When looking at Art and Archaeology samples, there are often many questions to answer before you can understand how the object was made, what materials it was made from, where it was made, and how to preserve it.
A modern laboratory uses all sorts of microanalytical tools to answer these questions. With paintings you can determine what pigment was used to make a certain color using EDS, WDS, and XRF, to establish both age and provenance.
For archaeological artifacts, you can use microstructural analysis (EBSD) to understand what forging techniques were used to smith the blade of a sword. For all these treasures, you can investigate the products of decay and corrosion to help to decide how to best preserve the object for future generations. Whether the piece of the past is artistic, anthropological, historical, or archaeological, our microanalytical methods can help you find solutions and answers to problems and questions.