Application of Technical Imaging for Research-Based Sustainable Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management

The north-eastern region of India being the confluence of diverse cultural elements holds great significance. The diverse tangible cultural heritage of the region needs to be documented and ethically conserved through scientific research. The conservation of a tangible cultural heritage aims to increase the lifespan of an artefact by mitigating the factors of deterioration while ensuring its accessibility to present and future generations. The nature of original materials of a tangible heritage, impact of deterioration factors and interaction of conservation materials pose different challenges for conservators and custodians. Therefore, the conservation decision-making requires identifying and documenting these factors to facilitate ethical conservation treatment with minimal intervention and without limiting the scope of re-treatability. Technical imaging techniques and analytical techniques can reveal the necessary information required in constructing ethical conservation methodology. Imaging techniques such as reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) and microscopic imaging in different light spectra can provide information about original materials, construction techniques and deterioration factors. The conservators and custodians can plan community-based conservation by documenting and co-relating them with the regional terminologies. The research-based conservation approach will help in creating awareness with the potential of establishing the evidence of chronicles and oral history of various communities of the north-eastern region to facilitate sustainable heritage conservation.