What does Heritage science mean?
Heritage Science involves research on cultural heritage, including analysis, provenance, conservation, and statistical methods, and chemistry has a key role to play in this field. Conied in 2006, the expression “Heritage Science” has no final definition yet. It should be seen as an umbrella term that encompasses conservation science, archaeological science, and building science. This is the certainty of Matija Strlic who has published a significant editorial entitled “Heritage Science: A Future‐Oriented Cross‐Disciplinary Field” in a virtual special issue of the prestigious journal Angewandte Chemie. Professor at the Institute of Sustainable Heritage of UCL in London, Strlic features the main aspects of this new cross-disciplinary field of scientific research and presents the challenges that this field should face in the next years. His editorial also introduces scientific papers that answer questions such as: Do you want to know about the cannonballs on the Mary Rose battleship or the secret of Stradivari’s varnishes? How can we classify degrading plastic objects simply by smelling them?
Do not miss the editorial and the scientific contributions.
Download the editorial (pdf).