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The application of protective coatings is an effective preventive strategy to avoid metal corrosion. Constant monitoring of the coating’s quality is fundamental for the successful preservation of the metallic objects by reducing their interaction with corroding agents. Their evaluation over time helps to identify failure at early stages and promote their removal and substitution. Several methods have been employed for coating evaluation (i.e., chemical analysis, thickness and homogeneity investigation). In this paper, we compare three methods—Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), Confocal Raman Microspectroscopy (CRM), and Eddy Currents (ECs)—to evaluate thickness values and coating integrity. The results from the two optical techniques (CRM and OCT) agree, being able to detect the inhomogeneity of the layer on a micron scale but requiring correction to account for the refraction phenomenon. The Eddy Current is a fast and efficient method for thickness estimation, providing data with millimetric lateral resolution.

Large volcanic eruptions occurring in the last glacial period can be detected by their accompanying sulfuric acid deposition in continuous ice cores. Here we employ continuous sulfate and sulfur records from three Greenland and three Antarctic ice cores to estimate the emission strength, the frequency and the climatic forcing of large volcanic eruptions that occurred during the second half of the last glacial period and the early Holocene, 60–9 kyr before 2000 CE (b2k). Over most of the investigated interval the ice cores are synchronized, making it possible to distinguish large eruptions with a global sulfate distribution from eruptions detectable in one hemisphere only. Due to limited data resolution and large variability in the sulfate background signal, particularly in the Greenland glacial climate, we only list Greenland sulfate depositions larger than 20 kg km−2 and Antarctic sulfate depositions larger than 10 kg km−2. With those restrictions, we identify 1113 volcanic eruptions in Greenland and 737 eruptions in Antarctica within the 51 kyr period – for which the sulfate deposition of 85 eruptions is found at both poles (bipolar eruptions). Based on the ratio of Greenland and Antarctic sulfate deposition, we estimate the latitudinal band of the bipolar eruptions and assess their approximate climatic forcing based on established methods. A total of 25 of the identified bipolar eruptions are larger than any volcanic eruption occurring in the last 2500 years, and 69 eruptions are estimated to have larger sulfur emission strengths than the Tambora, Indonesia, eruption (1815 CE). Throughout the investigated period, the frequency of volcanic eruptions is rather constant and comparable to that of recent times. During the deglacial period (16–9 ka b2k), however, there is a notable increase in the frequency of volcanic events recorded in Greenland and an obvious increase in the fraction of very large eruptions. For Antarctica, the deglacial period cannot be distinguished from other periods. This confirms the suggestion that the isostatic unloading of the Northern Hemisphere (NH) ice sheets may be related to the enhanced NH volcanic activity. Our ice-core-based volcanic sulfate records provide the atmospheric sulfate burden and estimates of climate forcing for further research on climate impact and understanding the mechanism of the Earth system.

The interest in high-resolution semantic 3D models of historical buildings continuously increased during the last decade, thanks to their utility in protection, conservation and restoration of cultural heritage sites. The current generation of surveying tools allows the quick collection of large and detailed amount of data: such data ensure accurate spatial representations of the buildings, but their employment in the creation of informative semantic 3D models is still a challenging task, and it currently still requires manual time-consuming intervention by expert operators. Hence, increasing the level of automation, for instance developing an automatic semantic segmentation procedure enabling machine scene understanding and comprehension, can represent a dramatic improvement in the overall processing procedure. In accordance with this observation, this paper aims at presenting a new workflow for the automatic semantic segmentation of 3D point clouds based on a multi-view approach. Two steps compose this workflow: first, neural network-based semantic segmentation is performed on building images. Then, image labelling is back-projected, through the use of masked images, on the 3D space by exploiting photogrammetry and dense image matching principles. The obtained results are quite promising, with a good performance in the image segmentation, and a remarkable potential in the 3D reconstruction procedure. International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, XLVI-2/W1-2022 ISSN:2194-9034 ISSN:1682-1777 ISSN:1682-1750

