Application of Radiocarbon Dating in Conservation of Artwork and Heritage Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dating is a powerful tool for answering temporal-related questions and is well established in a wide range of fields, including physics, atmospheric chemistry, biochemistry, geochemistry, archaeology, anthropology, and geology. Recent progress in its expansion to heritage sciences has been linked to technological developments that allow sampling requirements to meet the needs of heritage material in terms of minimally invasive approaches. As such, ¹⁴C analysis is gaining popularity, not only because of the increased number of objects that can be sampled from an ethical point of view, but also because the last 5 years have supported the development of new strategies and have led to the exploration of new ¹⁴C dating materials, such as natural organic binder and lead white pigment.

While previous sampling limitations can now be reconsidered, ¹⁴C dating requires solid support from analytical sciences to validate its sample selection and preparation. Indeed, the diversity of materials found in cultural heritage objects can bias the results, and the complementary approach of material characterization is crucial to confirm the validity of the delivered results.

Interdisciplinarity is necessary for the field of radiocarbon dating to work successfully with heritage sciences. This Special Issue aims to showcase an exchange of expertise, where researchers from different fields such as physics, chemistry, and material science work hand in hand with archeologists, art historians, museum experts, and conservators. The aim is to demonstrate the importance of collaborative/interdisciplinary work and to review the progress in radiocarbon dating of cultural heritage objects. Original research papers are welcome and may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Multidisciplinary studies;
• Descriptions of novel methods and procedures for sample preparation, with a focus on conservation product removal or comparisons of cleaning methodologies;
• The implementation of orthogonal complementary analytical techniques for sample quality control prior-AMS analysis;
• The ¹⁴C dating of natural organic binder;
• The ¹⁴C dating of lead white pigment;
• New materials as ¹⁴C candidates;
• Case study reports.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Laura Hendriks
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• cultural heritage
• archaeology
• radiocarbon dating
• conservation
• analytical techniques
• interdisciplinarity
• historical and modern materials