Tomb

I have been studying some wall scenes in an ancient Egyptian
rock-cut tomb--poor-quality limestone wall, thick Nile silt and
gypsum plasters, light 'wash' surface  with tempera painting and
some relief scenes. The tomb walls have been wet cleaned--to remove
very heavy sooty black deposits from old fires--with a mixture of
ammonia, ethanol and distilled water. The deposits are so thick in
most places as to obscure the scenes almost completely. What
cleaning methods would be better than this? Opinions appreciated.

R. Luhrs


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:49
                  Distributed: Friday, January 9, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-17-49-012
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