This contribution focuses on the conservation of an Egyptian wooden sculpture (Inventory Number Cat. 745) belonging to the Museo Egizio of Torino in northwest Italy. A preliminary and interdisciplinary study of constituent painting materials and their layering is here provided. It was conducted by means of a multi-technique approach starting from non-invasive multispectral analysis on the whole object, and subsequently, on selected micro-samples. In particular, visible fluorescence induced by ultraviolet radiation (UVF), infrared reflectography (IRR) and visible--induced infrared luminescence were used on the whole object. The micro-samples were analysed by means of an optical microscope with visible and UV light sources, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer, pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (Py-GC/MS) and micro-particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE). The characterization of the painting materials allowed the detection of Egyptian blue and Egyptian green, and also confirmed the pertinence of the top brown layer to the original materials, which is a key point to design a suitable surface treatment. In fact, due to the water sensitiveness of the original materials, only few options were available to perform cleaning operations on this artwork. To setup the cleaning procedure, we performed several preliminary tests on mockups using dry cleaning materials, commonly used to treat reactive surfaces, and innovative highly water retentive hydrogels, which can potentially limit the mechanical action on the original surface while proving excellent cleaning results. Overall, this study has proved fundamental to increase our knowledge on ancient Egyptian artistic techniques and contribute to hypothesize the possible provenance of the artefact. It also demonstrated that polyvinyl alcohol-based retentive gels allow for the safe and efficient cleaning of extremely water sensitive painted surfaces, as those typical of ancient Egyptian artefacts.

Ice core dating is the first step for a correct interpretation of climatic and environmental changes. In this work, we release the dating of the uppermost 197 m of the 250 m deep GV7(B) ice core (drill site, 70∘41′ S, 158∘52′ E; 1950 m a.s.l. in Oates Land, East Antarctica) with a sub-annual resolution. Chemical records of NO3-, MSA (methanesulfonic acid), non-sea-salt SO42- (nssSO42-), sea-salt ions and water stable isotopes (δ18O) were studied as candidates for dating due to their seasonal pattern. Different procedures were tested but the nssSO42- record proved to be the most reliable on the short- and long-term scales, so it was chosen for annual layer counting along the whole ice core. The dating was constrained by using volcanic signatures from historically known events as tie points, thus providing an accurate age–depth relationship for the period 1179–2009 CE. The achievement of the complete age scale allowed us to calculate the annual mean accumulation rate throughout the analyzed 197 m of the core, yielding an annually resolved history of the snow accumulation on site in the last millennium. A small yet consistent rise in accumulation rate (Tr = 1.6, p<0.001) was found for the last 830 years starting around mid-18th century.

[ES] El ensayo, el primero de dos escritos, reconstituye los acontecimientos de la generación de historiadores que, entre los años 70 y mediados de los 80, estudiaron e interpretaron las obras escritas y proyectadas por Le Corbusier. Esta imagen forma parte de la lectura de las diferentes fases de restauración de la Villa Savoye dirigidas por el arquitecto jefe Ivan Gury tras una primera realización de Jean Dubuisson, abriendo una época de interminables restauraciones de autor de lo moderno. Los autores también abordan la compleja cuestión de la interpretación de las obras de Le Corbusier en la fase de formación de la historia de la arquitectura contemporánea, cuando las fuentes están casi universalmente disponibles y la literatura sobre el tema se dispara. El texto explora materiales y documentos inéditos, ofreciendo una nueva interpretación tanto de la Villa Savoye como de los textos sobre el maestro franco-suizo. [FR] L’essai, le premier de deux écrits, reconstitue les événements de la génération d’historiens qui, entre les années 70 et le milieu des années 80, a étudié et interprété les œuvres de Le Corbusier, écrites et projetées. Cette image s’inscrit dans la lecture des différentes phases de restauration de la villa Savoye menée par l’architecte en chef Ivan Gury après un premier achèvement par Jean Dubuisson, ouvrant une saison de restaurations infinies du moderne d’auteur. Les auteurs abordent également la question complexe de l’interprétation des œuvres de Le Corbusier dans la phase de formation de l’histoire de l’architecture contemporaine, lorsque les sources sont presque toutes accessibles et que la littérature sur le sujet explose. Le texte explore des matériaux et des documents inédits, offrant une nouvelle interprétation à la fois de la villa Savoye et des textes sur le maître franco-suisse. [EN] The essay, the first of two writings, reconstructs the events of the generation of historians who between the seventies and mid-eighties studied and interpreted the written and designed works by Le Corbusier. This picture is part of the reading of different phases of the restoration of villa Savoye conducted by architect en chef Ivan Gury after the first operation by Jean Dubuisson, leading to a season of infinite authorial restorations of the modern. The authors deal with the complex issue of the interpretation of Le Corbusier’s works during the formation phase of the history of contemporary architecture, when the sources are almost all accessible and the literature on the subject explodes. The text investigates unpublished materials and documents, offering a new interpretation both of the villa Savoye and of the texts on the French-Swiss master.

