"Artefact Profiling" designates the cross-disciplinary research on written artefacts that involves various subjects in the humanities, the natural sciences and computer science. It was added as a PIER Emerging Topic to the PIER portfolio in 2023 based on the cooperation between DESY, TUHH and the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’ (UWA) at UHH. Together, these institutions develop new methodologies in material analysis and ‘fingerprinting’ of cultural heritage objects in order to learn more about the history, preservation, and provenance of written artefacts.

This PIER workshop presents recent developments in four joint projects on cuneiform clay tablets, paper and South Asian palm leaves, using technologies such as the large-scale analytical facilities at DESY and the newly developed portable X-ray tomograph ‘ENCI’, which recently returned from its first mission to the Louvre in Paris.

More information and registration: https://indico.desy.de/event/43899/
Registration deadline: 22 April 2024

This workshop is part of the PIER research perspectives workshops series. Further information past and future events in the series are available here.

Photograph: Karsten Helmholz / UHH