Archaeological Conservation Using Polymers

by Smith, C. Wayne; Klosowski, Jerome M.

• ISBN13: 9781585442188
• ISBN10: 1585442186
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Texas A & M Univ Pr

Summary

Over the years, archaeologists have developed a number of techniques for conserving historical artifacts for future generations. Up to now, however, these methods have provided artifacts only a limited lifespan and in some cases they do not work well with water-logged materials. Within the past few years, archaeological chemistry and concerns of longevity testing have become central issues in the development of conservation treatment strategies.

This problem became particularly acute when members of the Texas A&M Nautical Archaeology Program were called on to conserve artifacts from La Belle, the sunken ship of La Salle excavated in the 1990s off the coast of Texas by the Texas Historical Commission. "Entombed in the mud that sealed it from decay for over three centuries, " C. Wayne Smith writes, "the waterlogged hull and hundreds of thousands of fragile artifacts, including brain matter in the skull of one unfortunate sailor, would have been a futile conservation effort without new preservation technologies."

Working with Dow Corning Corporation, Texas A&M

Author Biography

C. Wayne Smith is an assistant professor in the Nautical Archaeology Program, an Institute of Nautical Archaeology Fellow, and director of the Archaeological Preservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
J. M. Klosowski
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	3	(4)
Laboratory Setup	7	(6)
Major Instrumentation	7	(1)
Small Necessities in the Laboratory	8	(1)
Chemicals	9	(4)
Baseline Mechanisms	13	(8)
Dowel Experiment	13	(4)
Mass Spectrographic Analysis of Out-Gases Created from the Dehydration of Archaeological Wood Samples	17	(4)
Archaeological Wood	21	(39)
The Challenge of Conserving Waterlogged Wood	21	(1)
Degradation and Shrinkage	22	(1)
Waterlogged Wood from Saltwater Environments	22	(4)
Case Study: Waterlogged Wooden Buttons with and without Associated Thread	26	(2)
Dry-Site Artifacts---Dry and Desiccated Wood	28	(2)
Reprocessing and Stabilization of PEG-Treated Wood	30	(1)
Tongue Depressor Experiment	31	(9)
Case Study: Re-treatment of Two PEG-Treated Sabots	40	(3)
Re-treatment of PEG-Treated Waterlogged Wood	43	(2)
Case Study: Treatment of Waterlogged Wood Using Hydrolyzable, Multifunctional Alkoxysilane Polymers	45	(15)
Leather Preservation	60	(14)
Archaeological Leather	60	(2)
Cleaning	62	(1)
Chemical Cleaning	62	(1)
Treatment of Leather	62	(1)
PEG/Air-Drying Treatments	63	(1)
Freeze-Drying PEG-Treated Artifacts	64	(1)
PEG and Other Polymers	65	(1)
Passivation Polymer Processes	66	(1)
Case Study: A Successful Treatment Strategy for a Waterlogged Shoe	66	(3)
Passivation Polymer Treatment for Dessicated Leather	69	(1)
An Effective Treatment for Dry Leather	70	(2)
Suggestions for Treating Leather between Sheets of Glass	72	(1)
Storage and Display of Leather Artifacts	72	(2)
Composite Artifacts	74	(7)
Case Study: Preservation of a Composite Artifact Containing Basketry and Iron Shot	74	(7)
Cordage and Textiles	81	(12)
New Techniques for the Preservation of Waterlogged Rope	81	(1)
Silicone Treatment Strategies	82	(1)
Frankfurter Method of Rope Preservation	82	(1)
Treating Waterlogged Rope in a Nonpolar Suspension Medium	82	(1)
Incorporating the Use of Nonpolar Suspension Mediums and Elements of the Frankfurter Method into ``Traditional'' Silicone Treatment Strategies	83	(1)
Case Study: La Belle Rope	83	(7)
Case Study: Preservation of Waterlogged Canvas from Port Royal	90	(3)
Glass Conservation	93	(19)
Devitrification	96	(1)
Removal of Sulfide Stains from Lead Crystal	96	(1)
Consolidating Waterlogged Glass Using Passivation Polymers	96	(1)
An Effective Silicone Oil Treatment Strategy	96	(2)
Reconstruction	98	(2)
Case Study: Preservation of Seventeenth-Century Glass Using Polymers	100	(8)
Case Study: Preserving Waterlogged Glass and Cork	108	(4)
Ivory and Bone	112	(7)
Basic Structural Differences	112	(1)
Equipment Setup for Very Fragile Bone and Ivory	113	(1)
Case Study: Consolidating Friable Bone	114	(1)
Case Study: Ivory from Tantura-B Excavations in Israel	115	(1)
Case Study: Waterlogged Tusks from Western Australia	116	(3)
Expanding the Conservation Tool Kit	119	(6)
Computerized Tomography and the Stereolithographic Process	120	(1)
Case Study: Scanning an Encrusted Artifact---CT Scanning Used as a Diagnostic Tool	121	(1)
New Tools---New Directions in Research	121	(4)
Notes	125	(2)
Index	127