Unearthing a Prayer for the Dead

Back in 2017, a researcher from the Laboratory of the Archaeology of Metals in Jarville-la-Malgrange, France, brought a 16th-century lead cross to our labs, asking if we could read a barely visible inscription underneath a layer of corrosion. We were intrigued but dubious. Our team, based at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was developing imaging technology that was primarily intended for industrial applications. This request was not the first time that an archaeological lab had asked us to examine an artifact to see whether we could reveal what was hidden below the surface, but many of our past attempts had not been very successful.

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This post was published by American Scientist. The original publication can be found at https://www.americanscientist.org/article/unearthing-a-prayer-for-the-dead