Journal of Cultural Heritage 55 (2022) 228–236

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Journal of Cultural Heritage

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/culher

Original article

High frequency GPR in the diagnosis of the state of alteration of a

mural by Diego Rivera previous restoration
J. Ortega-Ramírez a,∗, M. Bano b, L.A. Villa Alvarado a
a
INAH, Lab. De Geofísica, Moneda No.16, Centro Histórico, CDMX, 06060
b
Strasbourg University, ITES UMR 7063, 5 rue René Descartes, Strasbourg, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The aim of this paper is to verify whether GPR surveys using high-frequencies allow estimating the state
Received 12 January 2022 of alteration of murals and, through the generation of three-dimensional images of the interior of the
Accepted 29 March 2022
wall at different depths, detect the arrangement of cracks, the texture and structure of the building ma-
Available online 8 April 2022
terials, and their relationship with the mural painting preservation. The results obtained are required to
Keywords: determine the causes of the recurrent damages, previous to its restoration of a mural painting by Diego
Mural painting Rivera located in a cultural heritage colonial building in Mexico City, where invasive or destructive tech-
Cultural heritage niques cannot be applied. Additionally, in order to refine results, synthetic modeling and comparison with
GPR real traces were used.
Restoration © 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Diego Rivera

1. Introduction
The preservation and conservation of mural paintings on his-
toric buildings require particular care because interventions should
alter or damage neither the painting itself, nor the style, struc-
ture or contents of the edifice. Mexico has had a muralist tradition
since pre-Hispanic times as exemplified by the murals of several
pre-Hispanic archeological sites. They were mainly painted in re-
ligious buildings or other relevant public spaces. More recently, at
the beginning of the 20th century, after the revolution, this tra-
dition revived, pushed by post-revolutionary governments (1910-
1920) as a means to achieve the union of the Mexicans who had
been divided by the war. The Secretary of State for Education, José
Vasconcelos, who envisioned that murals had a didactic vocation
to diffuse visual messages to an illiterate population (art for the
people), commissioned some of the greatest contemporary painters
such as the renowned Diego Rivera and others like Roberto Mon-
tenegro, Jean Charlot, Xavier Guerrero and Amado de la Cueva to
decorate the two courtyards of the “Secretaría de Educación Pub-
lica” (SEP), the federal building housing the Ministry of Public Edu-
cation. This three-story building [with 10,347.5 m2 of surface,] was
the former convent “Our Lady of the Incarnation” built between
1639 and 1648. From 1923 to 1928, Rivera painted 128 murals in
∗
Corresponding author: Dr. Jose Ortega Ramirez, geofisica, INAH: Instituto Na-
cional de Antropologia e Historia, Moneda No.16, 06060 Ciudad de Mexico, CDMX,
Mexico
E-mail addresses: jorteg@gmail.com (J. Ortega-Ramírez), maksim.bano@unistra.fr
(M. Bano).
fresco technique on the walls lining the corridors facing inward to-
wards these two courtyards, which he divided thematically as the
“Court of Labor” and the “Court of Fiestas” [1] (see also Fig. 1).
In the Court of Labor, Rivera painted 18 panels that depict activi-
ties of the Mexican people mainly related to industrial and agricul-
tural production, among which, Entering the Mine and Leaving the
Mine on the east wall. The latter, Leaving the Mine, shows a worker
being searched upon exiting the mine at the end of his work day
with extended arms like the crucified Christ. In this scene Rivera
made clear that capitalism requires the continual sacrifice of work-
ers. On the lower part of the mural, the artist transcribed some
incendiary verses by Gutiérrez Cruz which gave rise to a violent
controversy between the painter and the Secretary of State for Ed-
ucation. Diego Rivera agreed to erase the poem, but he wrote it on
a piece of paper, kept it in a glass bottle and concealed it inside
the wall where it is allegedly still preserved.
The mural shows a long fissure which was restored on multiple
occasions without success because the fissure has appeared recur-
rently over time. In order to achieve a lasting restoration of the
mural, a previous knowledge of the interior of the wall is required
to ascertain if it is a fissure or a fracture, and discover the probable
causes of the damage (Fig. 2).
Since both the murals and the historic building which hosts
them may be considered cultural heritage, the use of non-
destructive techniques to diagnose the causes of deterioration of
the mural and properly plan its restoration-conservation is of great
importance, as mentioned in ICOMOS (International Council on
Monuments and Sites) [2]. The use of high resolution geophysics
may contribute to facilitate the restoration of artworks or historic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2022.03.015
1296-2074/© 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
J. Ortega-Ramírez, M. Bano and L.A. Villa Alvarado
Fig. 1. a) Location of the Mexico Basin in a digital model; b) Geo-seismic zones (Modified from [23]); c) stratigraphic section of the basin of Mexico (Modified from [20]);
d) Google Earth aerial view of the former convent of “Santa María de la Encarnación del Divino Verbo”, white arrows indicate the “Court of Fiestas” (on the left) and the
“Court of Labor” (on the right).
building elements. The ground penetrating radar (GPR) is partic-
ularly well adapted to this type of work as the method is non-
invasive, rapid and provides high-resolution images of contrasting
subsurface materials. The GPR method has been proven to give
good and useful results in many applications related to cultural
