Setting up archaeological conservation lab in Turkey

Ciaran Lavelle <lavelleciaran [at] hotmail__com> writes

>I am in the process of preparation to set up an archaeological
>conservation laboratory for an archaeological excavation on a rural
>site in Caltilar, Southern Turkey ...
>...
>I am writing for advice on all the factors that are involved in the
>setting up of a conservation lab for an archaeological excavation
>abroad ...

Speaking from my own experience (though 9 years ago), if the
excavation site is not located near to a major city, it is quite
difficult to get conservation material like adhesives, solvents or
tools locally.

The only way to get acetone and distilled water was a hardware store
in the next major city. Gloves and dust masks (of the right quality)
where not to be had in this part of Western Turkey. At the site I
was working on, everything was brought in from Germany. And each
year at the end of the campaign an inventory was made and a
"shopping list" for next year's campaign was created by the
conservators.

Also, you might want to consider local climate in choosing which
adhesives and solvents to use. At the site I was working on summer
temperatures went up over 40 deg. C and humidity was very, very
high. We were unable to use Paraloid B72 because it wouldn't stick
(due to its comparatively low glass transition temperature). Because
of the heat, solvents also evaporated quite quickly.

Something to also think about is storage of the treated objects. If
the humidity is high, how are metal objects stored to prevent
corrosion? We implemented a box in box system with silica gel, which
worked for the time we were there, but since staff changes every
year, it is not clear if the changing of silica gel will be carried
out regularly, especially outside the time of the campaign itself,
that is when all archaeological/conservation staff have left.

Leonie Gartner
Conservator
Ethnologisches Museum
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Arnimallee 27
14195 Berlin
Germany


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:37
                 Distributed: Sunday, February 6, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-24-37-003
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