Abstracts
A tomography experiment using cosmic ray muons was conducted on an archaeological site in Greece, a tumulus. This contribution presents issues related to the simulation of the experiment and of the site, using tools commonly used in high-energy physics. The scientific objective is to compare the results of the simulation with the recorded data to highlight anomalies.
Une expérience de tomographie par des muons issus de rayons cosmiques a été conduite sur un site archéologique en Grèce, un tumulus. Cette contribution se propose de présenter les problématiques liées à la simulation de l’expérience et du site, par des outils communément utilisés en physique des particules. L’objectif scientifique est de comparer les résultats de la simulation avec les données enregistrées pour mettre en évidence des anomalies.
Top of page
Excerpt
Full-text article available to subscribers or on a "pay per view" basis. It will be available on this URL in January 2026.
Read it
Outline
1. Introduction – Tumuli
2. Muography
2.1. Underlying physics governing muography techniques
2.2. Detection of atmospheric muons
2.3. From data distributions to density maps
3. Monte-Carlo methods
4. Experimental setup
4.1. Description of the detector
4.2. Data taking and data preparation
4.3. Reconstruction of tracks
5. Data and Simulation comparison
5.1. Normalization using open-sky data
5.2. Normalization with the backward tracks
6. Conclusions and outlook
First lines
1. Introduction – Tumuli
Tumuli were used in the ancient times to cover a funeral monument. Usually people were initially building the monument, whose size and decoration was testifying the importance of the buried people. Then the monument was covered by soil, transported from the neighborhood, forming a tumulus. Tumuli, of all sizes, can be found in many places around Earth and especially in Northern Greece. It is important for archaeologists to be aware of the existence of an underground funeral monument, before any excavation. Combining muon imaging or muography, with other techniques, can give an answer to this question without modifying and disturbing the site.
In this paper, Section 2 introduces the general principles and issues of muography. Section 3 shortly describes simulation techniques used in high energy physics. Section 4 presents the experimental aspects of a muography application from the detector setup to the reconstruction of muon distributions. Section 5 compares d...
Top of page
References
Bibliographical reference
Theodoros Avgitas, Sabine Elles, Corinne Goy, Yannis Karyotakis and Jacques Marteau, “Muography applied to archaeology: case study of a small size Macedonian Tumulus”, ArcheoSciences, 48-1 | 2024, 7-15.
Electronic reference
Theodoros Avgitas, Sabine Elles, Corinne Goy, Yannis Karyotakis and Jacques Marteau, “Muography applied to archaeology: case study of a small size Macedonian Tumulus”, ArcheoSciences [Online], 48-1 | 2024, Online since 03 January 2026, connection on 23 March 2025. URL: http://0-journals-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/archeosciences/12329; DOI: https://0-doi-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/10.4000/12w34
Top of page
About the authors
Institut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon (IP2I), IN2P3, CNRS, Université Lyon 1, UMR 5822, Lyon, France
Laboratoire d’Annecy de Physique des Particules (LAPP), Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS/IN2P3, Annecy, France
Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et Cosmologie (LPSC), Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS/IN2P3, Grenoble INP, Grenoble, France
Laboratoire d’Annecy de Physique des Particules (LAPP), Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS/IN2P3, Annecy, France
Institut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon (IP2I), IN2P3, CNRS, Université Lyon 1, UMR 5822, Lyon, France
Top of page
Copyright
The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.
Top of page
-small120.png){kind=logo}
RSS feed