On August 10, "Shigeki Kataba - National Museum Cultural Conservation Achievement Exhibition" was held in Beijing.
The exhibition is divided into five parts: "Industry Pioneers", "Ingenious Skills", "Amazing Achievements", "Mind Traveling and Zhiyuan", and "Looking at the Past and Knowing the Future". The results show the development and progress of cultural protection concepts and technologies, and reflect the characteristics and outstanding achievements of different periods.
The audience in the picture above is watching the rhinoceros imitated by 3D printing combined with traditional craftsmanship.
The picture below shows the modern cultural relics protection detection equipment.
Photo by our reporter Hong Xing
A few years ago, the staff of the National Museum of China found a white crystal on the drum wall of a colored pottery drum unearthed in 1986 at the Leshanping site in Lanzhou, Gansu Province when they inspected the warehouse.
Under the camera, you can see that they are densely covered with the inner wall orifice.
what is this?
Experts from the National Museum Cultural Protection Institute are here.
"We used X-ray diffraction analysis and found that the salt crystals were citrine," recalled Cheng Xiaolin, vice president of the National Academy of Cultural Heritage.
The cultural protection personnel then used a relatively mild pulp desalination method, covering the pulp on the drum wall to precipitate out the salt little by little.
A new question arises - why is there such a crystallization?
The team specially consulted the literature for this purpose. There was no relevant report in China. After finding a foreign literature, they found out the source of the acetate root—the pottery has been preserved in the wooden capsule for a long time, and the wooden capsule itself will volatilize organic acids.
"After that, we successively discovered many cultural relics with similar problems, and took corresponding protection measures." Cheng Xiaolin said.
This case of cultural relics protection and restoration is being exhibited at the "Kataha Shigehui - Exhibition of Cultural Conservation Achievements of the National Museum".
The National Museum has a huge number of cultural relics of various types.
The task of cultural relic protection is complex and arduous.
This time, the work results of the "cultural heritage doctors" were fully displayed to the public.
The exhibition presents the cultural relics protection skills in different categories according to the professional characteristics, and systematically sorts out the efforts and achievements of the National Museum of cultural relics protection over the past 100 years, reflecting the characteristics and outstanding achievements of different periods, as well as the development and progress of cultural preservation concepts and technologies.
The exhibition tells a little story.
For example, how to determine the weight of the Houmuwu Ding, an important cultural relic?
In 1994, the National Museum and the Chinese Academy of Metrology cooperated to determine the weight of Houmuwu Ding to be 832.84 kilograms, which was more than 40 kilograms lighter than previously thought.
This is because there is a cavity at the lower end of the four pillar feet of the Houmuwu Ding, in which a large amount of filling is deposited.
In this system protection work, all the filling soil will be removed, and the weight of the tripod will be greatly reduced.
When replicating the Houmuwu Ding, the ears, four legs, four sides of the body, the bottom and the inner wall of the Ding were individually remade into silicone rubber molds and glass fiber reinforced plastic resin molds; modern precision casting methods were used to cast the replica copper tires; then compare the originals Using traditional craftsmanship to age with color.
The exhibition also showcases the carefully restored first-class cultural relics such as the Tomb of Fuhao, the Sichengmu, and the Geng’er Ding, as well as replicas of heavy objects such as the Big Yu Ding and the Siyang Fangzun.
Scientific instruments are important tools for cultural relics protection.
When carrying out research on the comprehensive conservation of bronze bifangyi in the library, cultural conservation personnel used methods such as X-ray imaging, infrared thermal wave imaging, scanning electron microscope energy spectrum analysis, portable X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction analysis, Raman spectroscopy analysis, and three-dimensional video microscopy. , revealed the historical restoration status of bronze doufangyi, analyzed the chemical composition and distribution of repair materials, and judged the type and stability of rust. The research results provided an important scientific basis for the protection and restoration of doufangyi.
Mounting, repairing and copying of Chinese paintings and calligraphy are traditional handicrafts unique to our country.
Cultural preservation personnel combine traditional restoration techniques with modern scientific detection for the scientific protection and restoration of cultural relics.
When repairing Lang Shining's "Pine Crane Rejuvenation Scroll", using light-transmitting photography technology, it was found that penetrating diseases were formed at the partial fracture of the painting center, and the previous repair marks and sticker positions were also found.
Large-format X-ray fluorescence scanning imaging revealed the distribution of various mineral pigments in heavy-color paintings, providing scientific guidance for the formulation and implementation of cultural relic restoration plans.
Digitization has also brought new vitality to cultural relics.
Since the launch of the "Smart National Expo", the National Museum has carried out a 3D digitization project of cultural relics, using high-precision data acquisition equipment and accurate texture mapping algorithms to comprehensively retain the 3D data of cultural relics.
The restorer combined modern science and technology 3D printing with traditional craftsmanship, and imitated bronze wares such as the Western Han Dynasty rhinoceros with a wrong gold and silver cloud pattern, and the bronze goblet of the Shang Dynasty Fuhao Tomb, broadening the ways and methods of reproducing cultural relics.
Cheng Xiaolin told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that since the 1960s and 1970s, scientific and technological means have begun to intervene in cultural relics protection.
Today, technology has been deeply involved in the entire process of cultural relic protection and restoration.
With the deepening of research, cultural conservation personnel have also discovered some basic and common key scientific issues, and adopted comprehensive and cross-cutting methods to carry out basic research on the mechanism of cultural relics protection.
Whether it is bronze ware, textiles, ceramics, ancient calligraphy and painting or modern documents and archives, generations of cultural relics protection and restoration personnel protect the important historical heritage of the Chinese nation on the basis of inheritance and reference.
(Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, August 10th)