Secrets from the X-ray lab - British Museum Blog

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2021-06-15 05:00:06

You may be surprised to hear that the British Museum has a cutting-edge X-ray imaging laboratory located four floors underneath the Museum. Using both traditional and innovative methods and equipment, scientists – including me – are able to answer questions that help with the interpretation and understanding of objects in the collection, including:

One of the star objects of the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic world is this ewer (large jug) from Herat, modern-day Afghanistan, with beautiful birds surrounding the collar. With X-ray CT scanning (shown on the left above), we were able to determine how the birds were made. The X-rays can be very high in energy and are therefore very helpful for looking through metal objects such as this.

By rotating the ewer while taking images, we can see the inside from all angles, allowing us to make a full 3D picture (which you can find out more about in this Twitter thread). Since the ewer is 40cm tall, I scanned it in two halves, top and bottom, then stitched the two halves together to give the result in the first image.