Event Details

Step into the world of cultural heritage science and discover how technology helps us study the past. This workshop begins by exploring how we see. Just like our eyes act as detectors, scientists use similar principles in portable tools to study ancient objects without causing damage. You’ll be introduced to a real portable XRF (X-ray fluorescence) system, a device used to reveal the hidden stories behind pigments, metals, and other materials found on artefacts.

In the second part of the session, the focus shifts from objects to people. How do we learn what ancient communities ate or how they lived? Through a simple experiment using paper chromatography and a black marker, you’ll explore how scientists reconstruct past diets and trace how substances are absorbed in the body. This clever activity simulates the way researchers decode human history from bones and other remains.

This workshop invites you to look beneath the surface of both artefacts and people, using science as a storytelling tool that connects us with cultures long gone.