heritage [3–11], thus contributing to improve site management and
restoration plans [12–18]. In order to refine our GPR results, exam-
ples of synthetic and real radar data acquired on the mural paint-
ing “Leaving the Mine” will be shown.
2. Research aim
The preservation of mural paintings in Mexico City is challeng-
ing because they are recurrently submitted to seismic events which
may affect the wall structures, as has been observed during the
recent earthquake of magnitude Mw = 7.1 that occurred on 19
September 2017. This work aims to illustrate the usefulness of the
high-frequency electromagnetic waves (GPR method) through the
generation of three-dimensional images of the interior of the wall
at different depths to detect the arrangement of cracks, the tex-
ture and structure of the building materials, and their relationship
with the mural painting preservation. Furthermore, it intends as far
as possible to investigate whether the bottle with the poem men-
tioned in the literature is history or legend.
3. Site Description
The mural is situated in the east side of the ex-convent “la En-
carnación” located in the center of Mexico City, at an altitude of
2252 meters a.s.l. (above sea level), between the geographic coor-
dinates 19 ° 26 13.10 ”N and 99 ° 07 53.81 ”W, with an average
annual temperature of 15.9°C and 625 mm of precipitation con-
centrated in summer.
Geologically, Mexico City is located within a tectonically ac-
tive basin that is part of a volcanic arc known as the Trans-
Mexican Volcanic Belt, product of the subduction of two indepen-
dent oceanic plates, Cocos and Rivera, which converge against the
North American Plate [19]. The basin includes the extinct lakes of
229
Journal of Cultural Heritage 55 (2022) 228–236
Texcoco and Xochimilco-Chalco, which disappeared due to the ex-
traction of underground water and urbanization. The center of the
basin contains silt-clayey sediments of lake origin with variable
thickness and high plasticity. These characteristics produce defor-
mations in the subsoil: subsidence and collapse due to the dissipa-
tive pore pressure caused by the weight of the buildings and the
extraction of water. In the peripheral part, the basin is underlain
by rocks and hard soils deposits [20].
These subsoil differences result in different shear wave veloci-
ties ranging from 40 to 90 m/sec in the center [21] and from 450
m/s to 600 m/s in the peripheral part [22]. Based on the seis-
mic characteristics, the local Building code (RCDF, 2004) [23] has
divided Mexico City into three main geo-seismic zones: Zone I
(Hills), Zone II (Transition), and Zone III (Lake). The historic build-
ing that houses Diego Rivera’s murals is located in Zone III (Fig. 1).
Throughout its history, the ex-convent “Our Lady of the Incar-
nation” has been affected by recurring seismic and micro seismic
movements which have caused significant damage to the building
and consequently to the murals. Some have even had to be de-
tached from the wall by means of the “strap” technique to avoid
deterioration due to fracturing and/or moisture (salts).
The research was carried out on the mural named “Leaving the
Mine” of 9.0 m2 , a height of 4.50 m and a width of 2.0 m, located
on the first level of the east wall of the Courtyard of labor. This
mural had to be restored several times due to recurring fissures
that continually appear at the same place along the surface (Fig. 2).
4. Material and Method
4.1. GPR
The ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a high-resolution non-
destructive and non-invasive geophysical technique with a wide
variety of applications ranging from demining [24] to planetary
explorations [25], glaciology [26], archaeology [27] and several
engineering branches [28–29]. This technique uses short high-
frequency electromagnetic (EM) pulses (from 10 MHz to 2.6 GHz)
to detect the presence of discontinuities in the near surface caused
J. Ortega-Ramírez, M. Bano and L.A. Villa Alvarado
Fig. 2. a) Diego Rivera’s mural “Leaving the Mine”; b) Color change below the foreman’s left boot, indicated by red arrow; c) Apparition of a fissure in the upper part of the
mural above the central figure (see red arrows).
by the contact of layers or bodies of different electric properties.
The electrical properties of geological materials are mainly con-
trolled by the presence of the water content in the soil: the higher
the humidity, the lower the velocity of GPR waves. The main elec-
trical parameters of any medium are permittivity (ε ), conductivity
(σ ) and magnetic permeability (μ). In most GPR applications, vari-
ation in permittivity and conductivity are most important, while
230
Journal of Cultural Heritage 55 (2022) 228–236
the magnetic permeability in most soils is assumed to be equal to
that of free space (μ0 ). The change in conductivity (σ ) affects the
absorption of the radar signal whilst the variation in relative per-
mittivity (dielectric constant: ε r = ε/ε0 ) determines variations in
the velocity of the medium [30]. The reflection occurs when the
EM waves impinge upon a dielectric boundary, some energy is re-
flected and the remainder is transmitted into the second medium.
J. Ortega-Ramírez, M. Bano and L.A. Villa Alvarado
Fig. 3. a) Protecting and preparing the mural; b) GPR data acquisition with the antenna of 2600 MHz on the mural painting “Leaving the Mine”.
In the case of normal incidence, the reflection and transmission
coefficient are given as
√ √
εr1 − εr2
R= √ √ and T = 1−R
εr1 + εr2
where R is the reflection coefficient and T is the transmission coef-
ficient and ε r1 and ε r2 are the dielectric constants of the first and
second media respectively.
The GPR system is generally composed of a control unit, a
transmitting and receiving antenna, and a computer. The central
unit produces a signal with a fixed frequency range, by generating
