X-ray computed tomography for damage assessment of cultural heritage assets

Europe has a particularly rich and diversified cultural heritage, the conservation of which is both urgent and challenging. For assessing the state of conservation of cultural monuments a reliable tool is needed which allows examining the surface but also the inner structure of objects. X-ray computed tomography (CT) which is widely used in medicine and industry permits to make 3D images of high quality. In order to make this technology suitable for the examination of cultural monuments advancements in different technologies are required: A lightweight linear accelerator which delivers hard X-rays, dedicated detectors, a versatile positioning and alignment system and special reconstruction algorithms which can handle limited data sets.