e-Conservation Magazine • 17

e-conservationthe online magazine No. 17, December 2010

Cont

empo

rary

Art

Wal

l Clo

ckby

Pau

laAr

t

edit

oria

l

Multicultural Conservation

e-conservation

Nowadays conservation has become a truly multicultural field, not only because the desire to protect

our heritage has no borders or nationality, but also because conservation itself has profited enormously

during the years from the contributions of many different cultures. Nevertheless, its multiculturalism

is still not assimilated by conservators as strongly as it should be. For example, with English being

today the most used lingua franca in the world, it is only natural that most of the technical literature

on conservation can be found in English although much, much more is available in other languages

such as French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, etc. This, obviously, raises the problem of

multilingualism and the restricted access we have to literature or information conveyed in other

languages than those we speak. For a long time it was thought that the internet would help over-

come this problem by direct and instant communication, and although it has indeed improved the

access to information, it has not brought a definitive solution. It has never been easier to find a re-

ference of a book or an article, but to access it remains as difficult as it was before.

In the long run, this problem has led to the creation of a gap between conservators from English-

speaking countries and the rest of the world, which may appear as ‘less developed’. However, it is not

difficult that this should occur whilst the contributions to this common patrimony of knowledge by

different countries is so unbalanced. Conservation may not be equally developed as a profession in

every country, but sharing information on a bigger scale would certainly help us equalize the level of

knowledge and to surpass this gap.

Part of the problem, as my experience and dialogue with fellow conservators has shown me, is that

in non-Anglo-Saxon countries a high percentage of professional conservators don’t see publishing

as a necessity. This, I believe, happens for two reasons. Firstly because they do not have the tradition

or practice of writing for the public and secondly, because of a feeling that their contribution does

not count, that it’s not relevant enough to make a difference on the international scene. Whereas the

first problem can only be surpassed with time, the second is about a mentality which can be changed.

It’s up to us to deal with it. It appears to be present in the west, but mostly in the eastern European

countries, and it may well exist in the Orient and Far East too. The tendency is to publish at a national

level, which appears to be a greater contribution and is preferred rather than a smaller one on an in-

ternational scale. This repeated practice has triggered off a lack of participation that reflects upon

younger generations, and that can be seen on today’s dynamic scene as a lack of interest and indif-

ference. Or, would it be possible to interpret this mentality as reminiscent of the old practice of hiding

‘restoration trade secrets’, when conservators did not want to disseminate knowledge because of

competition?

Of course not all of our interventions are equally important, not all the works of art we deal with are

as notorious as others. However, it’s important that undergoing projects, new methodologies and

new materials are disseminated frequently and that interesting case studies are published regularly.

The importance of publishing can not be understated: new solutions to old problems may be found

in unexpected sources and the ingenuity of one conservator may well prove useful to another. Conser-

vation has benefited from science but unlike scientists, we still need to learn that to share our ex-

perience and know-how is part of the job. After all, the development of the conservation field is in

the hands of every conservator. Where every opinion matters and each contribution can make a dif-

ference, the sharing of information is a duty of us all.

Rui BordaloEditor-in-Chief

NEWS & VIEWS 6

ARTICLES

CASE STUDY

32

The Social Media Challenge for Conservation Outreach

By Daniel Cull

REVIEWS

Conservation and the Eastern Mediterranean

IIC Congress

Review by Sagita Mirjam Sunara

Bigstuff 2010

Review by Alison Wain

16th International Heritage Show

Review by Petruta Vlad

NEWS

Preparing Ikats for Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats.

Dyeing, Dressing & Display

By Cyndi Bohlin

BOOK RELEASES

Books Will Speak Plain. A Handbook for Identifying and Describing

Historical Bindings, by Julia Miller

Studies on Information and Knowledge Processes. Studies on

Heritage Management I, by Ferenc Kiss, Lia Bassa (eds.)

The Picture of Memory, by Michela Rossi, Cecilia Tedeschi (eds.)

UPCOMING EVENTS

January - February 2011

Science and Restoration at the Service of Interpretation

By Dimitrios Doumas

An Extensive Study of the Effect of the Enzyme α-Amylase

Used in Textile Conservation on Silk Fibers Dyed with Safflower

and Madder Dye

By Harby E. Ahmed

Conservation and Restoration of a Rare Large Persian Carpet

By Omar Abdel-Kareem

The Bactria Cultural Centre: A UNESCO-sponsored project in Mazar-e

Sharif, war-struck northern Afghanistan – Success or Failure?

By Alessandro Califano

EVENTS

8

41

INDEX

28

22

13

17

52

e-conservation 5

20

64PROJECTS

24

23

new

s &

vie

ws

THE SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGE FOR CONSERVATION OUTREACH

Conservators are increasingly utilizing

the internet as a means of what’s called

'outreach', often though the method

(as opposed to the medium) of this

outreach remains a version of broad-

cast communication that fails to take

full advantage of the potentialities of

the internet. Since antiquity the primary

method of communication has been

from one (or few) to many; whether it

be the printed handbill, the TV advert-

isement, or an academic journal article,

the form has remained one of 'broad-

cast' a one way street; a producer to

consumer relationship. In comparison

'social media' offers a profound chal-

lenge to this system, the potential of

a many-to-many communication, in

which all who take part can communi-

cate with one another directly without

the mediation of a central broadcasting

system. This, after Deleuze and Guat-

tari, could be thought of as 'rhizomatic

communication'.

The rhizome is an idea extracted from

botany: “A rhizomatic plant has no cen-

ter and no defined boundary; rather,

it is made up of a number of semi-inde-

pendent nodes, each of which is ca-

pable of growing and spreading on its

own, bounded only by the limits of its

habitat” [2]. The idea has developed

as a metaphor for a model of thought

that defies the very idea of a model; a

“Write, form a rhizome, increase your territory by deterritorialization.”

(Deleuze and Guattari) [1]

By Daniel Cull

decentralized, pluralistic system of connections.

Philosophically this metaphor has been described

as "thought characterized by a radical openness

to an outside” [3]. The metaphorical rhizome is

concerned with principles of connection, hetero-

geneity, multiplicity, and rupture. The extrapola-

tion of these central components onto the post-

modern nonlinearality and labyrinthine nature,

and hypertextualization, of the internet enable it

to be characterized as a rhizome, through utilizing

this essential nature of the internet conservation

outreach could become more effective.

Conservators routinely use social media for com-

munication, and the profession is increasingly

approaching the point at which “arguments

about whether new forms of sharing or collabor-

ation are, on balance, good or bad reveal more

about the speaker than the subject” [4]. That be-

ing said, not all conservation outreach online

e-conservation

Sarracenia rhizome.

makes best use of the rhizomatic nature of the me-

dium in which it is being conducted. The result is

often the social media equivalent of spam broad-

casts - the excess production of unsolicited one way

communication. However, conversely, there are a

few within the field who have developed 'outreach'

into a fully collaborative communication system.

There are, for example, many small scale campaigns

for the safeguarding of material culture (often

buildings or places) that utilize platforms such as

facebook to develop communities of care; such as

the excellent ‘Save Our Seminary’ [5]. Moreover,

social media allows the development of an idea,

rather than product, which can be released for others

to take up and build upon, such as 'Wikipedia Saves

Public Art!' [6] in which the collaboratively edited

project page becomes the de/central/ized point of

oversight. Alternatively, rhizomatic systems also

allows nodes to be connected without their direct

participation, as is illustrated by the recently

launched ‘e-conservation daily’ [7] which allows

conservation information that is already being

shared by conservators using twitter to be brought

together into one aesthetically pleasing location

for easier consumption; and additional re/sharing.

