A novel method for dendrochronology of large historical wooden objects using line trajectory X-ray tomography

Dendrochronology is an essential tool to determine the date and provenance of wood from historical art objects. As standard methods to access the tree rings are invasive, X-ray computed tomography (CT) has been proposed for non-invasive dendrochronological investigation. While traditional CT can pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2021-05, Vol.11 (1), p.11024-11024, Article 11024
Main Authors: Bossema, Francien G., Domínguez-Delmás, Marta, Palenstijn, Willem Jan, Kostenko, Alexander, Dorscheid, Jan, Coban, Sophia Bethany, Hermens, Erma, Batenburg, K. Joost
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/705/1042
639/705/1046
639/766/930/2735
Computed tomography
Cultural heritage
Dendrochronology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Invasive plants
Mathematical models
multidisciplinary
Scanning
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Tomography
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Summary:Dendrochronology is an essential tool to determine the date and provenance of wood from historical art objects. As standard methods to access the tree rings are invasive, X-ray computed tomography (CT) has been proposed for non-invasive dendrochronological investigation. While traditional CT can provide clear images of the inner structure of wooden objects, it requires their full rotation, imposing strong limitations on the size of the object. These limitations have previously encouraged investigations into alternative acquisition trajectories, including trajectories with only linear movement. In this paper, we use such a line-trajectory (LT) X-ray tomography technique to retrieve tree-ring patterns from large wooden objects. We demonstrate that by moving a wooden artifact sideways between the static X-ray source and the detector during acquisition, sharp reconstruction images of the tree rings can be produced. We validate this technique using computer simulations and two wooden test planks, and demonstrate it on a large iconic chest from the Rijksmuseum collection (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). The LT scanning method can be easily implemented in standard X-ray imaging units available at museum research facilities. Therefore, this scanning technique represents a major step towards the standard implementation of non-invasive dendrochronology on large wooden cultural heritage objects.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-90135-4