No Islamic Nucleus of the Municipal Museum visitors to the city of Tavira can explore the “guts” of the “Vaso de Tavira” and discover all its secrets. Because, around 2007, and culminating other works that he had already been doing with the Maia couple, radiologist Jorge Justo Pereira analyzed the delicate piece using Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT), a non-invasive technique that allowed him to discover some secrets and curious details of this magnificent piece.
TAC confirmed, for example, that all the pieces are hollow and have tiny channels inside that let the water through, a game that can still be found today in traditional Portuguese pottery canteens. In the vase, the water poured into the tower then came out of the animals' mouths.
«For a thousand years, all these figures have had a small hole to communicate through the water», recalled radiologist Jorge Justo Pereira at the inauguration. But the TAC also made it possible to see the various stages of manufacture of the pieces and discover that one of the figures, the camel, «has an error that the artisan covered up. A thousand years later, with these non-invasive techniques, this could be discovered», he added.
In an interview with Sul Informação, the radiologist from Tavira stressed that «this is a study of several that we have been doing here, using radiological and computed tomography techniques», analyzing pieces of ceramic, wood, ivory.
This collaboration with archaeologists Manuel and Maria Maia, revealed, «came from my personal taste for archeology and radiology. Initially, we didn't know what a ceramic piece would look like on an X-ray or a CT scan. We started with smaller pieces and then we got to this one».
According to Jorge Justo Pereira, «these techniques allow us to study a little more, gain a little more information». But the objective was also, in some way, «pedagogical and attracting younger generations to archeology», by placing a «computer support», «a video» made from the TAC, next to the «Vaso de Tavira », in the new Museum Nucleus.
In addition to analyzing this piece, the radiologist has already studied other ceramic pieces in Tavira, but also metal artefacts, statuary, all «with very funny results».
Bearing in mind that in Portugal there are not, not even in large centers, «many radiologists who have this taste for archeology» and who carry out these studies pro bono, that is, free of charge, even from Lisbon, from the National Museum of Archeology, Jorge Justo Pereira has already received pieces to analyze.
And the radiologist underlines the unique aspect of these studies: “it was not necessary to go to major centers or abroad to carry out work that, not being unprecedented, is of great validity”. It's just that, he stressed in his interview with Sul Informação, these techniques “are already widely used in mummies, for example, but little in artefacts, ceramics and statuary”, for example.
Justo Pereira also recalls his work analyzing a medieval image of Santa Ana, «the oldest statuary in Tavira», in wood. «A work on this study was published, in collaboration with the Chamber services, with Dr. Daniel Santana, in the art history magazine “Artis”, in a work that proved to be of great interest».
This type of work represents «the joining of two knowledges that are generally very disconnected, but that can thus be combined in an exceptional work».
And radiologist Jorge Justo Pereira has a dream: «to make Tavira a center for the study and analysis of local and Algarve heritage, through the creation of a technical office to support restoration and archeology». With your enthusiastic collaboration, this center that is still only dreamed of counts!
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