Previously the intention of outreach was to in-

form in order to gain support (financial, political,

social, etc) for a given product, the social media

approach tends towards encouraging action and

information sharing amongst peers; essentially

creating communities rather than consumers. One

of the most profound aspects of the rhizomatic

social media approach that differs from the tree-

like broadcast model is the way in which control

of outcomes is given up, in favor of wider parti-

cipation. In essence an increase in territory in

the new medium is achieved through the act of

deterritorialization. The question then for con-

servation outreach can no longer exclusively be

a case of ‘what will make people value us’ or ‘how

do we demonstrate the importance of heritage

to people’, but, must instead be ‘what ideas do we

wish, and have, to share’ and ‘how do we encourage

people to share their heritage with one another’?

Notes:

[1] G. Deleuze, and F. Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus:

Capitalism and Schizophrenia, B. Massumi (trans.),

University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1987,

originally published as Mille Plateaux, Les Editions

de Minui, Paris, 1987, p. 11

[2] D. Cormier, “Rhizomatic education: Community as

curriculum”, Innovate 4 (5), 2008, URL

[3] S. Newman, From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authorita-

rianism and the Dislocation of Power, Lexington Books,

New York, 2001, p. 105

[4] C. Shirky, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Orga-

nizing Without Organizations, The Penguin Press, New

York, 2008, p. 297

[5] Save Our Seminary Facebook Group, URL

[6] D. Cull, “Wikipedia Saves Public Art: An interview

with Richard McCoy and Jennifer Geigel Mikulay”,

e-conservation magazine 14, 2010, pp. 19-27, URL

[7] e-conservation daily, URL

VIEWS

e-conservation 7

DANIEL CULLConservatorThe Musical Instrument Museum

Website: http://dancull.wordpress.com

Contact: [email protected]

Daniel Cull is from the West Country of the British

Isles. He trained at the Institute of Archaeology,

University College London, where he received a

BSc in Archaeology, MA in Principles of conserva-

tion, and an MSc in Conservation for Archaeology

and Museums. He was later awarded an Andrew

W. Mellon Fellowship at the National Museum of

the American Indian/Smithsonian Institution,

Washington, DC. He currently works as a conser-

vator at the Musical Instrument Museum and as

a collaborator with e-conservation magazine.

Review by Sagita Mirjam Sunara

The 23rd biennial IIC Congress was held in Istan-

bul, Turkey, the European Capital of Culture in

2010. The five-day event was impeccably organized

by the International Institute for Conservation and

hosted by the Sabanci Centre. Focusing on the

conservation issues in the Eastern Mediterranean,

the Congress provided an opportunity to share

ideas and experiences, expand knowledge, es-

tablish new collaborations and strengthen those

already existing. It gathered over 300 participants

from 44 countries.

Some 40 presentations were divided in 7 sessions:

"Diversity in the Eastern Mediterranean: from the

sea bed to Mount Athos", "Islamic arts in metal

and manuscript", "Diversity in the Eastern Medi-

terranean: from odea to photographs", "From deco-

rated sandals to decorated rooms","Preserving

objects in situ and ex situ","Making and preserving"

and, finally, "Paint, painting, religious use and

sustainability". A wide range of topics was dis-

cussed, from the maintenance of archaeological

sites and preserving objects in situ to the conser-

vation of moveable heritage and the issues deal-

ing with historic places' preservation. The full list

of presentations can be found here.

Since it is impossible to summarize all 40 presen-

tations, I will highlight just a few important ones.

Two international projects were presented that

address the ongoing need for conservation edu-

cation in the region: MOSAIKON and the Middle

East Photograph Preservation Institute (MEPPI).

MOSAIKON is a partnership of the Getty Conser-

vation Institute (GCI), the Getty Foundation, the

International Centre for the Study of the Preserva-

tion and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM)

and the International Committee for the Conser-

vation of Mosaics (ICCM). It is a collaborative ef-

fort to preserve the mosaic heritage of the Medi-

terranean through education and professional

capacity building. Kathleen Dardes (GCI) talked

about courses offered for site managers and tech-

nicians. One of the most important goals of this

project, however, is the development of a strong

academic infrastructure in mosaics conservation.

Nora Kennedy (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and

Debra Hess Norris (University of Delaware) dis-

cussed the need for preserving photographic col-

lections in the Mediterranean. In collaboration

with the Arab Image Foundation and the American

University of Beirut they held a workshop on the

conservation of photographic materials. Although

September, 20-24, 2010,

Istanbul, Turkey

Organized by:International Institute for Conservation, IIC

Hosted by: Sabanci Centre

CONSERVATION AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEANIIC Congress

VIEWS

8 e-conservation

Debra Hess Norris and Nora Kennedy, "Preservation of the photographic heritage of the Eastern Mediterranean".

this workshop was a huge success and another

one is planned in near future, they feel that edu-

cational tools are not the only means that can be

used to address this problem; it is necessary to

translate professional literature and make it ac-

cessible, to raise public awareness and increase

funding. The two projects described convey the

idea that the cultural heritage is a common con-

cern, and that the challenges met in its preserva-

tion can only be overcome through international

collaboration.

Many non-Mediterranean countries show great

interest in the cultural heritage of this region, in

part because their museums hold objects of Medi-

terranean provenance. The so-called Ottoman

rooms, richly decorated reception rooms in private

Syrian houses, for example, are mostly preserved

in museums outside Syria. A series of lectures shed

new light on these rare polychrome wooden in-

teriors. Idries Trevathan of the Islamic Arts Mu-

seum Malaysia, a team of conservators of The

Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and

Anke Scharrahs, a private conservator working

on the Syrian interiors in German collections and

on those few surviving examples in Damascus,

discussed materials and techniques of their exe-

cution, condition, conservation and presentation.

Only 10% of 600 Ottoman rooms in Damascus have

been preserved, said Scharrahs, and more than

80% of these have been over painted and/or var-

nished with an oil-resin varnish that has darkened,

thus changing their appearance. The IIC congress

gave delegates an opportunity to raise awareness

and attract the interest of the global community

of experts to these burning issues.

At the very opening of the congress, the renowned

author, historian and university professor David

Lowenthal delivered the Forbes Prize lecture, which

recognizes those who have made an outstanding

contribution to the field of conservation. He was

one of the six panelists of the round table discus-

sion entitled "Between Home and History: man-

aging the interface between preservation and

development of living historic places", which was

held on the second day of the Congress. Other

panelists included anthropologists Leyla Nezi and

Ayfer Bartu Candan, preservationist and author

Stephen Bond, and preservation architects Fran-

cesco Siravo and Asli Kiyak Ingin. Following a touch-

ing video interview with Nobel Prize winning au-

thor Orhan Pamuk, a native of Istanbul, the dis-

cussion focused on the importance of preserving

the community along with the built heritage.

Panelists from Istanbul promoted an appeal to

the international community to support their

fight against gentrification of the city. This round

table was a part of the IIC's initiative Dialogues

REVIEWS

Idries Trevathan, "The Ottoman Room at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia: a technical study of its methods and materials".

e-conservation 9

Round table discussion.

for the New Century, a series of discussions on

emerging issues in the modern world and their

relationship to the preservation of cultural heritage.

All transcripts are available online.

One-day and half-day excursions were offered on

the third day of the Congress. The delegates had

the opportunity to explore Istanbul and network

in a less formal environment. There were many

opportunities for networking during the Congress:

in the breaks between the lectures short meetings

10 e-conservation

were organized for those who received grants to

attend the event, the representatives of the IIC

national groups and the student-participants.

