KEYNOTE LECTURE

Lucio Calcagnile

Department and Mathematics and Physics “Ennio De Giorgi”
CEDAD-Center of Applied Physics, Dating and Diagnostics
University of Salento, Italy

The CEDAD-Center of Applied Physics, Dating and Diagnostics was established at the University of Salento in 1999 in the frame of a large scale research project funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and Education. It is the first Center in Italy for research and service by using radiocarbon dating with an accelerator.

The main facility of CEDAD is a 3 MV Tandetron accelerator equipped 2 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) beamlines for radioactive isotope measurements and 4 Ion Beam Analysis beamlines for materials characterization. Sin 2003 a dedicated 14C dating AMS beamline is in operation for applications in many research areas including Cultural Heritage, Environment, Forensic Science and Life Sciences. At the beginning of 2026 a second new generation, compact accelerator for AMS applications has been put in operation.

During the talk the role and the advantages of accelerator-based techniques for Cultural Heritage and, in particular, Archaeology will be illustrated. An overview of studies carried out at CEDAD in the last 25 years will be presented some of them contributed to completely change consolidated beliefs or wrong attributions based on stylistic methods. Studies on archaeological sites on the Mediterranean, on the radiocarbon dating of the She-wolf and Riace Bronzes by using and integrated approach of the AMS-IBA techniques will be shown.

Lucio Calcagnile is Full Professor of Applied Physics in Italy at the Department of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Salento since 2005. He is the founder and director of CEDAD-CEnter of Applied Physics, DAting and Diagnostics of the University of Salento, the first Italian center for research and service for radiocarbon dating by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. He was at AMOLF Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam, at the Tandetron Laboratory-CNRS Gif sur Ivette, France, the AGLAE Laboratory at the Louvre Museum, in Paris and at the Leibniz Labor for Isotope Analyses, University of Kiel, Germany. He is leader of the Applied Physics Group at the University of Salento. He was Deputy Director of the Department of Mathematics and Physics, University of Salento where he is member of the Scientific Committee of the School of Excellence ISUFI (Higher Institute for Interdisciplinary Training).
His research interests include materials engineering and characterization of new materials by ion beam analysis techniques, ion and laser interaction with matter, accelerator mass spectrometry, stable and radioactive isotope analyses for applications to Cultural Heritage and Environmental Sciences.
He was co-chairman of the AMS-11 The Eleventh International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry held in Rome in 2008 and of the 4th International Radiocarbon in the Environment Conference in Lecce and many other international conferences and workshops on Cultural Heritage. He is member of the International Advisory Committee of the AMS Conference, C14 and Archaeology, Environment and Radiocarbon Conferences.
He is coauthor of more the 250 scientific papers on international journals and he was responsible of many national and international research project on Cultural Heritage, Materials and Environmental Sciences. He gave more than 60 invited talks and lectures in Italy and abroad.