The Role of Technical and Natural Sciences in Stone Monuments Care

Stone monuments maintenance requires the systematic approach which should be based on the cooperation among specialist through more branches, especially from humanities, natural and technical sciences. The main aim of this article is to present the benefit of the cooperation among geologists and civil engineers and share preliminary results of the Czech Ministry of Culture project DG20P02OVV021 “Stone surface topography and its application in stone element restoration field”. Historic stone surfaces often contain stonemasons tool traces as an undoubtable part of historical monument value. The study and protection of the testimony of past is therefore very important. As a part of our project, we are conducting field and laboratory research of historic stone surfaces bearing the original tool traces. The studied area is the Prague urban conservation zone for its stone monuments richness from Romanesque to present days. First, the geological research of the stone masonry surface is conducted in the cooperation with archaeologists. The tool traces are documented, and the state of stone is described. Because of the negative influence of weathering processes on the stone durability, respectively tool traces, we decided to monitor the chosen historical stone surface using the hyperspectral analysis. Based on the analysis results we will be able to better understand the behaviour of stone surface and traces on it during the time.