The IIC seems determined to engage its members

more actively in its projects. One of the great new

initiatives is the Project Lingua, which invites pro-

fessionals from non-English speaking countries

to voluntarily translate transcriptions of the Dia-

logues for the New Century events to their native

languages, so that the professional knowledge can

be shared worldwide.

REVIEWS

Second student meeting. Visit to the Istanbul Conservation Laboratory.

Visit to Hagia Sofia. Visit to Blue Mosque.

e-conservation 11

Posters were displayed throughout the Congress.

The authors presented their work on a dedicated

session on the fourth day of the event. The poster

prize was awarded to Solmaz Yasollhi for her poster

"Rehabilitation of the Damir Gapisi historic cara-

van route in Tabriz, Iran". Following a proposal

made at the IIC Student Meeting in London, where

the Congress was held in 2008, a student poster

session was organized alongside the 'profession-

al' one. There was, however, no difference in the

quality between the two. The Student Poster Prize

went to Caroline Roberts for her poster, "Docu-

mentation, Technical Analysis and Treatment of

a Bitumen Model Boat from Ur", while an honor-

able mention was given to Michail Koufopoulos

for his poster "Methodology for the design of

repair mortars".

Following the last session of last day of the Con-

gress, President of the IIC Jerry Podany awarded

the Keck Award to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum

& Fondation Corboud and the Cologne Institute for

Conservation Science of the University of Applied

Sciences in Cologne for their project, "Painting

Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpression-

ism". This reward is presented to those that pro-

mote public understanding and appreciation of

the work of the conservation profession.

Keck Award winners.

REVIEWS

Poster session.

I believe that the success of a professional meet-

ing can be judged by its outcomes. For me, one

of the best things about the Istanbul Congress is

the formation of the IIC - Arabic Group. It sends

out a message that it is not only the culture that

brings people together, but also the effort to

preserve it.

SAGITA MIRJAM SUNARASenior teaching assistantThe Conservation-Restoration Department

Arts Academy of the University of Split, Croatia

Contact: [email protected]

Sagita Mirjam Sunara has a diploma in conser-

vation-restoration of easel paintings and poly-

chromed wood. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D.

in Art History at the Faculty of Philosophy in

Zagreb, Croatia. Her doctoral research deals with

the history of conservation-restoration practice

in Croatia. She works as a senior teaching assistant

at the Department for Conservation and Resto-

ration at the Arts Academy of the University of

Split, teaching about modern techniques and

materials in the conservation and restoration

of easel paintings and doing practical conserva-

tion work with MA students.

Do you need an online presence?

Do you feel it’s time to update to 'digital conservation'?

Do you have a website that looks like built in the last century?

www.Yconservation.com

Visit our website

Yconservation is a collaborative project designed especially for individuals

and small businesses in the cultural heritage field. We create online solutions

that provide you with what you need, combining design, functionality and

ease of use. We offer HIGH QUALITY and LOW COST SOLUTIONS for

your business or project.

GRAPHIC AND WEB DESIGN SERVICES FOR CONSERVATION

13e-conservation

REVIEWS

On 6-8 October, the Imperial War Museum hosted

Bigstuff 2010, a conference centered around the

challenges of preserving, restoring and display-

ing large technology heritage objects. This was

the third in the series of Bigstuff conferences

(the others being in Canberra, Australia 2004

and Bochum, Germany 2007), and like the pre-

vious ones, drew people from all over the world,

who cared for a wide variety of objects, and worked

in an eclectic mix of organisations. The following

papers are described thematically.

The theme of the conference call for papers had

been ‘conflict’, recognising that the big challenges

of large technology heritage can often result in

strong disagreements. In the conference itself,

however, this theme morphed into one of poli-

tics and decision making, with speakers taking a

positive and proactive approach to the difficulties

and developing improved processes for the ne-

gotiation of significance, display goals and treat-

ment priorities.

Stefan Brueggerhoff of the German Mining Mu-

seum outlined a decision making model to deal

with truly big industrial machinery complexes.

Recognising that it is impossible to do everything

at once at such sites, the model focuses on de-

fining goals and priorities for the gradual con-

servation of the site over an extended period of

time, planning for the parts of the site that can-

not be preserved, and drawing together the needs,

approaches and languages of the different spe-

cialists involved in a large site project.

Sue Warren from the Canada Science and Techno-

logy Museum Corporation spoke of trying to re-

concile the ethics of the conservation profession

(minimal intervention and the preservation of

original material), with the expectations of visi-

tors, who she thought wanted to see technology

objects highly restored. In response to this pre-

dicament she had also developed a decision making

model, based on an objective assessment of the

significance of the object and its role within the

collection. Application of this model has resulted

in some less interventive treatments, and visitors

have responded very positively to the less restored

objects.

Sue had drawn on the Conservation Management

Tool developed in 2006 by Joanna Barr to aid

decision making for working heritage machinery.

Joanna (now Romanos) has continued to refine

this Tool, working with Allison Russell of the Na-

tional Motor Museum of Australia, who presen-

ted the updated version at the conference. Like

Stefan’s model, the focus is on bringing togeth-

er assessments of significance, physical condi-

tion and available resources in a process that is

thorough, objective and reproducible. Joanna’s

model also incorporates a risk management evalu-

ation, and five star rating system for rarity, fra-

gility and (physical) state, both of which help to

make the assessments of different objects explicit

and comparable.

David Hallam, of the National Museum of Australia

(NMA), also drew on Joanna’s work, as well as

Significance 2.0 (a must-read for heritage profes-

sionals – find it on the web), to assess the signi-

ficance, level of risk and consequences for each

mechanical system in an object. This gave him a

numerical risk rating for the whole object that was

BIGSTUFF 2010 October 6 - 8, 2010, Duxford, UKOrganiser: Imperial War Museum, Duxford, UKReview by Alison Wain

Visit our website

easy to graph – great for those corporate manage-

ment meetings! David also described analytical

work done on coolants, brake fluid, engine, gear-

box and transmission oils at the NMA, and by Mi-

chael Brunnott at the Coventry Transport Museum,

noting that in each case certain products were

notably better suited for use on older vehicles. The

NMA is also collaborating with the Swiss Founda-

tion HAM in a feasibility trial of an inspection and

maintenance program for their large operational

vehicle collection.

Anthony Coullis, of Britain’s National Railway Mu-

seum, spoke of the challenges and solutions to

operating historic locomotives, especially on main

line railways. Like the speakers above he also uses

a Conservation Management Plan that involves

making an assessment of the significance of object,

as well as a hierarchy of replacement parts – opera-

tion of a locomotive is more likely to be approved

if only minor parts need replacement or repair.

Andrew Schroeder from the Australian War Memo-

rial, and I, looked at the consequences of not fol-

lowing such rigorous planning processes. A hastily

implemented idea to make about 25 vehicles from

the Memorial’s collection operational for Memorial

and other events fell apart as it became evident

that the project members had different goals, the

audience evaluation and marketing side had been

omitted, and the real costs of the project had not

been acknowledged. We described the strategies

which were most helpful in resolving the resulting

conflicts, and looked at the way existing organisa-

tional structures and culture influenced the out-

comes of the project.

Dave Morris, of Britain’s Fleet Air Arm Museum,

discussed where to draw the line in operating ob-

jects, noting that there was a perception that it

was OK to borrow parts from non-flying aircraft

to keep flying aircraft operational for public dis-

14 e-conservation

REVIEWS

play, because ‘the parts would be returned later’.

