The research work of the Rathgen Research laboratory concentrates on the analysis of metals, glazed and unglazed pottery, pigments from antique painted objects and thermoluminescence dating. The main research projects included the analysis of 800 South American gold objects, 1000 Egyptian bronze statuettes, 300 statuettes from the Renaissance period, as well as a large series of bronzes from the Roman period, Sardinia, South America, China and India. The work on pottery involved the early Egyptian pottery and the glazed Islamic pottery. Important results in the field of thermoluminescense dating were obtained by dating buildings from the Renaissance period in northern Italy. -- AATA