Archaeometric Applications of X-Ray and Neutron Techniques

Cultural Heritage is part of our everyday life and its conservation is extremely important not only from the cultural point of view, but also from a practical one. This is particularly true for Italy, a country which lists the highest number of World Heritage sites. Italian heritage, largely embodied in buildings and works of art, has a wider range of interests. For example information buried in sunk ships is very important when trying to gain information on commercial routes, exchange of technology and similar. In the case of stones authentication of works of art in museums is also of great concern, particularly as a number of rather expensive fakes have been acquired by museums from dubious sources[1]. We must feel the duty to pass on to our descendants the cultural heritage left to us by our ancestors. Obviously a great part of the items left to us are in a constant state of change and/or deterioration. Therefore, from the point of view of the knowledge and of the conservation as well, the use of the most advanced scientific and technological tools should be extended to Cultural Heritage. In the following we will show the results which can be achieved by application of complementary techniques based on the combined use of X rays and neutrons as structural probes. In particular experiments on two quite different materials, stones and wood, will be presented. Details on the structure from the microscopic to the macroscopic level will be shown to be fundamental from the Cultural Heritage point of view.