Dave pointed out that they could not be given

back if the aircraft crashed, and that there was

little evidence that the flying aircraft had been

used for public displays anyway. He advocated

maintaining a firm line between flying and non-

flying collection objects, and basing the object’s

use plan on a realistic evaluation of the benefits

of operation.

Ethical decisions about use always have pros and

cons on both sides. Laura Kennedy from the Aus-

tralian War Memorial, and I, delved into the Me-

morial’s decision to purchase a Ford Chevy truck

to use as display furniture. With no known historic

provenance, it was felt that the truck could be

resized and repainted to fit the display with no

ethical questions necessary, but is this really so?

Is it ethical to display an object that is not, histori-

cally, what it appears to be? Do visitors care? My

research on visitor preferences for large techno-

logy presentation suggests that many visitors feel

original objects provide a bridge to the past, and

value signs of age and use as evidence of history,

in which case the answer is yes, it does matter.

On the practical side, Yvonne Shashoua from the

National Museum of Denmark, presented a paper

evaluating coatings for iron objects in exposed or

uncontrolled environments. No coating is ever per-

fect, but she came up with some clear winners and

Staff and volunteers in the aircraft conservation workshop talking to conference delegates.

REVIEWS

15e-conservation

losers for particular sets of environmental condi-

tions. Overall she found that wax-based coatings

were the best, and suggested that oxygen consump-

tion rather than adhesion testing was the best short

term predictor of long-term protectiveness.

Illustrating the fact that many of the challenges

of large objects are a result of their sheer size rather

than their genre, Chris Collins of the Natural His-

tory Museum in London described the physical

and political problems of removing and treating

mouldy reptile fossils from the rain-soaked wall of

a gallery. The most intractable part of the project

was not the treatment but the politics: achieving

co-ordination and co-operation between differ-

ent sections of the museum’s administration, and

managing the fall-out from the discovery that the

damage was much worse than first thought and

that the gallery would be unavailable for events

for several months. Robert Turner, of EURA Con-

servation, provided an account of the conserva-

tion of a series of tiled picture panels, that further

illustrated problems and creative solutions in-

volved in getting big things off the walls they were

stuck to.

Chris Knapp from Duxford described the cleaning

and restoration of a B52 covered with large amounts

of corrosion and deteriorated paint. A key factor

in the success of this project, much of which in-

volved repetitive, uncomfortable and exhausting

work, was maintaining team morale. In a later ses-

sion he also spoke of the practical steps required

to successfully – and without punching any holes

in original fabric – suspend aircraft from the roof.

Norbert Tempel spoke of the challenges of rehabili-

tating a vapour discharge tower at Henrichshütte

Iron Works in Germany. The need to remove asbes-

tos-containing corrugated sheeting from the tower

meant losing original material, but provided a

unique opportunity to repair and support the

structural steelwork beneath it. This illustrated

one of the ethical dilemmas of large machinery

preservation – to stabilize structure or workings

underneath or inside objects, it is often necessary

to damage or remove outer parts. Norbert also

presented a paper by Kornelius Goetz on repairs

to the Zollern 2/4 machine hall, and noted that

Germany has new inspection standards for old

engineering structures, that must be met before

the structures can be declared safe.

James Mitchell, of Industrial Heritage Consulting,

spoke of the twin perils of not operating functional

objects, and of operating them badly, describing

Aircraft preparing for practise runs ahead of the Duxford airshow.

REVIEWS

16 e-conservation

the consequences of both approaches through the

examples of the Elsecar Newcomen pumping en-

gine at Barnsley and the Trencherfield engine in

the cotton spinning mill at Wigan. Expert conser-

vation work has saved the Trencherfield engine,

but the Elsecar engine is, unfortunately, still in

limbo.

Promoting good heritage practice, Brian Barker

spoke about an award winning training program,

developed jointly by IWM and BAPC, to train volun-

teers in the conservation and preservation of air-

craft. The course was nationally accredited and

immensely popular, and at the request of aviation

volunteers a spin-off course was developed in

customer service – again people were realising

that technical skills were only half the battle – the

other half was people skills. Brian feels that the

structure of the courses means that they could also

be easily adapted to other countries if required.

Carl Warner from Duxford spoke of innovative ways

to help visually impaired people appreciate large

objects, noting that it was vital to talk to people

about what they needed and to trial solutions with

focus groups to ensure those needs were met. As

a result of this research, Duxford has adopted a

range of new display techniques that benefit both

sighted visually impaired audiences, and has been

rewarded with enthusiastic feedback.

The conference was focused, inspiring and a great

deal of fun. If anyone would like more information

about any of the papers, please contact Alison Wain.

ALISON WAIN

ConservatorContact: [email protected]

Alison has managed large technology heritage

conservation and display projects in museums for

many years. In 2004 she initiated the ongoing

Bigstuff conference series, which brings together

expertise from academia, museums, trades and

amateur and volunteer organisations to collectively

address the particular challenges raised by large

technology heritage. She is currently undertaking

a PhD at the Australian National University, looking

at how people’s personal and occupational back-

grounds affect the way they value, display and

view large technology heritage.

Breakout session on the balcony during the Bigstuff conference.

Review by Petruta Vlad

November 7, 2010, Paris, France

Organiser: AAF (Ateliers d'Art de France)

16th INTERNATIONAL HERITAGE SHOW

REVIEWS

e-conservation 17

Four days, from 4th to 7th of November 2010, were

dedicated to “The Mediterranean Heritage” at The

International Heritage Show in Paris. Every year,

this event brings together international exhibitors

and presents to the specialists and the large public

the most actual questions and solutions about

heritage, its conservation and its role in the so-

ciety. The generous thematic of this year does not

only revisit the origins of the western culture, the

Mediterranean area, but also questions the future

of this valuable heritage and its uses today. As

Frédéric Mittérand, the French Minister of Culture

mentioned, this show is not just a simple homage

and revival of the “culture of monuments” as Aloïs

Riegl called it, but also a proposition to create new

dialogs and new economical and cultural networks

between the North and the South. From archeolo-

gical and natural sites, all varieties and forms of

architecture, design, art creations, to all the as-

pects of working and living in the Mediterranean

areal today, everything represents an active cul-

ture. In this way, our heritage is not only our his-

tory but also our present and most of our entire

future.

This 16th edition of The International Heritage Show

was organized by the “Ateliers d’Art de France”,

the national French association of professionals

handcrafts created in 1868 and assembling 2800

members. It presented over 250 exhibitors and

counted 37 oral conferences at the Carrousel of

the Louvre Museum. There were present profes-

sionals of all branches of activity: conservator-

restorers (ceramics, glass, leather, mechanical

arts, metals, painting, paper, stone, wood), tech-

nicians (informatics, lighting, security systems),

services (architects, cultural engineers, research

laboratories), promotion and valorization of the

patrimony (tourism actors, governmental insti-

tutions and local administrations, associations),

education (universities and colleges, education

Detail of damaged modern concrete-frame building at new bus-stand, Leh.

18

REVIEWS

e-conservation

associations), information (editors, libraries, book-

shops and press). Among them there were special

guests from the Mediterranean area, such as Euro-

med Heritage IV (European financed program for

the Mediterranean Heritage), European Institute

for Cultural Itineraries, The Pole for Cultural In-

dustries and Patrimony, The Valencian Institute

for Conservation and Restoration and The National

Tourism Office from Croatia.

The special event of the International Heritage

Show was the exhibition “Seeing differently the

Art Craft” (“Nouveau regard sur les métiers d’art”)

organized by the “Ateliers d’Art de France”. Present-

ing contemporary creations of international artist,

this exhibition proved the inspiring dialog, which

exists between opposite cultures and the richness

of the ancient techniques revived by the creativity

of contemporary artists. Old techniques and new

materials can be putted together in creating a new

art where the ancient is integrated in our present.

