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Virtual Study Group: Mathematics in Archaeology and the Study of Museum Collections

Egyptian papyrus (courtesy of Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge)

Image supplied courtesy of The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Overview

From 17 – 19 September 2025, V-KEMS is running a three-day virtual study group (ONLINE ONLY) that aims to explore the use of mathematics in cultural heritage applications. We will be working with the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge) and other partners on problems relating to the analysis and conservation of historic artefacts.

Event
Mathematics in Archaeology and the Study of Museum Collections
When
17 -19 September 2025, 09:30 – 16:30
Where
Online only
Registration
https://forms.office.com/e/Ec3ER34Bq7

Background

With the ever increasing amount of data that modern scientific methods can collect from historic artefacts, the role of mathematics and statistics in analysing this data, developing models that describe its generation, and testing hypotheses about the artefacts (such as their age) becomes ever more important. This study group will explore the use of cutting-edge quantitative methods in current problems faced by archaeologists, conservators, museum curators, and other cultural heritage professionals.

About the Partners

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge houses a world-renowned collection of over half a million works of art and historical artefacts from antiquity to the present day. Its Conservation and Collections Care department has studios for the conservation of antiquities, applied arts, manuscripts and printed books, and works of art on paper, and a science laboratory to carry out analysis on the collection.

The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is home to Henry VIII’s famous warship that sank in 1545 and was raised in 1982. It also hosts a unique collection of over 19,000 objects depicting Tudor Life that were recovered from the ship.

Lower Deck Context Gallery with visitors (©The Mary Rose Trust)

Lower Deck Context Gallery with visitors (©The Mary Rose Trust)

The Cambridge Archaeological Unit has been providing archaeological services across the East of England and beyond for over thirty years and has built up an excellent knowledge of the region and its landscapes, from urban sites to wetland environments. The unit combines development-led archaeological work with research and academic projects.

Aims and Objectives

To bring together researchers in mathematics with those working in the heritage sector, such as archaeologists and conservation scientists, and to explore the potential for using mathematical and statistical techniques in solving pressing problems in the study and preservation of cultural heritage.

Details of the challenges will be available in due course and are likely to include themes such as imaging of historic artefacts (such as Ancient Egyptian papyri), in particular in the context of multi-model imaging and image registration, chronological modelling of relative and absolute dating evidence using a Bayesian approach.

The Challenges

The challenges include themes such as imaging of historic artefacts (such as Ancient Egyptian papyri), in particular in the context of multi-modal imaging and image registration, improving environmental controls for the conservation of museum objects, and using statistical analysis to understand inheritance patterns in Roman Britain using ancient DNA samples.

Multimodal Image Registration and Stitching

With the growing availability and accessibility of scientific imaging to museums and cultural heritage institutions, the amount of data that can be drawn from a single artwork or artifact has grown to a scale scarcely imaginable before. By utilizing various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, scientific imaging has great potential to deepen our understanding of an artwork’s making process, its degradations, and later modifications. However, to fully unlock the insights this data can offer, significant challenges in comparing and integrating data from diverse analytical sources must be addressed.

A key challenge arises from the variation in data acquisition methods, leading to datasets with differing features, resolutions and spatial accuracy. For instance, while high-resolution microscopy scans capture detailed surface information, Macro X-Ray Fluorescence (MA-XRF) scans reveal elemental information across the entire painting, including layers hidden beneath the surface. As a result, the MA-XRF datacube contains features that are different to those in the visible image, complicating their direct alignment and integration with other types of data.

We propose to address two key challenges related to this broader issue:

  1. Stitching of large datasets:
    While some datatypes might be presented as a single datacube already, other methods of data acquisition require stitching multiple scans to create a continuous dataset. Unlike stitching visible light images, stitching XRF data introduces additional complexities due to acquisition errors, which can prevent precise overlap.
  2. Registration of multimodal data:
    Aligning and transforming multimodal datasets–such as those from MA-XRF and hyperspectral reflectography–onto a common coordinate system is crucial to ensure accurate comparison and interpretation of the different features captured by each technique.

Studying the influence of external factors on environmental controls

Creation of stable environments around museum objects is crucial to their survival. With large objects such as the Mary Rose, running such environmental control systems is particularly difficult. Understanding how external factors affect their functionality and the impact on energy use is critical for the ongoing financial and environmental sustainability of the Mary Rose Trust.

The hull and a selection of the objects are on display in a purpose-built museum situated over Dry Dock 3 in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. The objects span a variety of materials, size, purpose, and level of deterioration. To stabilise the materials the majority have been through a form of active treatment and now whether on display or in storage they are kept in a stable environment e.g. light, temperature and relative humidity, to reduce further degradation. The specific conditions required vary depending on the material, and often a balance must be found when displaying different material types together.

The museum, which opened in 2013, was designed with environmental control systems to achieve set parameters. At the centre of the museum is the Ship Hall which houses the hull and features a public walkway at the top level, with air locks either side to maintain the environment within when visitors enter the space. Adjacent to the ship hall is the Context Gallery where items found within the ship are displayed in the correct mirror image location. The remaining objects are displayed in individual showcases. The ship hall is controlled by Air Handling Units, the Context Gallery by Close Control Units and the showcases are a mixture of bespoke systems specifically designed, and Miniclima units that control relative humidity only.

All these systems use high levels of energy and require significant maintenance time and cost. Internally the team have made significant progress in reducing the electricity usage within the museum, via adjusting set points, response times and fan speeds (reduced by 40% since 2018). Large amounts of data exist related to the temperature and relative humidity within the object locations and walkways, alongside how the equipment functions e.g. response times, % valves are open, and electricity usage. What is currently lacking is a clear understanding of how external factors e.g. weather, visitor numbers, affect how these systems operate and perform. Developing a tool which would enable us to easily compare and contrast these different datasets would increase our understanding of past trends and greatly aid us in monitoring the efficacy of any future energy saving solutions we implement.

Studying inheritance patterns in Roman Britain using ancient DNA analysis

While pre-Roman Britain shows evidence of female-line inheritance, Roman law favoured male-line succession. We wish to investigate whether this shift actually occurred in Britain, to help us develop our understanding of Roman Britain’s economy, social structures, and even events such as Boudica’s rebellion. Participants will work with real genetic data from excavated cemeteries, grappling with the challenge of incomplete samples and learning how techniques such as Monte Carlo simulations and agent-based modelling can help reconstruct plausible population scenarios. We will test whether the archaeological DNA record can distinguish between matrilineal and patrilineal inheritance, and assess what the evidence reveals about life, family, and power in Roman Britain.

EVENT DETAILS

This will be an online only event held on 17 -19 September 2025, 09:30 – 16:30.  Registration is via this link.

Schedule

Day One – 17 September
10.00   Introduction
10.15   Presentation of the three main themes together with questions
11.45   Break
12.00   Description of software tools/methodology. Formation of the working Groups
12.30   Lunch
13.30   Working group sessions
16.00   Review of results

Day Two – 18 September
10.00   Reviews from the working groups
10.30   Working groups
16.00   Review of results

Day Three – 19 September
10.00   Reviews
10.30   Working groups
15.00   Final presentations

Organising committee

This workshop is  generously funded by the KE-Hub and by the ICMS (under the Maths for Humanity scheme).