ISIS@MACH - Neutron Spectroscopy of leather artefacts from Museo Egizio (TOSCA)

Within the Museo Egizio collection there are 200 precious and unique leather artefacts belonging to different historical periods including the Old Kingdom, New Kingdom, Roman and Byzantine eras. Leather materials were used in everyday applications, subject to hard use and harsh environmental conditions. Here we propose to study the structure, dynamics and elemental composition of leather artefacts spanning from the Old Kingdom to the Byzantine Period and including samples from the intact tomb of Kha (around 1400 BC) that document an extensive crystallization phenomenon. The experimental investigation will be performed using Inelastic Neutron Scattering (INS) on TOSCA and Time of Flight – Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (T-PGAA) on VESUVIO beamlines at ISIS pulsed neutron and muon source, through the Neutron Gate of ISIS@MACH.