This exhibition’s purpose was to demonstrate that

these values must be preserved and generously

transmitted to the new generations.

Four ceremonies of prize receptions were organized

on this occasion.

At his first edition, the Terreal Prize, accorded by

Terreal, French leader of quarry tile and world

leader of tiles, distinguished the professionals

working in heritage conservation.

The Clio Prize, created in 1997 in order to encour-

age the archeological francophone researches

over the world, was accorded this year to arche-

ology teams who worked in Morocco (first prize,

accorded to Jean Paul Raynal from The National

The News section is publishing diverse

information on cultural heritage topics, such

as on-site conservation projects reports,

conferences, lectures, talks or workshops

reviews, but also course reviews and any other

kind of appropriate announcements. If you are

involved in interesting projects and you want

to share your experience with everybody else,

please send us your news or announcements.

For more details, such as deadlines and

publication guidelines, please visit

www.e-conservationline.com

Center for Scientific Research, France, for Casab-

lanca Programe), in Rome (second prize, Domini-

que Castex, from The National Center for Scientific

Research, France, for his work at The Catacombs

of Saints Pietro and Marcelino) and in Egypt (third

prize, Philippe Brissaud for his wok at Tanis).

Two other prizes, the Contest “Ma Pierre à L’édifice”

distinguished those who work for the religious

heritage in France, and the Pèlerin Prize, at his

20th edition, distinguished those who contribute

to the “patrimoine de proximité’’ preservation.

This edition of The International Heritage Show

received over 20.000 visitors in four days and al-

lowed the creation of new networks and partner-

ships for the actors of the patrimony. Despite the

economical crisis and the diminished funds of many

associations and governmental institutions in

France, this edition was a successful one, count-

ing the number of loyal participants, the new ar-

rivals and the quality of their work.

19

REVIEWS

e-conservation

By Cyndi Bohlin

PREPARING IKATS FOR COLORS OF THE OASIS: CENTRAL ASIAN IKATS

Long before a Textile Museum exhibition opens

to the public, museum staff is busy at work re-

searching, selecting pieces, assessing the needs

of the textiles and deciding how they will be dis-

played. The museum’s two full-time conservators

play a key role in this preparation.

The museum’s fall/winter exhibition, Colors of

the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats, presented a unique

opportunity-and challenge-for the conservators.

As with every exhibition, they first evaluated

the textiles, documenting areas of damage and

creating a condition report, to determine what

treatments were needed. Given the historic nature

of the ikats, treatments were often necessary.

Dyeing, Dressing & Display

The final exhibition incorporates a combination of display methods. Photo by Kevin Allen.

“Our examination showed fraying seams, tears

and abrasions”, says Esther Méthé, chief conser-

vator.

Most treatments were focused on reinforcing

areas of weakness where the silk warp was worn

away, leaving the weft exposed and fraying. To

address this, the conservators used a combina-

tion of techniques. An underlay or overlay, cus-

tom-dyed to match the spectrum of colors on the

ikats, was used to support weak areas. Couching

stitches were used to secure loose threads to an

underlay, as shown in the example at right. A sheer

overlay, shown in the top left image, prevented

further fraying, but also visually reconstituted

NEWS

20 e-conservation

the original color and look of the textile, providing

a more complete aesthetic presentation.

The treatments were very labor intensive. Although

the majority of the textiles required a few hours

of dedicated attention, “some treatments took

20, 40 or even 140 hours.” After each ikat was

treated as required, the conservators consulted

with the curator to bring her vision of its display

to life. For Colors of the Oasis, a mix of T-stands,

wall displays and dress forms were chosen to give

depth to the exhibition and present the textiles

from both aesthetic and social perspectives.

Using a dress form didn’t just mean hanging an

ikat onto a mannequin. “Just as you don’t put on

a coat without undergarments, we needed to do

the same for the ikat coats.” Original patterns

were created for the pseudo-shirts to be “worn”

under the ikat coats and tulle skirts were made to

add volume. Each slat used in the exhibition for

a wall mount or T-stand was custom-made from

wood covered in an archival sealing material, and

then polyester felt padding, a special Tyvek®, and

finally, cotton fabric. Every ikat displayed on the

wall was padded with "inner pillows" made from

polyester batting and cotton, which prevent the

textile from caving in on itself.

A dark blue cotton leader is sewn to the top of the hanging panel.

Esther Méthé attaches arms to a dressform;

An underlay patch and couching stitches secure the loose weft threads on this panel. The Textile Museum, 2009.16.5. The Megalli Collection.

NEWS

21e-conservation

Like all exhibitions at The Textile Museum, Colors

of the Oasis is truly the result of a team effort.

“This exhibit would not have been possible without

the efforts of our two outstanding interns,” says

Méthé, namely Angela Duckwall, a recent graduate

of Winterthur’s masters in conservation program

and Char Laverty, of the Savannah College of Art

and Design. Beyond this, the conservation depart-

ment had the help of three regular volunteers (who

continue to come every Thursday). The department

also relied on the work of an outside preparator

as well as a contract conservator to finish all that

was needed before the exhibition opened.

The conservation team is now looking ahead to the

museum’s next exhibition, Second Lives: the Age-

Old Art of Recycling Textiles, and beyond, assess-

ing the needs of other textiles and pursuing treat-

ments. “Our collections include many historic tex-

tiles which sometimes need help—but they are

beautiful when you consider their age and use,"

reflects Méthé.

Certain ikats required a custom-dyed overlay to improve their appearance.

EXHIBITION

Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats

October 16, 2010 through March 13, 2011

http://www.textilemuseum.org

By Julia Miller

BOOKS WILL SPEAK PLAINA Handbook for Identifying andDescribing Historical Bindings

The recent publication Books Will Speak Plain by

book conservator Julia Miller is intended to give

an overview of historical bindings that can assist

conservators, librarians, curators and booksellers

to correctly identify and describe historical books.

On the long term, this study will help preserve

and hopefully add to scarce information available

on bookbinding style, structure and materials.

Moreover, this guide will contribute to the correct

appreciation of those less valued, common-looking

bindings and their significance.

The book contains an extensive glossary of terms,

guidelines for writing descriptions of bindings and

is accompanied by a DVD with 1,471 searchable

color images and captions.

In March 2008 the author received a Conserva-

tion Publication Fellowship from the Samuel H.

Kress Foundation to write a book. The wonderful

outcome -“Books Will Speak Plain”- is the result

of many years of training, teaching, and an ex-

tensive experience and research on historical

book collections.

Publisher: The Legacy Press

Publication: 2010

Pages: 592, 374 illustrations

ISBN: 978-0-9797974-3-9

Language: English

NEWS

22 e-conservation

Aquincum, Budapest, part of the Roman Limes.

Fertő/Neusiedlersee Hungarian/Austrian World Heritage site (2001).

After being published for the first time in 2009

in Hungarian language, the 1st volume of Studies

on Heritage Management published by the Foun-

dation for Information Society (ITA) is now avail-

able in English. The book gathers 13 studies by

World Heritage experts on built and natural sites,

and includes not only their description but also

technical and financial characteristics, with a fo-

cus on their economic utilisation and the turistic

income. The book is intended for educational pur-

poses, prominent Hungarian case studies being

shared with other countries as World Heritage

management examples. It is addressed to experts,

researchers, trainers and students in the field.

