The Swiss National Museum owns a collection of 450-odd caskets; about 100 of them are from the Middle Ages. In the process of updating the inventory in 2016, the decision was taken to test a number of anomalous items with a view to dispelling doubts they might have been of more recent manufacture. Testing was expected to show whether they were medieval objects or commissions from the era of historicism. Three techniques were available for the analysis: dendrochronological analysis, metallurgical and pigment analysis, and radiocarbon dating (carbon-14). Twenty-one caskets were tested non-destructively or with minimal loss of material; none was found to date to the 19th century. Testing confirmed that the items were indeed medieval in origin.

Publication

Sonderegger Christina, Baschung Adrian, Mittelalter oder Historismus? – Ein Datierungsprojekt mittelalterlicher Kästchen am Schweizerischen Nationalmuseum [Middle Ages or Historicism? Dating medieval caskets in the Swiss National Museum], in: Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Archäologie and Kunstgeschichte (ZAK), Band 78, Heft 4, 2021 311–326.

Project participants

• Christina Sonderegger, Swiss National Museum
• Adrian Baschung, Swiss National Museum
• Gaby Petrak, Swiss National Museum (Conservation/Restoration)
• Vera Hubert, Swiss National Museum (Conservation/Restoration)
• Erwin Hildbrand, Swiss National Museum (Conservation/Restoration)
• Dr Tiziana Lombardo, Swiss National Museum (Conservation Research)
• Dr Irka Hajdas, ETH Zurich, Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics
• Felix Walder, Dendrochronology Laboratory, City of Zurich
• Christina Sonderegger, Swiss National Museum

Partner institutions

• Dendrochronological Analysis: Stadt Zürich, Amt für Städtebau, Felix Walder, Seefeldstrasse 317, 8008 Zürich www.stadt-zuerich.ch/dendrolabor

• Metallurgical and pigment analysis: Swiss National Museum, Conservation Research, Vera Hubert, Erwin Hildbrand, Tiziana Lombardo, Lindenmoosstr. 1, 8910 Affoltern am Albis,  www.sammlungszentrum.ch/de    

• Radiocarbon dating (carbon-14): ETH Zürich, Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, Irka Hajdas, HPK H25, 8093 Zürich, https://ams.ethz.ch/