At present, macro X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) is one of the most essential analytical methods exploited by heritage science. By providing spatial distribution elemental maps, not only does it allow for material characterisation but also to understand, or at least to have a likely idea of, the production techniques of an analysed object. INFN-CHNet, the Cultural Heritage Network of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics, designed and developed a MA-XRF scanner aiming to be a lightweight, easy to transport piece of equipment for use in in situ measurements. In this study, the INFN-CHNet MA-XRF scanner was employed for the analysis of a painting by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden. The painting belongs to the collection of the Uffizi gallery in Florence and was analysed during conservation treatments at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, one of the main conservation centres in Italy. The research aims were to characterise the materials employed by the artist and to possibly understand his painting technique. Although MA-XRF alone cannot provide a comprehensive characterisation, it nonetheless proved to be an invaluable tool for providing an initial overview or hypothesis of the painting materials and techniques used.

Ancient human remains have the potential to explain a great deal about the prehistory of humankind. Due to recent technological and bioinformatics advances, their study, at the palaeogenomic level, can provide important information about population dynamics, culture changes, and the lifestyles of our ancestors. In this study, mitochondrial and nuclear genome data obtained from human bone remains associated with the Neolithic Globular Amphorae culture, which were recovered in the Megalithic barrow of Kierzkowo (Poland), were reanalysed to gain insight into the social organisation and use of the archaeological site and to provide information at the individual level. We were able to successfully estimate the minimum number of individuals, sex, kin relationships, and phenotypic traits of the buried individuals, despite the low level of preservation of the bone samples and the intricate taphonomic conditions. In addition, the evaluation of damage patterns allowed us to highlight the presence of “intruders”—that is, of more recent skeletal remains that did not belong to the original burial. Due to its characteristics, the study of the Kierzkowo barrow represented a challenge for the reconstruction of the biological profile of the human community who exploited it and an excellent example of the contribution that ancient genomic analysis can provide to archaeological reconstruction.

The Italian peninsula was host to a strong history of migration processes that shaped its genomic variability since prehistoric times. During the Metal Age, Sicily and Southern Italy were the protagonists of intense trade networks and settlements along the Mediterranean. Nonetheless, ancient DNA studies in Southern Italy are, at present, still limited to prehistoric and Roman Apulia. Here, we present the first mitogenomes from a Middle Bronze Age cave burial in Calabria to address this knowledge gap. We adopted a hybridization capture approach, which enabled the recovery of one complete and one partial mitochondrial genome. Phylogenetic analysis assigned these two individuals to the H1e and H5 subhaplogroups, respectively. This preliminary phylogenetic analysis supports affinities with coeval Sicilian populations, along with Linearbandkeramik and Bell Beaker cultures maternal lineages from Central Europe and Iberia. Our work represents a starting point which contributes to the comprehension of migrations and population dynamics in Southern Italy, and highlights this knowledge gap yet to be filled by genomic studies.

Despite the definition of social and cultural values as the third pillar of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in 2003 and the guidelines for their implementation in SFM in 2007 issued by the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forest in Europe (MCPFE), the importance of cultural values is not sufficiently transferred into forest planning and conservation. Tuscany is widely known for the quality of its cultural landscape, however, the abandonment of agro-pastoral surfaces as a consequence of rural areas depopulation, has led to widespread reforestation and to the abandonment of forest management. In addition, due to the interruption of a regular forest management and to the fact that most of the population lives in cities, forests are no more perceived as part of the cultural heritage, but mainly as a natural landscape. Due to this trend traditional forest management techniques, such as coppicing, have also been considered as a factor of degradation and not even a historical management form. The aim of the study is therefore to analyze forest surface changes in Tuscany in the last century to assess the importance of cultural values. Results highlighted that already in 1881 most of forests were regularly managed and that in 1936 more than 76% of broadleaved forests were managed as coppice. Between 1936 and 2016 forests increased their surface from 876,518 to 1,161,383 hectares due to the abandonment of the countryside, and 30% of the forests currently included in protected areas are the result of secondary successions. The findings of this study suggest the revision of national forest policies and, more in general, the adaptation of forest strategies to local conditions.