Scientific Analysis of Animal Glues Remaining in Cultural Heritage for Elucidating the Ancient Art and Technology


 Symposium "Cultural Heritage and Protein" (17th Mar. 2012) 
 Our project receiving 'A' evaluation from JSPS.(12th Dec. 2011) 
 Symposium "Ancient Silk" (12th Dec. 2011) 
 The Exhibition in Nara Women's University featuring our project was cited Nara Shimbun newspaper. (1st Nov. 2011) 
 The Exhibition featuring our project "Reproductions of Shosoin Treasures" (31st Oct. 2011-6th Nov. 2011: Autumn Exhibition of Memorial Hall) 
 Open Lecture 2011 "Analysis of the KYOCHO Coffin Excavated from the KENGOSHI-ZUKA tomb" (11th Sep 2011) 
 Symposium "Sumi and Nikawa"(21th May 2011)
 Symposium "KYOCYO"(22th Jan.2011)
 Nara Women's University Special Lecture (11th Dec. 2010)Speaker : Ada E. Yonath (Nobel Laureate 2009)
 Symposium and Exhibition "Chinese Miao Jin (Gold Tracery) Lacquer, Japanese MAKIE"(4th Sep. 2010)


Our project aims to provide historical and archaeological research with a new scientific method for obtaining information on the materials remaining in cultural heritage. The main issues of our approach based on multidisciplinary collaboration of researchers include the elucidation of technical background of ancient art and culture in eastern Asia by identifying animal species of collagen used as glue or binder. In particular, we are analyzing animal glues contained in Chinese ink sticks using matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS).


Name Position Affiliation
Atsuko Miyaji (Reader) Associate Prof. Graduate School of Humanities and Science
Masashi Takada (Co-researcher) Prof. Faculty of Letters
Kazumi Tateno (Co-researcher) Prof. Faculty of Letters
Takashi Nakazawa (Co-researcher) Prof. Faculty of Science
Takahito Suzuki (Co-researcher) Research Prof. Centre for Research of Ancient History


Archaeological Proteomics Research Project , Nara Women's University
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science(日本学術振興会)