Restoring ancient civilizations with “Herit-Materials”: technological advances in its studies

Impact Factor:4.6

DOI number:10.1007/s11431-023-2423-4

Journal:Science China Technological Sciences

Abstract:Cultural relics are man-made objects left from ancient times, with historical, artistic, and scientific values. Multi-interdisciplinary research of cultural relics would enable people to obtain a variety of information associated with them, from which the restoration of ancient civilization was possible. Due to natural weathering, many cultural relics are in a fragile state, and conservation treatments that can prolong their lifetime are important, which may involve the use of conservation materials. In this paper, we define the new term “Herit-Materials” as two types of materials, including ancient cultural relics themselves and novel functional materials for conservation purposes. For the first type of Herit-Materials-cultural relics themselves, as one type of ancient materials, the concept of the relationship between the structure, composition, performance, and technology of them was introduced. The research paradigm for ancient cultural relics is also proposed. Following such a paradigm, the way how analysis and research were performed on ancient cultural relics are illustrated in detail with examples of ancient ceramics and textile dyes. Meanwhile, as the second type of Herit-Materials, three categories of conservation materials, such as emergent conservation materials on archaeological sites, consolidation materials, and cleaning materials were reviewed in detail, including basic concepts, criteria for choosing appropriate materials for conservation purposes, evaluation of the conservation effects after application, along with the application methods of those conservation materials. Finally, as Herit-Materials’ studies have attracted more and more researchers and have also created new inter-disciplinary research fields, the following research directions are recommended for scholars who have an interest, including the development of the advanced and comprehensive analytical technique of Herit-Materials, non-destructive and in-situ characterization & testing of Herit-Materials, the database of composition-structure-performance for Herit-Materials and their real-time environmental conditions, the green Herit-Materials for conservation purposes and their application methods, as well as the type and pattern analysis research of Herit-Materials.

Co-author:Weidong Li,Jing Han,Xiao Huang

First Author:Xiao Ma

Indexed by:Journal paper

Correspondence Author:Hongjie Luo

Volume:66,

Issue:7

Page Number:1952-1974

Translation or Not:no

Date of Publication:2023-06-26

Included Journals:SCI

Links to published journals:https://www.sciengine.com/SCTS/doi/10.1007/s11431-023-2423-4