A bronze vessel with dragon decorations is displayed at an exhibition held in Chinese Archaeological Museum, Beijing, China, May 30, 2024. /CFP
Cultural relics, whether from underground or underwater, will inevitably decay or deteriorate after being excavated. Immovable ones standing in the open also suffer from various types of damage caused by nature and human activities.
Archaeologists across the world have been making painstaking efforts to preserve the objects that could reveal clues to the history of thousands or even millions of years ago.
Today, science and technology are pitching in to crack more secrets behind cultural relics or create a more favorable preservation environment for them.
A forum on scientific and technological innovation of cultural relic protection was held on Friday in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, to celebrate Cultural and Natural Heritage Day, which falls on June 8 this year.
In the event, archaeological researchers from well-known institutions in China shared their findings on cultural relic preservation, including methods of tracing the origins of bronze materials, drawing a world map of silk and protecting the bricks of ancient towers, earthen ruins and palm-leaf manuscripts.
Palm-leaf manuscripts are exhibited at the Guizhou Ethnic Museum in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, May 5, 2024. /CFP
Chen Jianli, professor of the School of Archaeology and Museology at Peking University, said that his team focused on technical issues such as the extraction, interpretation and database construction of metal material traceability indicators, with the goal of building a systematic method of tracing ancient metal materials in China.
Wang Shan, a research fellow at the China Academy of Cultural Heritage, said her team has made important progress and breakthroughs in scientific understanding of ancient palm-leaf manuscripts' deterioration, conservation and restoration materials.
A robot to protect tomb murals has been showcased for the first time at a domestic exhibition on cultural relic protection in September 2023. Its development was a group effort of the Dunhuang Academy, spacecraft engineers from the China Academy of Space Technology, and researchers from the Institute of High Energy Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
An intelligent mobile electron beam irradiation sterilization device is displayed at a technology and equipment exhibition for the cultural relic protection in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, September 27, 2023. /Xinhua
Combined with electron beam irradiation technology, it can be used as an intelligent mobile system to eradicate harmful bacteria that thrive on ancient murals in tombs, which can make murals fade or chip over time. Equipped with a robotic arm mounted on a mobile wheeled chassis, this device can scan scenes of tomb walls and domes.
The highly humid environments deep underground foster the proliferation of microorganisms that accelerate the deterioration of tomb murals. The conventional disinfection approach involves the use of chemical agents, which may pose health risks to the people involved as well as affect the murals.
The engineers had dedicated much effort to reducing the robot's size and enhancing its flexibility, making it more suitable for tomb applications. Laser sensors, installed on the remotely operated robot, can detect and avoid obstacles, ensuring a safe distance between the robot and the murals.
(With input from Xinhua)