very short EM impulses that are radiated to the ground through
the transmitting antenna and then recorded back to the receiving
antenna.
4.2. Data collection and processing
The data acquisition was performed using the impulse GPR
system SIR-30 0 0 (GSSI) equipped with a monostatic shielded an-
tenna of 2600 MHz nominal frequency (fd ). We chose this fre-
quency because it is known that smaller objects can be detected
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Journal of Cultural Heritage 55 (2022) 228–236
by higher frequency signals whereas big objects require low fre-
quencies. Moreover, the higher the frequency of the antenna used,
the higher the vertical resolution and the lower the investigation
depth. GPR data were recorded in automatic mode using a sur-
vey wheel operating in ‘distance’ to trigger the measurements in
equally spaced intervals. The mural painting “Leaving the Mine”
was covered with a 2 mm thick plastic cover in contact with the
mural in order to protect it from any damage that might be caused
when passing the antenna (Fig. 3). An orthogonal grid with 0.1m
spacing between lines (profiles) was designed, acquiring scans in
both X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) directions. The GPR measure-
ments were conducted on the entire surface of 2 m x 4.5 m of
the mural. For 3D acquisition, 21 parallel 4.5 m long profiles ori-
entated vertically (from bottom to top; Y direction) and 46 parallel
2 m long profiles orientated horizontally (from left to right; X di-
rection) were surveyed. The trace interval and time window were
0.005 m and 9.0 ns, respectively.
For the processing of the GPR data, we used the software pack-
age of Radlab (written in Matlab) developed at ‘Institut Terre et En-
vironnement de Strasbourg’ ([31] Dujardin, 2014), as well as Radan
software for Windows of the GSSI.
J. Ortega-Ramírez, M. Bano and L.A. Villa Alvarado
Fig. 4. Horizontal depth slices depicting the envelope of the vertical GPR profiles (Y direction). a) At a depth of 8 cm in the Y direction, a strong reflection produced from
an object that looks like a pipe is present. b) At a depth of 15 cm, two reflective anomalies are observed on the right side of the mural, the main or most reflective one is
located between 1.1-1.2 m in the Y direction, indicated in the figure by the red arrow. The origin of the grid is at the top left of the figure.
The processing sequence is composed of the following steps:
correcting zero-time position ([32] Yelf, 2004), low-frequency noise
removal (DC filter or dewow), band-pass filtering of 130 0-40 0 0
MHz. By fitting hyperbolas to diffractions present in the section,
we determined a mean electromagnetic wave (EM) velocity (V) of
0.145 m/ns which corresponds to a dielectric constant of 4.27 indi-
cating a dry mural painting (wall). This value of velocity was uti-
lized for 2-D f-k migration and finally, a constant amplitude gain
was applied. Time-depth conversion was done by using this mean
velocity value. The wavelength (λ= V/fd ) is about 5.6 cm and verti-
cal resolution following the wavelength 1/4 criterion is around 1.4
cm. The processed data of the surveyed lines were then interpo-
lated by using bilinear orthogonal directions (x and y directions) of
the GPR profiles. Close parallel profiles allowed producing a pseudo
3-D image of the interior of the wall at different depth/time slices.
For the 3D presentation of GPR volume, we used ReflexW ([33]
Sandmeier, 2012) and Radan software.
5. GPR Results
Each GPR section of the grid underwent the aforementioned
procedure and the result of the proposed methodology is high-
lighted by selected envelope depth slices. The color red on GPR
depth slices shown in Fig. 4 is related to high amplitudes (strong
reflections) whereas yellow colors are related to low amplitudes.
Fig. 4a shows a depth slice at 8 cm where a highly reflective line
is presented, confirming the presence of an elongated object that
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Journal of Cultural Heritage 55 (2022) 228–236
crosses vertically the mural from the bottom to the top. At a depth
of 15 cm, two reflective anomalies are presented on the right side
of Fig. 4b; the most reflective one is located between 1.1-1.2 m in
the Y direction (see red arrow).
Fig. 5 shows the profile 14Y (1.3 m on the right of the origin
parallel to Y axis) just above the elongated object. Graphically, we
assign the color yellow to positive amplitudes, and blue to negative
amplitudes, while green colors are related to low amplitudes. The
profile 14Y displays a strong negative reflection (nearly at 1.15 ns)
coming from this object (see red arrow). According to the hyperbo-
las that it produces along the profiles in X direction (see Fig. 6 be-
low), it might correspond to a pipe or something similar in metal
or wood (plastic pipes were not yet invented in 1927). The white
arrow points to multiple reflections (almost at 2.3 ns) produced by
the same elongated object that has positive polarity.
In Fig. 6 we show the profile 13X before and after migration.
We observe the diffraction from the elongated object that crosses
the mural painting vertically, the flat part of the top of the diffrac-
tion is about 8-9 cm wide and is 1.3 m to the right of the grid
origin (Fig. 6a). It is the first Fresnel zone that defines the lateral
resolution ([34] Claerbout, 1985). After migration with the veloc-
ity V = 0.145 m/ns the diffraction is very well collapsed and the
Fresnel zone is reduced to 4 cm (see white arrow). Therefore, as
expected, the migration significantly improves the lateral resolu-
tion by decreasing the width of the Fresnel zone. At 1.9 m, at the
right end of the profile, there is also a strong horizontal reflection
anomaly which, after migration (Fig. 6b), is about 12-13 cm long.
J. Ortega-Ramírez, M. Bano and L.A. Villa Alvarado Journal of Cultural Heritage 55 (2022) 228–236

