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Dr. Maria Filomena Guerra | Gold Jewellery and Coinages: Study and Authentication with Science-based Techniques

Naturwissenschaften und Technologie in der Kunst
Vortragssaal EA1
Hauptgebäude
Schillerplatz 3
1010 Wien
  • How were gold objects manufactured?
  • Where were localised the sources of gold?
  • Are the objects genuine or fakes?

To reveal the secrets of the ancient goldsmiths and coins makers, a large number of sciencebase techniques can be used. Non-destructive examination and elemental analysis provide
paramount information on the ancient goldsmith’s techniques and on the origin and circulation of the metal. In this presentation Etruscan, South American, Visigothic, Egyptian and other gold objects and coins will be exposed to different lights and radiations. Their elemental composition will be revealed by using particles accelerators, mass spectrometers, synchrotrons, X-ray tubes, scanning electron microscopes and other scientific techniques.

Dr. Maria Filomena Guerra holds one Portuguese doctoral degree in Nuclear Physics and one French doctoral degree in Material Sciences. Senior Lecturer at the New University of Lisbon from 1981 to 1990 and Professor of Physics from 1990 to 1993, she also held a research grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. She enters in 1993 the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and she is since 2001 affiliated to the Centre of Research and Restoration of the Museums of France (C2RMF), where she is now Director of Research in Chemistry at the CNRS research unity 171. Expert on science-base study of gold cultural heritage objects – manufacture techniques of
jewellery and coins and provenance and circulation of gold – she gave about 170 conferences and published about 150 papers in this field.