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Research

To get a better insight on the dammage or condition of an object, sometimes it’s needful to do some further research.

Depending on what kind of information is needed, different methods can be used. A selection:

1. •measuring the quantity of salt in terracotta
   

2. •micro- en macroscopy, pigment analysis
   

3. •UV- and infrared photography to make previous additions and/or overpaints visible
   

4. •RX photography to get a general view of the inside of the object
   

5. •CT scan to become a detailed image of the structure and to show the difference in density of respective materials
   

6. •virtual reconstruction of the original colours
   

1/ macro picture of a polychrome layer with visible pigment grains

2/ UV picture with clearly visible additions

3/ CT scan © Dr Marc Ghysels  www.marc-ghysels.com

4/ RX picture with old nails and a filling under the right arm

5/ virtual colour reconstruction

6/ virtual colour reconstruction

7/ MSA C-14 (carbon) dating report

8/ dendrochronology (© ERZ Bern)

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In order to determinate the age of an object, we have several techniques at our disposition,

specifically:

1. -thermoluminescence for terracotta
   

2. -MSA C-14 (carbon) for wood and other organic material
   

3. -dendrochronology for wood
   

This research is done by specialized laboratory.

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