Fig. 5. Profile 14Y in the Y direction just above the elongated object shown in Fig. 4a. The red arrow indicates the strong negative reflection at nearly 1.15 ns coming from
this object (shown in Fig. 4a), while the white arrow is pointing the multiple reflections (nearly at 2.3 ns) produced by the same object that has positive polarity. The white
line shows the intersection of this profile with 13X shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6. GPR profile 13X in X direction crossing profile 14Y at 1.2 m (see white line in Fig. 5). a) Time GPR section showing the top of the diffraction from the “pipe” at 1.3
m horizontally. The Fresnel zone that defines the lateral resolution is approximately 8-9 cm wide. White line shows the intersection of this profile with profile 20Y in the
Y direction (see Fig. 7); b) Migrated GPR section with V = 0.145 m/ns, the diffraction is very well focused (see white arrow) and its size is about 4 cm. Red arrows indicate
the reflections coming from the contact between the wall and the mortar layers situated approximately at a depth of 11-12 cm. A reflective anomaly of 12-13 cm long is
observed between 1.8 and 2.0 m horizontally.

Fig. 7. GPR profile 20Y in the Y direction crossing the profile 13X profile at 1.9 m (see white line in Fig. 6a). a) Time GPR section showing some reflection anomalies.
We observe a reflection between 1.0 and 1.2 m horizontally that crosses the profile 13X, indicated by the white line; b) Migrated GPR section with V = 0.145 m/ns, the
diffractions are very well focused. Red arrows indicate the reflections coming from the contact between the wall and the mortar layers situated nearly at 11-12 cm depth.

