Indoor radon in buildings is a major cause of lung cancer in Europe, a risk enhanced by exposure to air pollution and tobacco smoke. Radon monitoring is, so, essential in determining the level of human exposure in living and work places. Recent literature has highlighted that historical buildings and archaeological sites could be affected by high Radon activity concentrations because of not only the entering from the soil but also due to the type of building materials and usage.
This paper is aimed at monitoring Radon concentration measurement in an historical building in Salerno, Italia, where building material could highly contribute to indoor radon levels. The monitoring was performed over a period of 3 month. The measured concentrations ranged in a wide interval up to 263 Bq/m3 in living environments. Analysing the possible sources, both contributions of rad on from the building materials and radon from the soil was observed.

In this study the elemental composition analysis of three bronze sculptures by Giuseppe Renda (one of the most famous interpreters of the Neapolitan Verism in the 19th and 20th centuries), respectively named La Fortuna, Scugnizzo and Non mi toccare, was performed, for the first time, by means of portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy.
The analysis of the investigated artefacts, closely related to the sample preparation and preservation, was carried out with the aim of improving the knowledge of the Southern Italy bronze art of the second half of the 20th century and in order to suggest to restorers the best interventions to minimize the conservation problems that could affect the durability of the precious artefacts.
Noteworthy, the achieved results represent useful and essential tools to obtain information on the execution technique, in a completely non-invasive way, and to address management issues of the investigated artworks.

The fragments preserved at the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, under the shelfmark P. Hamb. Arab. 68 are, to date, the longest and oldest excerpt of extant Qurʾān on papyrus. The fragments contain the Sura 2 in its entirety, written over seven bifolia originally sewed in a single quire. The writing incorporates the use of diacritical dots as well as markers indicating the ends of verses and text. Three of the seven folios were analysed to determine the inks used in writing the texts, the dots and the markers. The results indicate that the text was written with a carbon-based ink characterised by the presence of trace amounts of copper, possibly due to impurities in the water or the use of a copper or bronze inkwell. The diacritical dots completing the text were penned using the same ink while a different carbon ink, without copper, was used for the decorative elements of the text.

The Orgères settlement (La Thuile-AO- 1665m.) is located at the entrance of the Vallon des Chavannes, an alternative road to the Piccolo San Bernardo pass. The archaeological excavations have revealed a multi-layered context (1st-18th century AD) with buildings functional to the control of territorial management connected to the valley economy based on breeding, the production of wool, milk and derivatives, wood, hay, etc. On the basis of archaeozoological and isotopic analyses of animal teeth we know that Orgères was a permanent and non-seasonal settlement. In this work, DNA-based metabarcoding analyses were conducted on soil microbial communities and plant remains at different archaeological layers. The laboratory data made it possible to identify some important indicators in order to draw an initial picture of living conditions at high altitudes.

The case-study of the Camponeschi Monument (1432), located in San Giuseppe Artigiano in L'Aquila, raises numerous questions, both in the field of art history and applied diagnostics. The investigation project started in order to document and characterise the polychrome and polymateric aspect of the work, sculpted in local limestone: this polychromy was only understood during the last restoration (2008-2009). It was supposed to cover the sculpture with unusual vitality, as a sign of power of Camponeschi s family, lords of L Aquila. After the first phase of investigations (UV, IR, IRFC), curated by Ottaviano Caruso, we will proceed with XRF, Raman and LIF analyses, maybe even developing new technologies ad hoc, trusting also to elaborate a 3D model with different layers, useful for knowledge, conservation and monitoring of the artefact and its interactions with the environment. Moreover, this case-study places art history and diagnostics in a reciprocal dialogue.