From large scale remote spectral imaging to the history of the wall paintings on the Silk Road
Professor Haida Liang (Nottingham Trent University)
The world heritage site of the Mogao caves, along the ancient Silk Road, consists of 492 richly painted Buddhist cave temples dating from the fourth to fourteenth century. Cave 465 at the northern end of the site is unique in its Indo-Tibetan tantric Buddhist style, and like many other caves at the site, the date of its construction has been under debate for a few decades. This talk demonstrates the powers of an interdisciplinary approach that involves various science and arts and humanities disciplines. An automated remote spectral imaging survey from tens of metres, inspired by all-sky survey in Astronomy, combined with modern data science methods for analysing large volume of spectral imaging data was developed to automatically reveal faded writings and map the material distribution for large scale wall paintings. The information obtained from material analysis and palaeographic analysis of the revealed Sanskrit writings when combined with previous archaeological evidence allowed the dating of Cave 465 to be narrowed down significantly.
Department of Archaeology Zoom04 is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Pitt Rivers Seminar
Time: Oct 14, 2022 13:15 PM London
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https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/91397521021?pwd=U2tXQlhsV0VzdlRlQXpxNzZPQSt3UT09
Meeting ID: 913 9752 1021
Passcode: 100832
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