Terahertz Waves in Archaeology

One of the most important features of Terahertz waves is that they can penetrate a wide variety of dielectric materials. This, combined with a moderately good spatial resolution required for imaging applications of hidden structures, introduces a new way of "seeing." New advances in technology have made the Terahertz frequency band accessible for a wide range of imaging and spectroscopic applications ranging from medicine to industry. Starting from the description of the main schemes that are currently used in generation and detection of Terahertz waves, we focus on the use of Terahertz waves in the archaeological domain. The few published works on this topic demonstrate that Terahertz is still an unexplored technology when used for archaeological purposes. Despite this, we believe that archaeology can benefit from Terahertz technology. The wide range of problems as well as materials, one can encounter, can be the stimulus for further exploration. This may offer new answers to questions concerning materials characterization that have been left unsolved by complementary techniques.