The volume comprises contributions on up-to-date

issues in archaeology, such as Archaeological Her-

itage Protection in the Passing Time by Professor

Zsolt Visy from the University of Pécs, Aquincum,

the Roman Limes on the WH Tentative List by Paula

Zsidi, director of the Aquincum Museum, and The

Situation of Archaeological Heritage in Hungary

by the Director of the National Office of Cultural

Heritage, by Dénes Jankovich B.

Other studies are dealing with various subjects:

the complex issues of forms, management and

utilisation of heritage sites; the close connection

between nature and culture; the economic func-

tion of hisotric, sites among others. The last part

STUDIES ON INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE PROCESSES Studies on Heritage Management I

is dedicated to the long term experiences and fu-

ture perspective of WH and its protection, discussed

by Tamás Fejérdy and János Tardy, two experts in

this domain.

Besides its educational purpose, the book is in-

tended to be an enjoyable reading for anyone with

an interest in Hungarian sites and World Heritage

management.

Editors: Ferenc Kiss, Lia Bassa

Publisher: Foundation for Information Society

Publication date: November 2010

Pages: 257

ISBN: 978-963-87788-7-1

ISSN: 1587-2386

Language: English

NEWS

23e-conservation

“It is only after a long period of neglect that,

in recent years, we have witnessed a renewed

interest and awareness of cemeteries as urban

and monumental architectures. On the one hand,

cemeteries can be considered open air museums

and, on the other, they serve an important func-

tion as infrastructure. The preservation of arte-

facts interweaves and partly clashes with the

burial processes, as the conservation of memories

collides with the re-use of graves, an egalitarian

principle with origins in Napoleonic cemeteries.

An enormous heritage has developed in European

cemeteries, in particular in Catholic countries.

This heritage is not just of architectural or

artistic relevance, but it also constitutes a sig-

nificant manifestation of Cultural Heritage.

In fact, the quality of materials employed in

each manufactured product is the carrier of

public memory, which must be preserved as

such, rather than as an expression of the Arts.

The conservation of all the historical and monu-

mental parts of the cemetery shows the impor-

tant implications connected both to the pre-

servation of its function, indispensable for the

survival of heritage, and the necessity to safe-

guard and enhance the immaterial values, evoked

through subtle references to history and customs.

In this way, the architecture of memory reveals

a complicated pattern requiring an articulate

and interdisciplinary survey, since knowledge

is at the basis of art preservation.”

Michela Rossi

THE PICTURE OF MEMORY Shapes, Signs and Materials in the Octagonal Cemetery of La Villetta

in Parma

IL DISEGNO DELLA MEMORIA

Forme, segni e materiali nell’Ottagono della Villetta a Parma

This volume regarding the octagon cemetery of

“La Villetta”, in the city of Parma, Italy, presents

a section of the results of a complex survey which

followed a preliminary analysis about planning

techniques and the estimation of architectural

works. Moreover, it concludes an earlier study on

the system of cemeteries of Parma, which had led

to the approval of a specific town planning scheme

and the publication of a first volume (Lost City and

Architectures Regained. The Octagon of La Villetta

Cemetery and other Burial Architectures in Parma,

edited by Michela Rossi, ETS, Pisa, 2007). Hence,

the volume recently published, The Picture of Me-

mory, is a continuation of the first one.

The shift from an urban to an architectural scale

has emphasised the complex structure of the pic-

ture of memory, while involving different specific

disciplines, in order to give the broadest scientific

outcomes to the expected results of preservation

and restoration processes.

Editors: Michela Rossi and Cecilia TedeschiPublisher / Year: ETS, 2010

Pages: 336ISBN: 9788846727022

Language: Italian

NEWS

24 e-conservation

Not only architects, chemists and biologists have

taken part in this work, but also historians and

art historians, who have stressed the deep rela-

tionship between material forms and immaterial

values since the cemetery architecture represents

the society in which it is embedded better than

any other building.

The essays contained in this volume are a selec-

tion of the material produced during the survey,

re-elaborated in order to underline the keys to

interpretation that both the architecture and the

artefacts offer. One of the main keys to the read-

ing of the text explores the continual reference

between the city of the dead and that of the living,

a reference that is implicit in the scheme of the

urban structure, but that is also expressed by for-

mal complexity as well as by the decorations and

the arrangement of the funeral ornaments.

Once again, the table of contents leave space for

further in-depth analysis and new perspectives.

A close examination of the topics introduced by

the different essays preceding the presentation

of the survey also provides a critical reading—one

or rather one of several possible—as if they were

facts leaving room for further interpretation.

The first part of the work comprises essays con-

cerning directly the project of “La Villetta”, along

with others which look at the values of the ceme-

tery indirectly yet extensively. These include its

historical norms and civic memories. The second

part illustrates those references made in the es-

says which will help us understand the models and

formal choices resulting from cultural values and

ever-changing customs. The third section contains

essays concerning the pre-existing products and

material aspects of architecture. The final section

gathers the reproduction of the architectural sur-

veys along with a description of the main archi-

tectures and a brief reference to the tombs, as

Michela Rossi, in her essay “The theatre of memory” explains the architectural shape of the cemetery and its strong relation with the contemporary theatre. The combined choice of square/octagonal shape, numbers and measures may be explained as symbolic reference to life and death, earth and sky. Above is shown the geometrical/numerical layout of the plan and its relation with the measures, proportions and graphical construction of the octagonal pattern of the plan and the comparison with the local baptistery.

Below is a comparison between the drawing of the first ceme-tery project, which would have had a different number of porch spans on the same pattern, and the oratory plan.

NEWS

25e-conservation

well as some biographical details regarding the

most celebrated people buried there. The appendix

constitutes a substantial part of the book, with

its architectural and funerary glos-sary and a col-

lection of funeral symbols and their meaning.

The work can be read in two different ways: first,

we find the history of the monuments and many

of their references; second, the potential of a series

of pilot research projects that, in time, have fol-

lowed on from each other coherently, widening the

field of interest to an interdisciplinary approach.

The exchange of opinion between researchers

from different schools of thought and scientific

background underlines the parallel goals that

were only achieved gradually and thanks to a

progressive convergence of interest from the

general to the specific.

The complexity of the system as a whole and the

diversification of the areas involved deserve a

more in-depth investigation. These issues even-

tually drew attention to the first octagonal peri-

meter of “La Villetta” – the source of all current

and possible future research. Nevertheless, the

results of this study, albeit contextualised to one

specific case, offer above all a methodological ap-

proach that can be applied to several practical

problems related to monumental architecture

and that of cemeteries, such as management,

preservation and improvement.

Cecilia Tedeschi is the editor of survey cards of the main his-

torical building still existing in the actual cemetery, whose growth begun with the twin galleries designed by Sante Ber-gamaschi in the second half of the XIX century. Her essay is dedicated to the urban work of this architect, who directed the city technical office for a long time. The figures above show the architectural survey of the last historical addition to cemetery, elaborated by Erica Alberti and Donatella Bon-tempi before Polo Bertozzi’s consolidation project.

Erika Alberti, in her essay “Ephemeral and memory, equipment and furniture”, investigates the meanings and the sources of burial objects, finding in baroque temporary sets of court funerals and weddings the models of bourgeois tombs and their furniture. The figure shows some burial monuments built for the funerals of the dukes of Parma in XVII-XVIII century and of Adam Albert, Count von Neipperg, Maria Luigia’s second husband.

Donatella Bontempi’s essay deals with the foundation

and design of the cemetery, which followed a vexed

matter against burying inside the city walls.

Carmen Nuzzo investigates the formal models of ceme-

tery and graves, finding in ancient burials the arche-

types of family chapels, evolving in different types the

main symbolical elements of cemetery: the enclosure,

the door and the burial room.