233
J. Ortega-Ramírez, M. Bano and L.A. Villa Alvarado Journal of Cultural Heritage 55 (2022) 228–236

Fig. 8. a) and b) two traces at 0.5 and 0.6 m, respectively, from the profile 14Y (see Fig. 5), the green arrows indicate a negative polarity signal reflected from the “elongated
object”. c) A synthetic trace showing a strong reflection from a “metallic tube” (green arrow), blue arrows show the multiples from the “metallic tube”. Remark the reverse
polarities between the reflections and the multiples. d) The trace from the top of the strong reflection anomaly at 1.87 m from the profile 13X (see white line in Fig. 6a).
e) Synthetic trace showing the reflection (red arrow) and the multiple (blue arrow) from the top of the “bottle”. f) Synthetic trace showing the interfered reflections from
the top and bottom of the “bottle” (red arrow) and the multiple (blue arrow) from the top of the “bottle” The red arrows show the strong positive reflections from the
“bottle”, while the blue ones indicate the multiple reflections from the top of the “bottle”. Remark the same positive polarities between the reflections and the multiples.
(For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 7 shows the previously reported anomalies corresponding
to line 20Y, there are several reflective anomalies, the largest of
which is between 1.0 and 1.2 m (see white line) and is very well
observed in Figs. 6a and 6b. After migration with V = 0.145 m/ns
the diffractions are very well focused (Fig. 7b).
6. 1D modeling and Discussions
In order to identify the type of material that causes the diffrac-
tions along the profiles in X direction (see Figs. 5 and 6a) as well
as the one that produces the main reflective anomaly indicated in
Figs. 4b, 6a,b, 7a and 7b, we selected from line 14Y (Fig. 5) two
traces at 0.5 and 0.6 m, respectively, and from line 13X (Fig. 6a,
see white line) one trace at 1.87 m. The three real traces were
complemented by three other traces produced by a 1D synthetic
modeling performed in frequency domain (see Fig. 8). Using 2D
ray tracing, we calculate the two way travel time (TWTT) for each
arrival considering a distance (offset) between the antennas of 4
cm. Then, for each calculated TWTT, we propagate in frequency
domain the radar source shown in Fig. 9 and add the results. Fi-
nally, by applying an inverse Fourier transform (TF), we find the
synthetic radar trace in the time domain which is compared to the
real radar traces [35–36].
Fig. 8 depicts the six traces, the traces in (a) and (b) are from
profile 14Y at 0.5 and 0.6 m, respectively (Fig. 5). They show a
strong reflection with a negative polarity (green arrows) coming
from the “elongated object” (at 0.5 and 0.6 m) pointed out in
Figs. 4a, 5 and 6a. Fig. 8c presents a synthetic trace obtained by
modeling the reflections and multiples from a “metallic tube”, the
value of the reflection coefficient for the “metallic tube” is sup-
posed to be -1. The green arrows are pointing a strong reflection
which has a negative polarity, the blue arrows in Figs. 8a, b and c
show the multiple reflections coming from the “metallic tube” and
have reverse polarities compared to the first reflections from the
tube (green arrows).
Fig. 8d shows one trace at 1.87 m from the main reflective
anomaly indicated in line 13X (see white line in Fig. 6a). Since the
reflection (red arrow) and its first multiple (blue arrows) have the

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J. Ortega-Ramírez, M. Bano and L.A. Villa Alvarado Journal of Cultural Heritage 55 (2022) 228–236

Fig. 9. a) Forth order Ricker wavelet, of 2600 MHz nominal frequency, shifted by a constant phase of ϕ = 25°. b) Its spectrum.

