Deploying Nuclear Technologies to Preserve and Protect Malta’s Millennia-Old Heritage

Experts at Malta's national cultural preservation agency are now using a nuclear technique to characterize pigments, pottery, mortars and other centuries-old materials as part of their conservation efforts to preserve the relics and artifacts that make up the country's 8000-year-old cultural heritage.

With support delivered through the IAEA's technical cooperation (TC) programme[1], staff at Malta Heritage procured a 1-tonne X-ray diffractometer and have been trained on the use of X-ray diffraction (XRD), an advanced system used to analyse and understand the materials, age and provenance of ancient artefacts without placing a hand on the objects, thereby eliminating the risk of contamination. Knowing these details enables the team to identify the most appropriate preservation methods for the relics.

"Cultural heritage ethics dictate that minimal intervention is key to the process of preservation," said Matthew Grima, the Manager of Heritage Malta's Diagnostic Science Laboratory (DSL). "Microanalysis allows us to investigate a few specks or milligrams of material, providing the least intrusive approach to evaluating cultural heritage samples. But because the world of X-ray diffraction was new to us, we decided to seek the IAEA's help to support knowledge transfer in this area."

Through engagement with the TC programme, Heritage Malta has steadily improved and expanded its capacities to apply nuclear technologies for the preservation of cultural heritage. In the last year, staff at Heritage Malta's DSL benefitted from IAEA-organized training courses clarifying how non-invasive, non-destructive radiation techniques can be applied to observe both historic and real-time changes in sampled materials.