NEWS

26 e-conservation

Are you reading this?So is everybody else...

e-conservationline

For advertisingand other information on publicity,

please contact

[email protected]

and request a copy of our mediakit.

even

tsThe events in this section are linked to the

original homepage of the organisers or to the

calendar of events at www.conservationevents.com.

Click on "Read more..." to find out more details

about each event.

SHA 2011 - Boundaries and Crossroads in ActionGlobal Perspectives in Historical Archaeology

Date: January 5-9 Read more...

Place: Austin, Texas, USA

Below the surface of every landscape is chemi-

cal evidence of past human activity and, poten-

tially, an historic site. Recent advances in the

use of portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF),

RAMAN technologies and the reduction in costs

for laboratory analyses have made these tech-

nologies affordable for field studies that "com-

plete the circle of understanding" of historic

era terrestrial and marine sites through the

integration of archaeochemistry, Archaeogeo-

physics, literature research, oral interviews

and excavation.

International Conference on Digital Library Management (ICDLM)

Date: January 11-13 Read more...

Place: Science City, Kolkata, India

The theme of the conference is 'Extending

Benefits of Modern Technology to Public,

Academic, and Special Libraries'.

The conference aims to provide an internation-

al forum for sharing advanced thoughts and

experiences focusing on digital libraries and

its management. All public libraries, special

libraries, and academic libraries are expected

to gain and exchange knowledge, skills, and

expertise from this event.

Janu

ary

2011

Preservation Basics Training Day

Preservation Assessment Survey Workshop

Date: January 11 Read more...

Place: London, UK

Designed for library and archive staff, the workshop intro-

duces the Preservation Assessment Survey (PAS) metho-

dology, explains the benefits of carrying out a survey,

introduces options for carrying out the survey and in-

cludes a number of practical sessions. The emphasis on

practical activities allows attendees to plan, measure,

and compile survey data and provides ample opportunity

to discuss local issues and potential difficulties.

Date: January 26 Read more...

Place: London, UK

Preservation of collections is an important part of the

day to day work of librarians and archivists who have to

maintain access to collections. The day will explore what

is meant by preservation; highlight the risks to collections

and show how to minimise those risks with simple, cost-

effective actions.

e-conservation

Janu

ary

2011

Managing the Library and Archive Environment

Date: January 18 Read more...

Place: London, UK

Avoiding a ‘one size fits all’ approach to environmental

parameters, the day helps you to understand the vulnera-

bilities and tolerances of your collections and then shows

how to set realistic and achievable targets that are ap-

propriate to the materials in your care and the resources

available to you. At the end of the day you will be in a

strong position to take cost-effective decisions and pri-

oritise actions for maintaining a sustainable environment.

Preservation of Glass Plate Negatives

Date: February 11 Read more...

Place: Edinburgh, Scotland

Conservators and photographers from RCAHMS will discuss

their work with glass plates, and Jenny Hodgson, conser-

vator from National Monuments Record English Heritage

will present her talk entitled Conservation of Glass Plate

Negatives - Creating a Stable Future (recently presented

at the CF10 conference in Cardiff). There will be an oppor-

tunity for participants to share their knowledge and ex-

periences of glass plate negative preservation.

Interdisciplinary Conference on the Practice of Salt Reduction

Date: February 3-5 Read more...

Place: Hildesheim, Germany

The talks will present informative, long-term case studies

of salt reduction in both climate-controlled and non-

climate-controlled environments and evaluate the meas-

ures taken. In addition, we have topics related to the pre-

vention, such as climate control to prevent or minimize

salt damage.

Febr

uary

201

1EVENTS

21e-conservation

Febr

uary

201

1

The Use of Substitute Materials on Historic Preservation Projects

Date: February 4 Read more...

Place: Boston, USA

The Symposium would like to explore the decisions that

are made about when to use substitute materials and how

well or how poorly the use of substitute materials is

affecting historic fabric. Also, is the use of substitute

materials allowing us to avoid making difficult decisions

about the long term maintenance and sustainability of

historic sites.

Energy Efficiency in Historic Buildings

Date: February 9-11 Read more...

Place: Visby, Sweden

The aim of the programme is to develop and disseminate

knowledge and technical solutions that will contribute

to energy efficiency while safeguarding our cultural herit-

age. This gentle approach to energy efficiency is reached

by interdisciplinary cooperation, where energy conser-

vation is integrated with the conservation of cultural

property. The goal is to create a solid knowledge-based

framework in order to facilitate long-term sustainable

management of historical property of high cultural value.

iECS 2011International Edelstein Color Symposium

The Science & Art of Color

Date: February 27-28 Read more...

Place: Ramat-Gan, Israel

The focus of this international symposium is to high-

light the synergy that exists between art and science

through the unifying element of color. This symposium

will convene experts in their fields who will discuss the

nature of pigments and dyes, as detected by scientific

methods, in use in ancient palaces, historic paintings,

medieval manuscripts, and ancient European textiles.

The use of color in modern design, urban lighting, ar-

chitecture, painting styles, women’s fashion, as well as

the psychology and philosophy of color will also be

presented. Additionally, the scientific discovery of the

first authentic Biblical Tekhelet from ancient Israel will

be announced and discussed.

Poster presentations are welcomed in all areas that are

related to the "color" theme of this symposium. Please

email your abstract to the Symposium Secretariat by

January 10, 2011.

e-conservation magazine offers the possibility to publish bilingual articles in the html version. Articles inEnglish may also be published in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian, at authors request.

arti

cles

AREAS OF PUBLISHING

Conservation TreatmentMural Painting

Painting

Stone

Sculpture

Textiles

Paper / Documents

Photography

Metals

Tile / Ceramic / Glass

Furniture

Music instruments

Ethnographic assets

Archeological objects

Conservation ScienceScientific research

Material studies and characterisation

Analytical techniques

Technology development

Biodeterioration

State-of-the-art

Reviews

Preventive ConservationTheoretic principles

Case studies

Documentation in ConservationStandardisation

Documentation methods

Data management

Conservation TheoryEthics

Conservation History

Art History, Iconography,

Iconology, Chemistry, Physics,

Biology, Photography, Cultural

Management, Museology,

Computer Science, Legislation

and Juridical Processes,

Conservation Policies

and any other field applied to

Conservation and Restoration

of works of art.

Find out more: www.e-conservationline.com

e-conservation

SCIENCE AND RESTORATION AT THE SERVICE OF INTERPRETATION

The article discusses the relationship between art history/ curatorship, conservation and conservation science within the context of the art museum. It identifies the physicality of artworks as the underpinning of interpretation and the meaning-making process entailed in the museum experience; hence it denotes the pivotal role conservation and particularly restoration play within this framework. It stresses the significance of the analytical examination of works of art as an art historical tool rather than a conservation aid. Thus, it draws attention to the interplay between scientifically obtained information, which analytical work produces and the subjective standards, which restoration encompasses. Finally, it advocates the artistic dimension of conservation and asserts that visual appreciation and aesthetic understanding are prerequisites for any kind of restoration intervention carried out on artworks.

By Dimitrios Doumas

In the last few years the term interdisciplinarity

has been one of the most widely spoken words

amongst museum professionals, and the implica-

tions it brings forth for the interpretation of col-

lections and the interrelations between museum

staff have proved essentially rewarding. Being

conscious of their role, museum staff members

have to consider that they form part of an inte-

grated team of specialists who discern each indi-

vidual task within the context of the wider function

of the museum [1]. The multidisciplinary nature

of museum work dictates the necessity for balance

between connoisseurship, science and technical

expertise. Curatorial work and art historical re-

search can be facilitated and revised with the aid

of conservation and conservation science and vice

versa.

