Particle accelerator may shed new light on ancient Egypt

A scientific instrument is to transform research into the Ancient World by using a light ten billion times brighter than the Sun to reveal the secrets of statues, mummies and sarcophagi.

The imaging facility at the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire will allow objects weighing up to two tonnes to be examined in brilliant X-ray light, to expose clues to their construction and contents. Three Egyptian bronze figurines from the British Museum will be among the first treasures to be investigated by the Joint Engineering, Environmental and Processing beamline or Jeep. It uses intense radiation known as synchrotron light, generated by the Diamond Light Source, which allows scientists to see through solid objects and to show structural details that cannot be seen by standard X-rays.

The Diamond synchrotron has been running since 2007, but had been able to examine only small objects. The new Jeep beamline, designed for detecting stresses in aircraft, can cope with larger and heavier targets — including ancient artefacts.

Jen Hiller, a scientist working on the beamline, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Chicago: “Heritage scientists are able to apply to use this unique beamline to delve deep inside precious ancient artefacts to unravel their secrets in a non-invasive way. Never before has it been possible to scan and image such large relics with such precision.

“The second stage is big enough to take an aircraft turbine, which Rolls-Royce were very interested in, but the other people who are interested are the British Museum, because they’re going to let us look at some of their life-size bronzes from Egypt. They’re not sure how they were manufactured. They’re also not sure how many times they were repaired.

“It might give us the chance to look at the contents. The Egyptians used to stash things inside their statues. We also get very fragile inner sarcophagi or mummy wrappings.”

Londres.- Una luz 10.000 millones de veces más brillante que la del Sol, obtenida gracias a un acelerador de partículas, puede ser la herramienta esperada por los científicos para conocer detalles hasta ahora ocultos del antiguo Egipto.

Sarcófago de madera hallado junto a otros féretros, momias y esqueletos de la XXVI dinastía en la necrópolis de Saqqara, al sur de El Cairo (Egipto), el pasado 11 de febrero.

Se trata de un haz de luz producto de la intensa radiación que genera la llamada Fuente de Luz Diamante (DLS por sus siglas en inglés), una tecnología que forma parte del sincrotrón situado en Oxfordshire (sur de Inglaterra) y por la que ya se han interesado los responsables del British Museum de Londres para poder realizar exámenes exhaustivos, y no invasivos, de sus tesoros egipcios.

Tres pequeñas estatuas del British serán las primeras a ser sometidas a una sesión de este potente aparato de rayos X y les seguirán momias y sarcófagos, según se anunció durante la conferencia sobre el Avance de la Ciencia que se celebra en Chicago (EEUU).