CSMC Newsletter

X-rays reveal information hidden beneath the surface of an object without causing any damage. They can be used to identify materials, trace manufacturing techniques, detect later alterations, study degradation processes, and address questions of provenance and authenticity. For researchers and professionals at museums and collections alike, X-ray analysis can provide crucial insights into an object’s history and inform decisions regarding conservation and exhibition practices. On 16 and 17 June, a workshop organised by DESY and the CSMC brought together x-ray scientists, researchers from the humanities, and heritage professionals to discuss the use of X-ray-based methods in cultural heritage research.

ENCI, the first mobile computed tomograph specially designed for cultural heritage objects, opens a view onto texts that have not been read by any human since antiquity. Written on clay tablets, they are still enclosed in their original clay envelopes today. Opening them would be ethically entirely unacceptable. Thanks to ENCI, it is now possible for the first time to look inside the tablets using X-rays without causing any damage. The method has already been used in several museums in France, Turkey, and Germany, yielding remarkable insights. This spring, the first scholarly article on the topic appeared in npj heritage science, which has now also brought the joint project run by CSMC and DESY onto the pages of the New York Times. The newspaper reports on it in an article published this month.

A recent research mission at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN), carried out by CSMC researchers together with our partners from the TabulaRasa project, tackled a long-standing challenge: how to read ink writing on carbonised Roman wax tablets from Pompeii and Herculaneum, where black ink sits almost indistinguishably on blackened wood. By combining hyperspectral imaging with non-destructive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis, the team explored whether these faint traces can be recovered and better understood. The first results are promising: multispectral images reveal ink traces with striking clarity and help confirm previously uncertain readings, while XRF analysis provides insights into ink composition. Our project partner Michele Cammarosano has written a wonderful blog post about this effort. 

Over the last decades, provenance studies have become central to art history and cultural heritage research. Yet the provenance of written artefacts remains understudied. From 14–16 April 2027, the CSMC will host an international conference to establish written artefact provenance as a distinct research field. Together with researchers from various fields, museum professionals, and provenance specialists, we want to address numerous aspects of this complex topic. How do we trace written artefacts across time, collections, and borders? What responsibilities do researchers have when dealing with contested or colonial provenance? And which legal frameworks govern ownership, access, and restitution of written artefacts? Abstracts can be submitted until 31 July 2026.

Over several years, food chemist Marina Creydt researched at the CSMC how questions of provenance can be answered through metabolome and proteome analyses. She led a project entitled ‘Mass Spectrometric Proteome Analysis of Written Artefacts’ and was also an important part of the Palm-Leaf Manuscript Profiling Initiative (PLMPI), in which the CSMC Container Lab was used to determine the origin of historical manuscripts from Tamil Nadu in India. At the beginning of this summer semester, Marina moved to TU Braunschweig to take up a professorship in Instrumental Analysis in Food Chemistry there.

Rosamond McKitterick was particularly known for her work on the Carolingian empire. Her research on literacy and the book culture of the early Middle Ages was especially influential: she demonstrated that reading, writing, and written administration were far more widespread in Carolingian times than long assumed, thereby fundamentally transforming our understanding of Charlemagne and his era. She also accompanied and supported the CSMC and its Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts over many years. From 2017 to 2024 she belonged to the Advisory Board of the Centre and the Cluster, which provides our researchers with critical advice.

Invasive versus non-invasive, destructive versus non-destructive: analytical methods are often described in binary terms. On closer look, these distinctions become questionable. Claudia Colini, head of the CSMC’s Concepts and Methods Unit (CMU) on ‘Ethical Analysis’, explains why even careful research can have unintended effects and what this means in practice. ‘Ethical analysis cannot simply mean choosing the method that sounds safest in abstract terms’, she says. ‘We often speak as if “non-destructive” or “non-invasive” automatically settled the matter. However, these terms do not always capture what happens when that technique is applied to a particular object under particular conditions.’ 

Written artefacts can be ‘in crisis’ in many ways: through armed conflict, fire, natural disaster, political instrumentalisation, long-term material decay, or blocked access. At the same time, a situation seen from outside as catastrophic may be understood differently by local communities. Dmitry Bondarev leads the new CMU on ‘Navigating Crises’ at the CSMC. In our interview, he describes the need to create a shared conceptual framework for crisis in the field of written artefacts that may eventually inform more practical guidance for researchers, heritage practitioners, and other stakeholders.

Edited by Ondřej Škrabal

Inscriptions are often regarded as the ultimate textual ‘originals’ – authentic, authoritative, and unique. This volume challenges that longstanding assumption by showing that formal inscriptions were commonly produced with the help of manuscripts and are, in many cases, copies of preexisting models. Bringing together studies from China, India, Laos, and Siam, the book explores the complex processes of drafting, copying, and transferring texts across a wide range of materials and media. The contributions reveal previously little-known manuscript practices, highlight the tension between fidelity and creativity in inscription-making, and uncover the sociocultural, political, and technological forces at play. Moving beyond the traditional stemmatic approach, this book redefines how we understand epigraphic texts and contributes to current discussions on methodology and terminology in epigraphic research as well as to broader theoretical debates in the fields of philology, textual criticism, and manuscript studies.