The court-appointed assessors of the rare artefacts treasure in vaults at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple here will meet on November 4 to decide when to begin the documentation.

The exercise is expected to begin around November 9, according to official sources.

This will hold subject to temple authorities specifying whether there are any temple festivals or special rituals falling on the day.

WOODEN BOXES

The documented artefacts would be moved into wooden boxes specially designed to store metal objects.

Sophisticated equipment will be used to assess the purity of the artefacts. After the documentation, the artefacts will be put back in the respective vaults.

The contents of the six vaults will be eventually shifted to a stand-alone and secure storage area built near the vaults.

This multi-chamber facility will feature micro-climate zones. The temple administration will take care of construction of this facility, to be taken up by a specialist agency.

JOINT MEETING

A joint meeting of the two Supreme Court-appointed committees under Mr Ananda Bose, former director-general, National Museum, and Mr M. N. Krishnan, was held here on Saturday.

The Bose committee had expressed concern that the priceless artefacts, precious stones and utensils made from pure gold were idling in plastic bags and iron trunks inside the hot and humid vaults.

INTERIM REPORT

The Ananda Bose committee had, in its interim report submitted to the Supreme Court, said that all activities associated with the documentation would be recorded.

Each artefact will be taken out and various details recorded in a specially designed computer database and photographed in three-dimensional images.

X-Ray fluorescence will be resorted to if only to identify the metal used for producing each artefact.

The Digital Archiving of Temple Antiques would be performed using a technology developed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) here.

IDENTIFICATION NUMBER

Each will be assigned an ‘antique identification number,' with an alphanumeric code of up to 15 characters.

A team of experts comprising specialists in assessing the commercial and/or antique value of gems, gold and religious artefacts will assist the Bose Committee.

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