Volume 8, Number 3, Sept. 1986, pp.18-19

Conferences in Review

John Twilley and Chandra Reedy of LACMA attended the 25th International Symposium on Archaeometry in Athens, May 19-24th. Terry Reedy, coprincipal investigator with Chandra on the LACMA/G.C.I. conservation statistics project, attended as well. The Symposium theme "The Interface from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in the Aegean" was the focus of many papers presented orally. Professor M. Andronikos gave a keynote address on his tomb excavations at Vergina which was illustrated by spectacular photos which enlarged upon the material published previously. Chandra and Pieter Meyers of LACMA coauthored a poster presentation entitled "Himalayan Bronzes: Provenance Attribution based on Elemental Compositions of Metals" based upon her dissertation work. Altogether 202 presentations were scheduled and about 260 participants attended. The conference was hosted by the Nuclear Research Center "Demokritos" in the quiet Athens suburb Agia Paraskevi. (Demokritos is home to what may well be the world's only research reactor with a marble lined pool, stone conservators take note!)

During the meeting participants had the opportunity to visit the ancient argentiferous lead mines of Laurion. These proved to be quite interesting in terms of the state of preservation of their 5th Century B.C. waterworks. During the conference John took time out to meet with stone conservation researchers at the National Technical University, to visit the stone laboratory of the Ministry of Culture and to meet with architecture and archaeology team members involved in the conservation of the Acropolis monuments.