BAM simply explained
Science and art are two different worlds but in BAM they meet with no fear of conflict between scientists and creative artists. Together with art experts, BAM’s scientists have been engaged in a whole set of projects for a number of years. Obviously, the tasks of scientists and artists are very different.
Sculpture in the laboratory
With the praying boy from the Berlin Antiquities Collection (Berliner Antikensammlung) for example, the determination of its age was a problem. One assumed that the bronze figure was found on the island of Rhodos around 1500. But how old was it really? To answer this question, BAM investigated earth and plant residues inside the figure. The results of the investigations enabled art historians to verify that the boy had been created around 300 before Christ and it can be clearly attributed to the early Hellenism period.
Notes of Bach’s Mass in B Minor
BAM has investigated valuable old writings on several occasions. In the spring of 2008 BAM’s scientists examined the manuscript of Bach’s Mass in B Minor using a special X-ray method, the X-ray fluorescence analysis. The results are expected to provide information about which parts of the Mass stem from Johann Sebastian Bach himself and which from his son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Preliminary investigations already indicate that the manuscript has been written with different kinds of ink.
More information:
Website: www.nike.bam.de
(in German)
Qumran scroll sample in the X-ray flourescence analysis test equipment
The by far the largest and most important research project on an art topic, in which BAM is currently involved, is the investigation into the Bible’s original texts. The available fragments belong to scrolls which were discovered in a cave near the Dead Sea some 60 years ago. The 2000-year-old writings received their name after the place where they were found: Qumran. Although many researchers have dealt with the fragments of these scrolls over the course of time, crucial questions still remain: Where were the scrolls produced? Who wrote the texts? Who brought the scrolls into the caves? How can these fragments be conserved for future generations? These questions currently engage scientists of the Technical University of Berlin, Institute for Optics and Atomic Physics, BAM and the Jewish National and University Library of Jerusalem. Information is expected from a special research method, the micro X-ray fluorescence analysis, developed at the Technical University of Berlin. BAM is using this new method at the Electron Storage Ring for Synchrotron Radiation (BESSY) and is currently investigating the parchment surfaces. The beams are reflected by the chemical elements of the samples, and quantity and species of the elements become visible. In this way a special relationship between bromine and chlorine in the fragments of the Qumran scrolls which occurs exclusively in the water and air at the Dead Sea can be established. The test results obtained are expected to provide clues about the place of origin of the scrolls.
More information: Website: www.nike.bam.de (in German)
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