Heritage science

Measuring the pH of an iron gall ink inscription with a purpose made polyaniline-coated microelectrode.

Heritage science is science for access to cultural heritage and for its conservation, interpretation and management. The term is relatively novel and has become widely used only after 2006. Heritage science involves all the aspects of research performed by scientists employed in heritage institutions, in universities and research institutions, where scientific research is often necessary not only to support conservation (often called conservation science), but also access to heritage (e.g. development of new ICT tools), heritage research and interpretation, including archaeometry (e.g. dating, provenancing, attribution), heritage management (e.g. development of tools and knowledge supporting strategic decisions) and wider societal engagement with heritage (e.g. heritage values and ethics).

The heritage science domain

In adopting the term heritage science,^[1] heritage science was seen as "key to the long-term sustainability of heritage: it is about managing change and risk and maximising social, cultural and economic benefit not just today, but in such a way that we can pass on to future generations that which we have inherited." Domains of research, where heritage science makes a particular input were recognised to be museums, galleries, libraries and archives; the built historic environment and archaeology, by the United Kingdom National Heritage Science Strategy documents.^[2]

With this wide definition, heritage science spans an enormous variety of scientific activities. In order to support the various aspects of heritage: conservation, access, research, interpretation and management, heritage science must be based on an interdisciplinary palette of knowledge, from fundamental sciences (chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology) to arts and humanities (conservation, archaeology, philosophy, ethics, history, art history etc.), including economics, sociology, computer sciences and engineering.

Heritage science is performed by researchers in heritage institutions and in the academia alike. Many major heritage institutions, e.g. Rijksmuseum, British Museum, Musée du Louvre, have their own heritage science departments. In the academia, however, heritage science is often performed across a number of science disciplines, including archaeological science, and by scientists spending only a proportion of their time on heritage issues.

Despite its diffuse character, heritage science is a very lively science domain. Materials and techniques of the past are namely often very difficult to study and state-of-the-art techniques and methods need to be employed. Discoveries new to science are often the result of such endeavours, e.g. new antibiotics from bacteria discovered in the Cave of Altamira, in Spain. The domain is also considerable in size – the number of academic outputs published annually is 3,800 (archaeology: 2,500, chemistry: 22,000. Source: Web of Science^[3]).

Development of ‘Heritage Science’

In 2006, the UK House of Lords sub-committee for Science and Technology produced a Science and Heritage report making several key recommendations for the sector, including:

• Development of the term ‘heritage science’ which is explicitly extended beyond conservation science (the development of understanding about decay and its prevention and so forth) to include scientific research as a means to understanding and learning about past human activity (subjects such as dating, ancient technology, bioarchaeology, human skeletal studies etc.);

• The creation of a group to produce a National Heritage Science Strategy, to co-ordinate activity across the sector;

• Instigation of a time-limited directed programme of research, to encourage collaborative projects and build capacity in heritage science.

The Strategy steering committee was formed in 2007 and produced three reports (The role of science in the management of the UK’s heritage; Using science to understand the past; Understanding capacity in the heritage science sector). The final strategy document was published in March 2010.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), along with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) set up the Science and Heritage Programme. This programme was budgeted to the tune of £8 Million and given a 5-year timescale. Professor May Cassar, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Heritage at UCL, was appointed Programme Director.

In 2010, Master's degree courses in Heritage Science were formed at University College London and Queens University Belfast. A UK body, the National Heritage Science Forum^[4] was convened to deliver a strategy for heritage science, both for participating scientists, the 'doers,' and for consumers, the stakeholding 'user' group.

Two international professional associations have heritage science groups:

Committee for Conservation, Working Group Scientific Research (International Council of Museums)^[5]
Institute for Conservation, Science Group (Institute for Conservation)^[6]

Since 2013, the scientific domain has its own flagship journal, Heritage Science.^[7]