CultureHeritage

Projects relevant to cultural heritage and art preservation utilizing Raman and IR spectroscopy for non-destructive analysis.

Occasionally I support students working on art preservation and cultural heritage projects with colleagues at SIUE. Most often the projects utilize Raman and IR spectroscopy to perform non-destructive analysis of objects of interest.

Prior outcomes

Robert Mackin developed a project analyzing clay fragments from the American Bottom region. He used IR microscopy to build chemometric models for differentiating clay fragements originating from different locations. Results were published in Illinois Archaeology in 2015 with co-authors in Chemistry and Anthropology.

Carrie McNeal worked on a project to simulate gall inks.

Abbigayle Hedrick developed methods to analyze indigo dyes and fibers from traditionally produced textiles using IR and Raman microscopy and HPLC. Textiles from the collection of Dr. Laura Strand were generously offered for the project.