Fig. 10. The juxtaposition on the mural of the time slices at 8 cm depth (a) and at 15 cm depth (b). The reflective anomaly coming from the pipe-like object is probably a
‘metallic tube’. The main anomaly that could correspond to a “glass bottle” appears in white on the right side and is indicated by the red arrow.

same positive polarity (Fig. 8d), we infer that the “object” is com-
posed of another material than a metallic one: it might be a “glass
bottle”. Two synthetic traces, to compare with the real trace at
1.87 m, are also shown in e) and f). In Fig. 8e we show the reflec-
tion (red arrow) and the multiple (blue arrow) from the top of the
“bottle”, the “bottle” is considered to be empty (dielectric constant
εr = 1). The trace in Fig. 8f is generated from a synthetic model by
modeling the interfered reflections from the top and the bottom
of a 4.6 cm thick “glass bottle”. Due to the small delay in time
between both reflections (from the top and the bottom), they in-
terfere giving a single signal (red arrow) corresponding to our GPR
source which is a 4th order Ricker wavelet of dominant frequency
fd = 2600. The zero-phase Ricker wavelet is shifted by a constant
phase of ϕ = 25°giving a mixed-phase GPR source wavelet shown
in Fig. 9. The multiple reflections modeled from the top of the bot-
tle (blue arrows in Figs. 8e and 8f) have the same positive polarity
as in Fig. 8d. In all cases (Figs. 8d, 8e and 8f) the reflections (red
arrows) and multiples (blue arrows) have the same positive polar-
ity.
Fig. 10 illustrates the juxtaposition on the mural of the time
slices at 8 cm depth (the pipe-like object or “metallic tube”) and at
15 cm. At a depth of 8 cm, Fig. 10a presents the reflective anomaly
that crosses the wall painting "Leaving the Mine". This can be val-
idated on the surface by the fissure that appears in the upper part
of the mural, above the central figure and by the color changes
below the foreman’s left boot shown in Fig. 2. At 15 cm depth,
Fig. 10b shows the main anomaly that could correspond to a “glass
bottle”. The positive polarities, corresponding to areas with high
reflectivity, appear in white (see red arrow) on the right side of
the painting below the foreman.
7. Conclusions
The present study assessed the applicability of high frequency
GPR to identify the origin of mural painting deterioration. An in-
novative 1D synthetic method for interpreting the type of material
that causes the anomalies within the wall was also studied. The re-
sult of the practical investigations in this study demonstrated the
potential use of GPR imagery for non-invasive and non-destructive
mural painting inspections.
The GPR results show that high-frequency (2.6 GHz) ground-
coupled antennas can be used for investigation of walls, providing
fast and efficient evaluation of frescoed walls in a UNESCO World
Heritage colonial building where it is impossible to apply inva-
sive techniques. This study has extended our understanding of the
causes of the recurrent alteration of the mural painted by Diego
Rivera.

235
J. Ortega-Ramírez, M. Bano and L.A. Villa Alvarado
The reflections of the EM waves at approximately 7-8 cm depth
indicate the presence of a tubular object causing recurrent fissures
along the mural that damage the painting. Such deformations oc-
cur at and propagate through the areas that are distinct from the
main mass of the material used in the construction of the wall, in
response to seismic movements or vibrations.
Modeling the reflections of a metal tube proved to be effective
in identifying the type of tubular object detected by the GPR sur-
vey. Comparing the trace with negative polarity and positive mul-
tiples of the object with a synthetic trace of the reflections of a
metal tube, the same polarity inversion present in both cases al-
lows us to conclude that it is an old metal pipe embedded within
the wall. This pipe may have been installed when that part of the
building was rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century (1920),
which would also explain the reason for the unusual thickness (11-
12 cm) of the lime and sand layer beneath the painting.
Modeling also provided interesting results regarding the second
anomaly. Comparing the trace from the top of the strong reflec-
tion of the mentioned anomaly (see Fig. 6a, and 8d, e, f) with a
synthetic model of the reflections from the top and the bottom of
a 4.6 cm thick glass bottle, the reflections and multiples in both
cases have the same polarity and it can be inferred that the object
imbedded in the wall is a bottle. Whether this bottle contains the
poem mentioned in the literature is another story.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to show sincere gratitude to Engineer
Alberto Cruz Molina, Sub-Director of historical monuments of the
Ministry of Education for providing infrastructural facilities, con-
tinuous guidance, and support. The authors would also like to
thank the Restoration team of CENCROPAM especially Arturo Ven-
tura, Alejandro Morfin and Renato Robert. The first two authors
thank the ‘Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique’ (CNRS/ITES
UMR 7063) and EOST/Strasbourg University for financially support-
ing José Ortega to visit several times the ITES laboratory. We are
also indebted to Danielle Duda who reviewed earlier drafts of this
manuscript and contributed to its improvement.
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