Applications of Raman spectroscopy in art and archaeology

Abstract

The seventh edition of the International Congress on the Application of Raman Spectroscopy in Art and Archeology (RAA 2013) was held in Ljubljana (Slovenia) from 2 to 6 September 2013, with five plenary lectures, 40 oral presentations and 60 poster presentations. The number of active participants was 135 delegates from 32 countries among the 379 authors that presented at least one work.

Raman spectroscopy of minerals and mineral pigments in archaeometry

“…The use of Raman spectroscopy for archaeometry applications has quickly grown in the last years, in both micro‐Raman and mobile Raman versions of the technique, thanks to the main advantages as the small time required for the measurements, the possibility to study untreated raw material and, especially, the noninvasivity. This tendency is indicated by the increasing number of dedicated conferences, as the International Conference in Application of Raman Spectroscopy in Art and Archaeology (RAA), now arrived at the 8th edition: many examples of interesting applications are reported in the RAA conference special issues . Some good review articles show the progression in the recent years of the state‐of‐the art of the use of Raman spectroscopy in different fields of archaeometry.…”

“…This review, far from being a review of ‘Raman spectroscopy and pigments in art and archaeometry’, aims to provide a synopsis of recent Raman studies which escaped or which have appeared since the various last more general reviews carried out on the use of Raman spectroscopy for art and archaeometry. In addition, refer to the cumulative annual reviewing papers (I to VIII) appeared on Journal of Raman Spectroscopy or, in particular, the summaries of the works presented at the eight RAA congresses (or conferences) up to that in 2013 in Ljubljana (ref . and references therein).…”

Identification of artistic materials in paintings and drawings by Raman spectroscopy: some challenges and future outlook

“…Several reviews and comprehensive articles including discussions of state of the art instrumentation and of the advantages and limitations of Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of pigments and some of their degradation products in works of art and in archaeological artifacts, as well as of studies aimed to shed light onto pigment manufacturing technology, have been published . Snapshots of the evolution of the technique in innovative applications to the study of the complex and diverse materials found in objects of cultural significance can also be found in the papers presented at the biennial Raman Spectroscopy in Art and Archaeology meetings, the first of which took place at the British Museum in 2001, published by The Royal Society of Chemistry and by the Journal of Raman Spectroscopy …”

A spectrometer based on smartphones and a low-cost kit for transmittance and absorbance measurements in real-time

“…It is composed by an input slit of approximately 200 µm (1); a sliding tube (2) that regulates the distance between the slit and the collimation lens (3) to generate a parallel beam; a support structure (4) to assemble all the previously mentioned parts and the diffraction grating with a period of 1000 lines/mm (5). Considering the basic mathematical relationship between the period and the diffraction angle, the beam should enter with a 45° angle with respect to the plate surface of the support structure in order to be completely captured by the CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) sensor of the smartphone camera as shown in Figure 1.…”

“…Spectrometry has a wide range of applications in different areas (medicine, industry, astronomy, archeology, among others) [1][2][3][4][5]. Commercial spectrophotometers include special optomechanical systems to place quartz cuvettes.…”