THE HISTORY OF THE BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY PROJECT IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY, AND APPLYING NUCLEAR METHODS TO THE FINE ARTS

This paper traces the events leading up to the formation of a project in 1954, in the Chemistry Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory, dedicated to the application of those new developments that were rapidly transforming postwar nuclear science to the parallel humanistic disciplines of archaeology and the fine arts. The further evolution of this effort involved the enlightened support of the Department of Energy (then AEC and ERDA) coupled with the lively interests of the archaeological, fine-arts and art-historical communities, their professional academics and the many graduate and undergraduate students who participated in the Brookhaven project. But more than new scientific methodologies, concepts and instrumentation were deployed. What developed was a large-scale, truly interdisciplinary effort, where scholars of the humanities and sciences worked side by side in a remarkable way, each led by the other, to the mutual benefit and increase of their knowledge and understanding. A paradigm of co-operation between arts and sciences was initiated: this paper presents a record of the process and its outcome, a novel blending of science and humanism that is very much taken for granted by research workers today.