.
Scribe … in the laboratory
Statue representing a crouching scribe from the Egyptian Antiquities Department of the Louvre Museum, being analysed to identify the materials used to make the eyes. This Scribe from an ancient dynasty would have been quite surprised to learn that one day he would find himself face to face with a particle accelerator.
© Dominique BAGAULT/LRMF
Dating techniques such as carbon-14 dating and thermoluminescence help determine the age of pottery and various objects recovered from excavations.
Gamma rays are used to explore the inside of objects, such as statues or masks, that would remain opaque to radiography using less penetrating X-rays.
The Venus de Milo is hollow: Looking at it on its pedestal, you would never know. And yet! The CEA was called in by the Museums of France to radiograph statues that were virtually impossible to move, given their historical importance. Two CEA technicians came at night, when no one else was in the museum, to use a cobalt-60 gamma radiography source. And the radiographic film was unequivocal. The Venus de Milo is hollow and contains cavities and metal parts. © CEA
The analysis and identification of cultural heritage works now benefit from the sensitivity of detection techniques developed in nuclear physics and from particle accelerator techniques (ion beam analysis).
The Centre for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France (C2RMF) at the Louvre has had a particle accelerator called AGLAE in its basement for several years. The advantage of an accelerator over a radioactive source is that particles can be directed with extreme precision at a point to be examined, for example a tiny detail.
The accelerated particles (protons, deuterium or helium nuclei) produce the same effects (ionisation and nuclear reactions) as alpha particles from a radioactive source. By detecting these effects, the composition of the analysed detail can be determined with remarkable precision, without damaging it, because the irradiation dose is tiny. The composition of a diamond, a fragment of a vase or a layer of paint provides unique information about the origin of the precious stone, the potter’s technique or the paint used.
A major technical development carried out on AGLAE was the extraction of the beam into air, through an ultra-thin window. It was no longer necessary to place the objects to be analysed under vacuum. The beam extracted into air allows direct, contactless (and therefore completely non-invasive) analysis of art or archaeological objects of any size or shape, without sampling or preparation.
Art and radiation: IRSN video – Repères magazine (18 April 2017): The Aglaé particle accelerator at the Centre for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France (C2RMF) can make antiquities and masterpieces from all periods reveal their secrets.
For a long time, the C2RMF was the only museum laboratory in the world to have such equipment. It is now being imitated. To benefit from the sophisticated techniques of nuclear and atomic physics, works of art from the Louvre do not have to travel far. They are transported directly through an underground passage.
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