Cyprus has acquired STARLab, a self-contained, mobile laboratory for archaeological analysis and investigation, after a Memorandum of Cooperation between Cyprus Institute and the Center for Research and Restoration of Museums of France was signed. The mobile laboratory is a unique research infrastructure for Cyprus and the wider area.
STARLab consists of a 4-wheel drive truck with a specially fitted cabin on the chassis, capable of hosting two researchers and their necessary equipment for performing the research and remotely communicate with the field units and the “home Laboratory”.
It is equipped with facilities for digital data acquisition, geophysics, data processing and archaeometry, for research, documentation, conservation and preservation of cultural heritage. The facilities will be particularly useful for the archaeological field work, preventive archaeology and data collection and processing in remote areas, as well as work on immovable museum artefacts.
It is a self-sufficient unit, so that most of the analysis will be carried on directly on site, enabling a number of analysis presently not performed or performed only in special cases for logistic difficulties that it will completely solve.