New lights on ancient materials 2010

After the success of the 2004 and 2007 editions of the SOLEIL training school on the synchrotron analysis of ancient materials, New Lights for ancient materials 2010 will be held at SOLEIL in May-June 2010. The new edition of the School is focused on the X-ray-based studies of sediments, wood, bone, clays, and ceramics.

The disciplines working on ancient materials (archaeology, conservation sciences, palaeontology, paleo-environement) increasingly use synchrotron techniques.  In this context, the School especially aims at developping fruitful interactions between participants and lecturers, and sharing knowledges and know-hows between ancient materials specialists and synchrotron scientists.
Courses will include lectures presenting the principles of hard and soft X-ray analysis, examples of applications of these techniques in the field of archaeology, palaeontology and Heritage conservation, and sample preparation techniques for these analysis. Sample mechanical and ionic preparation practicals will take place at partner laboratories in Université d'Orsay. A specific feature of the school will be training at SOLEIL beamlines (CRISTAL, DIFFABS, LUCIA, SWING), and will enable the participants to perform synchrotron experiment. A detailed visit of the synchrotron will be organised.

The New lights on ancient materials training school is targered at archaeologists, archaeometry scientists, possibly palaeontologists and conservation scientists, and more generally to scientists studying or having an interest in the archaeological materials and samples, who wish to know more about the capabilities of synchrotron techniques for these areas.
The course will ideally be suited to young scientists, including post-docs and PhD students. Prior basic knowledge in solid state physics or about analysis using X-ray radiations would be appreciated.
All courses will be taught in English.
Participants living at more than 50km will be allowed to apply to a grant for reimbursement of travel costs and living expenditures.

ONLINE APPLICATION (closed since the 19th of March 2010)

You will be notified of the decision of the selection committee after the 29th of march 2010.

• a "General introduction" on synchrotron techniques,
• "Sample preparation", techniques particularly suitable for preserving the morphology of the microsample and controling the area of interest into the sample,
• "Hard X-ray analysis", for chemical and structural analysis (X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, X-ray absorption, small angle X-ray scattering),
• "Soft X-ray analysis", for microscopy (scanning transmission X-ray microscopy),
• "Synchrotron tutorials" including practical work on beamlines 
• "Conclusions"

See the programme, click here
The training course will include lectures as well as tutorials. Beamtime is planned on four beamlines for X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption and X-ray scattering analysis. Measurements may be done on samples brought by some of the participants.

Loïc BERTRAND, IPANEMA, synchrotron SOLEIL, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Catherine HIGGITT, British Museum, London, UK
Alan MICHETTE, King's College, London, UK
Luca UZIELLI, Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italie
Michel VAN DER REST, Director general, synchrotron SOLEIL, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Yona WAKSMAN, Archéométrie et Archéologie, UMR5138-CNRS, Lyon, France

The synchrotron facility SOLEIL is located at Saint-Aubin, on the Plateau de Saclay, 20km south-west of Paris.

Come to SOLEIL

Attendees are responsible for their own accommodation, in particular hotel booking is not taken care of by the organisers. Nevertheless, we recommend booking in one of the following two hotels:

• Hôtel d’Orsay, located near Le Guichet RER station, using: reference 59821, Synchrotron SOLEIL-IPANEMA;
• Hôtel du Lion, located in Paris (75014), near Denfert-Rochereau Metro station.