Archaeological Conservation Using Polymers

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

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.

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

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Archaeological Conservation Using Polymers

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials