Terahertz, X-ray and neutron computed tomography of an Eighteenth Dynasty Egyptian sealed pottery

Abstract

International audienceAn Eighteenth Dynasty Egyptian sealed pottery stored at the Museum of Aquitaine (Bordeaux, France) has been investigated using terahertz radiation, X-rays and neutrons. THz computed tomography revealed nondestructively the presence of content, whereas X-rays and neutrons analyzed more precisely the fabrication process and conservation of the pottery together with the nature of this content owing to higher spatial resolution and contrast. With neutron tomography, we determined the method used to seal the jar as well as the finer structure of the inner content. Neutron-induced prompt gamma spectroscopy was finally applied to measure the elemental composition of the content, which is supposed to consist of dried germinated seeds

Non-Destructive Textural Characterization of Southern Romanian Neolithic and Chalcolithic Pottery Using Digital Image Analysis on Tomographically Reconstructed Sections

“…Based on the principles of the interactions between X-rays and the examined material, together with an algorithm to reconstruct the acquired data [3][4][5][6], this method has been successfully applied in pottery research. Although the first studies of this kind were performed back in the early 1930s [7], the full potential of this method was recognized much later, when it was applied to the identification and analysis of clay, inclusions, voids, cracks, and surfaces [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. These results proved that consistent sets of data could be acquired by analyzing the internal structure of ceramics in a non-destructive manner.…”

Quantitative 3D orientation analysis of particles and voids to differentiate hand-built pottery forming techniques using X-ray microtomography and neutron tomography

“…Thus far, NT has been applied to a wide variety of materials (e.g. Lehmann 2018; Mannes and Lehmann 2022), particularly metals, and although it has been used to image pottery vessels (Abraham et al 2014;Szilágyi et al 2016), it has not been applied to the examination of pottery forming techniques specifically. CT and µ-CT have seen greater application generally, and with regard to the study of pottery forming techniques have been most commonly used to identify macroscopic structural features such as the joins between coils or slabs (e.g.…”

Integration of neutron-based elemental analysis and imaging methods and applications to cultural heritage research

“…A good example is an Eighteenth Dynasty (XV th c. BC) Egyptian sealed pottery vessel stored at the Museum of Aquitaine (Bordeaux, France, inventory Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 20 (2018) 476-482 DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2018 7 number 8608) that has been investigated using Terahertz-frequency (THz) electromagnetic radiation, X-rays and neutrons. The internal mobile content of the pottery was identified using neutrons as dried organic material, whereas the bottle sealing was found to contain an external red clay layer on the top of an internal bunch of linen (Abraham et al, 2014).…”