The ED-ARCHMAT project is structured along 6 WPs:
WP1 Management and Quality Control. Outputs included the preparation and signature of Consortium and Double PhD degree agreements amongst beneficiaries, Quality assurance and actions and Project meetings
WP2 Recruitment and supervision. In WP2, 13 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) were selected, recruited at respective host institutions and supervised during their PhD research projects
WP 3 Training and Transfer of Knowledge. In WP3 included secondments in Academic and non-Academic Institutions, Exhibitions in Museums and Research Centres, 6 Specific Targeted Workshops on cutting edge scientific techniques, such as Nanotechnologies and Virtual Reality and 3D technology, Summer Schools in complementary/transferable skills, such as Project Management, Entrepreneurship, Research integrity, and Communication transversal skills applied to the CH sector
WP4 Training by Research. RL1: Sampling in Museums and Physicochemical Characterization analyses were carried out on various archaeomaterials, such as archaeobotanical remains in funerary and domestic contexts (ESR4), copper pyrotechnology in Western Asia (ESR5), technology and provenance of inscribed clay tablets (ESR6), organic residues in Roman amphora (ESR 9), Egyptian animal mummies (ESR10), and environmental biology and animal bones from Phoenician-Punic contexts (ESR13)
WP5 Training by Research. RL2. The development of non-destructive innovative methodologies and testing for cleaning, characterization and conservation included: Plasma/Laser cleaning of bio-deteriorated stones in urban areas (ESR1); biotechnological analysis of proteic compounds in art objects (ESR2); development of a 2D-XRF scanner for CH (ESR3), multidisciplinary approach assessment of the degradation state of metallic artefacts (ESR7); Laser Cleaning of Archaeological bones (ESR8); Laser Cleaning of stained glass windows (ESR11); characterization of biodegradation in cave art (ESR12)
WP6 Public Engagement, Dissemination and Exploitation of Results. The results of the project were disseminated through several channels: ED-ARCHMAT website social media (facebook, twitter, YouTube), scientific publications (47 open-access papers), press releases; participation in meetings/conferences/workshops; participation in European Researchers Nights events
The ED-ARCHMAT project has shown that to move forward in the field of archaeological and CH materials science, it is fundamental to gather expertise from many different scientific fields, apparently incompatible with each other, such as materials science, conservation, IT, statistics, chemistry, biology, geology, and art history, to name but a few
The ED-ARCHMAT ESRs branched out and learned themselves to create a knowledge platform where to apply innovative analytical protocols to be applied to the study of a broad variety of archaeomaterials
One of the main results of this transdisciplinary research was to push forward and ask new questions, by combining existing methods with new strategies, test new approaches, tackle new challenges, open new horizons. The integration and the exploration of new methodological pathways proved to be a complicated journey, but sparkled new directions and ideas that would have never occurred without an international, multisectoral project such as ED-ARCHMAT, carried out by researchers with different cultural and scientific background, interests, expertise, and knowledge.
The ED-ARCHMAT project has paved the way and provided a best practice example for others who will work towards the creation of enlarged and multisectoral communities
