Artefacts conserved

This paper reviews studies of fluorine in artefacts of cultural heritage and archaeology. F is an element which is omnipresent in water and soil environments. It can be incorporated into archaeological artefacts such as bones or flints in different ways during their burial, depending on geochemical conditions and artefact conservation states. 

Parker, J. (2005). Testing adhesive emulsions for use in the conservation of ethnographic artefacts. Conservation News (96), 24-27. 

For all the above reasons, the concern about environment characterization and monitoring is expanding and a new discipline— preventive conservation has emerged. Its goal is to adapt the environment to materials constituting artefacts, thus minimizing further deterioration. 

Tissot I, Abrantes LM (2007) Electrochemical techniques to produce and characterize protective systems on cultural silver artefacts, Metal 07, Book 3 - Use of Electrochemical Techniques in Metal Conservation, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 62-67. 

Costa V, Texier A, de Reyer D (2006) Impact of environmental conditions on metaUic artefacts from the treasure rooms of Reims Cathedral, Heritage, Weathering and Conservation, Fort, Alvarez de Buergo, Gomez Heras Vazquez-Clavo (eds) Taylor Francis Group, London 453-456. 

Thickett, D. and Odlyha, M. (2000) Note on the identification on an unusual pale blue corrosion product form Egyptian copper alloy artefacts. Studies in Conservation, 45, 63-7. 

Janaway, R.C. (1989). Corrosion preserved textile evidence mechanism, bias and interpretation, in Evidence Preserved in Corrosion Products New Fields in Artefact Studies (R. C. Janaway and B. Scott, Eds.). London United Kingdom Institute for Conservation Occasional Papers 8. 

As the forces are in general not conserved the momentum rises along the simulation until artefacts occur (e.g. artificial diffusion effects) and the simulation has to be aborted. The amount of total momentum required to destabilise a simulation strongly depends on the system. While strong hydrates like Al(III)(aq.) are almost unaffected, weakly interacting systems like pure water or hydrated monovalent ions are very sensitive to these inconsistencies. 

An important way to validate DNA motifs is to look at the conservation of the motif occurrences in both the original sequences and in sequences the user scans as described in the previous paragraph. It has been shown that TFBSs exhibit higher conservation than the surrounding sequence in both yeast and mammals (30,31). Motifs whose sites (as determined by the motif discovery algorithm) and occurrences (as determined by scanning) show preferential conservation are less likely to be statistical artefacts. Databases such as the UCSC genome browser (see Table 1) can be consulted to determine the conservation of motif sites and occurrences. 

The British Museum occupied Westwood Quarry from February, 1942, until December, 1946, during which time the museum staff evacuated with the artefacts continued as far as possible with the routine tasks of cataloguing and conservation. Junior members were housed in the... 

According to the dictionary definition, a textile is a woven fabric or any kind of cloth , leading us to think of fashionable costume, for example ceremonial banners and interior furnishings, however, this belies the range of amazing artefacts and further fascinating challenges that are routinely presented to a textile conservator. 

In this chapter, we will describe the make-up of just three textile materials, all natural fibres, and will further present the mechanisms of degradation of their principal components. Our selection of two of them is somewhat indulgent as they are each the focus of current research projects. However, since all three compose the fabric of key historic textiles which were recently the subjects of commissions completed by Conservation Services at the Textile Conservation Centre, our choice was all the more easily made. Here we are keen to place the science in context, and so use these artefacts to introduce the fibres and their chemistry of ageing through a conservation science perspective. 

We began this chapter by suggesting that a conservation scientist would need a thorough appreciation of the underlying science to best advise on the longterm preservation of historic artefacts like the Victory sail, Shackleton s ensign and the Jesse tapestry. In the associated investigation carried out to support... 

The conservator needs to be able to understand whether the preservation of the artefact is compromised in any way by its present condition, by what means the materials can be stabilised and how they will behave in the future. If the knowledge to provide this understanding is not already in the public domain, the conservation scientist will need to investigate the nature of the materials and especially their deterioration as brought about by heat, light and moisture, and perhaps gaseous pollutants and microorganisms. 

It will be seen that the successful treatment of any object requires the conservator to have a wide range of skills. These include an understanding of the scientific principles behind any treatment process, a knowledge of the technology of the material from which the object was made, an appreciation of the techniques employed in its manufacture and the craft skills to undertake the conservation procedure. This applies just as much to the treatment of leather artefacts as to those which are sometimes more conventionally valued. 

T. Sturge, The Conservation of Leather Artefacts, The Leather Conservation Centre, Northampton, 2000. 

In order to fully appreciate the reasons for carrying out the conservation method selected, it is important to understand in the first instance how the metal or alloy was manufactured. From modern theories of corrosion of metals in marine environments, it is possible to predict the mode of corrosive attack that the artefact may have experienced while being buried or laying on the bottom of the ocean floor. Any adverse effect on the rate of corrosion on exposure to the atmosphere can possibly be predicted. From this knowledge, the most efficient methods of field treatments, storage conditions and conservation can be recommended. 

Tin and pewter artefacts with low lead contents will form a non-protective Sn02 layer on the surface in well-aerated seawater environments. Hence, artefacts recovered from the surface of the seabed, will be almost completely mineralised. The shape of the artefact may still be maintained by the tin oxide, but it will be very fragile and must be handled with great care. In anaerobic conditions, however, a very protective sulfide film will form, which virtually inhibits further corrosion. Artefacts recovered from these sites are usually in excellent condition and require minimum conservation. 

---