B-PHOT successfully co-organized the first interdisciplinary training course on optical and chemical techniques for glass analysis

A multidisciplinary audience of more than 40 specialists including archaeologists, chemists, physicists and conservators coming from a variety of European countries ( Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, France and the UK) attended the first NARNIA training course aimed at introducing optical and chemical techniques of glass. The workshop was held at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel between the 20th and 24th of June 2011 in the framework of the FP7 EU funded project NARNIA.

The workshop was dedicated to the study of ancient glasses . During the first two days the participants were introduced to different chemical , optical and isotopic analytical tools that are nowadays applied to study archaeological glass collections. The basic principles of these techniques were explained by top  ‐  experts in the field and real-life illustrations were given. Among these prominent scientists were Prof. P. Colomban from Sorbonne Université – Paris, Prof. K. Janssens from the University of Antwerp, Prof. P. Degryse from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Dr. L. Wouters from the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Belgium, and Dr. W Meulebroeck and Ing. K. Baert both from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

In the second part of the workshop lab demonstrations were given with the opportunity for the participants to perform hands  ‐  on experiments with the available equipment. Many attendees brought their own samples and had the opportunity to characterize them themselves.

Photo's of the NARNIA workshop - 20 images