At the Paul Scherrer Institute the world’s most powerful continuous muon beam is used to look inside archaeological artefacts without damaging them. In a close collaboration with a team led by Katharina Schmidt-Ott, Head of Conservation Research at the Swiss National Museum the pioneering technique is being tested on 2,400-year-old Iron Age fibulae from Giubiasco in southern Switzerland.
Radio SRF now featured the archaeological research at SμS in a recent contribution within its programme "Echo der Zeit".
The muons produced at PSI can penetrate deep into an object. When they interact with atoms, they generate characteristic X-rays that allow scientists to determine the elemental composition at different depths. This provides a unique way to investigate the materials and manufacturing techniques hidden beneath an artefact’s surface.
Initial measurements at PSI have already revealed differences between the surface and the interior of the fibulae, offering new insights into their composition.
The experiments demonstrate the potential of PSI’s high-intensity muon beam for applications far beyond fundamental research. In the future, the technique could help museums and archaeologists study valuable and fragile cultural artefacts in unprecedented detail—while keeping them completely intact.
This research is also part of Muoniverse, a new Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR). Muoniverse is a major initiative that uses muons to explore the hidden structures of materials in completely non-destructive ways. The project has recently been approved with PSI as the leading house.
Photos courtesy SRF/Sandro Della Torre.