This paper discusses the interrelationship between

conservation, art history and conservation science

and stresses the importance of visual appreciation

that constitutes perhaps a common language, as

it enables holistic interpretation of artworks.

Forms of Interpretation and the Interpretation of Forms

The museum experience is primarily artefactual;

as a communicative process it is direct and at the

same time weak; however strong and immediate,

it remains fleeting unless the meanings it incar-

nates are encoded in language. The core difference

between curatorship and conservation, as they

affect the meaning and the form of works of art

lies exactly in the way each realm constructs inter-

pretation. Conservators, mainly through restora-

tion and to a lesser extent conservation, establish

visual interpretation. To interfere with the phys-

ical nature of the work – even in a passive way - is

a determinant that may have irreversible implica-

tions for the perception of artworks and this fact

leaves no room for errors and, because of that,

conservators turn into critical interpreters. Res-

toration reconstructs a unified image of artworks

and in that sense it forms a strong and lucid visu-

al language that can be far more important and

powerful than any interpretative and communic-

ative medium employed by curators (e.g. labels,

wall-texts). Curators through textual interpreta-

tion communicate the experience of artworks. Yet,

apart from any factual information (e.g. dates,

provenance, technique, ownership and contextu-

alization), much of which depends to some ex-

tent on conservation and conservation science

work, curatorial interpretation may entail many

different and subjective deductions, which nev-

ertheless can all be reasonable enough. Thus, it

encompasses pluralism, hence relativism. Objectiv-

ity is required, but not as an absolute principle.

Having said that, curatorial interpretation could

be regarded as objective if it is rationally coherent

and solid to the extent that it can withstand cri-

ticism and interrogation [2].

Museum work is primarily a matter of plain and

simple seeing, including seeing beyond the skin

of the object; and yet, the cognitive system of

meaning-making, which curatorial work encom-

passes, is eventually structured by the object’s

materiality. This signifies, on the one hand, the

pivotal role conservators play in the making of

the museum experience; on the other hand, tex-

tual and visual interpretation of artworks can only

be effective when what the eyes see and what is

extracted through scientific analysis are not at

variance with each other. Eventually, their com-

bination will help the sentient conservator per-

form restoration sensibly. Conservators juggle

between the aesthetic experience a work of art

offers and their involvement with its material na-

ture. The latter implies that their perception and

attitude as viewers are affected and in fact deter-

mined by their urge to rescue an object and by

33e-conservation

SCIENCE AND RESTORATION AT THE SERVICE OF INTERPRETATION

their tendency to repair the damage they see, both

of which may deprive them of the pleasure of ap-

preciation.

Analysis and Restoration: Impartial Enquiry and Subjective Performance

Art curators and conservators are confronted by

the dual nature of art. Art is not simply a matter

of producing and viewing tangible objects, nor can

it be transformed into a science of ideas deprived

of its subject matter [3]. Art depends on materials

and techniques that acquire unique historical im-

portance and signification. Artists use matter and

transfigure it into art and experience conveyed

across a series of historical records [4]. Works of

art integrate a combination of attributes, which

on the one hand designate resemblance and ana-

logy with the sensible world, whereas at the same

time signify remoteness and detachment from the

tangible. In this sense, artworks are material ob-

jects with symbolic meaning and distinctive ex-

perience [4]. Assuming that works of art differ

from any other man-made object in that their cre-

ators have a certain non-utilitarian intention, also

considering that their form signifies their mean-

ing and that their meaning designates their form,

it can be concluded that ‘…the more the propor-

tion of emphasis on “idea’’ and “form’’ approaches

a state of equilibrium, the more eloquently will

the work reveal what is called content’ [5, p. 62].

It is the unity of these three constituents resulting

in aesthetic experience curators and conservators

aim to re-establish in an artwork. This standpoint

is quite critical when one weighs the fact that in

humanities the work of art is aesthetically recre-

ated whereas in science it is rationally investigated.

The visuality of artworks integrates an intellectual

attestation and a physical object [6], hence un-

derstanding derives if visitors establish a relation

between the work’s meaning and intention. This

relation is reflected in the work’s form. Within this

framework, restoration, as a series of processes

that interfere with the artwork’s appearance, has

a profound impact on its aesthetic, historical and

social significance.

Restoration, as an interdisciplinary act devoted

to the reinstatement of visuality uses science and

art historical knowledge. It is thus based on the

interplay between scientific objectivity and sub-

jectivity; a dialogue between measurable progress,

which analytical work may bring forth, and non-

measurable interpretation of culture [7]. The in-

valuable role of science in conservation cannot

be questioned (particularly when it comes to is-

sues like dating, attribution, authentication etc.),

and surely it has contributed considerably to the

accomplishments of conservators at a professional

level. Science plays an essential role as it equips

the profession with a methodology enquiry. In

effect, it has played a part in establishing conser-

vation as an academic discipline because it turns

mere observation into conclusion as it makes a

deduction valid by proof [8].

Nevertheless, the application of science to con-

servation has some limitations. In theory, science

enables conservators to distinguish between cause

and effect, understand deterioration processes

and know material technology. Experimentation

with materials and methods produces technical

knowledge that allows conservators to intervene

efficiently as regards treatment performance. This

may indicate those products and procedures, which

have better properties and outcome than others,

but the final decision as to how and when these

are applied rests upon the conservator’s judge-

ment to resolve on those options that best satisfy

certain needs, because treatments can only be

appropriate or suitable to particular objects and

for their specifically intended environment. In

this sense, conservators enjoy the benefit of choice

amongst a variety of tested materials that meet

34 e-conservation

DIMITRIOS DOUMAS

the three major conservation criteria: stability,

longevity and reversibility/retreatability.

In terms of getting insights into the nature of

artworks, science in everyday practice does not

always (or fully) determine treatment decisions

and planning. The decision, for instance, to re-

move overpaintings may result from the outcome

of technical examination with imaging techniques

such as x-radiography, infrared and ultraviolet

spectra. Additionally, instrumental analysis meth-

ods that range from simple microscopic examination

of paint cross-sections to the more sophisticated

x-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive x-ray-

microanalysis (SEM-EDX) can verify the presence

of pigments, which may be inconsistent with the

presumed dating of a painting, and this is a straight-

forward process that results in concrete evidence.

The presence of chrome yellow, for instance, in

an early Renaissance painting would be an indi-

cation either that the work must have undergone

alteration at some point from the 19th century

onwards or that it is a fake [9]. In any case, what

we see in the painting, what we think we see and

what the painting actually is can all be different.

On the other hand, the question to reconstruct

the losses of a painting totally, partially or not

to touch them at all is dictated by factors that

do not relate to solid scientific facts. These con-

sist mainly in the aesthetic integrity of the work

as this derives from the original (or earlier) con-

dition of the work, or to be more precise, from the

presumed idea of its original or earlier condition,

as well as the extent of its deterioration and past

intervention. Other factors include the work’s art

historical context, the aesthetic requirements of

the institution (i.e. certain institutions opt for full

reconstruction of losses for their displays, where-

as others resolve on minimum intervention) and

the conservator’s subjective visual judgement and

technical performance. So, an artwork’s image is

dependent upon the marriage of scientifically

obtained data and subjective perception based

to a large extent on aesthetic understanding.

Having said that, it becomes obvious, that science

can be equally useful to art curators, since it can

be corrective to art historical knowledge, as it is

to conservators, for it validates certain treatments

that would otherwise be uncontrolled and/or

controversial.

The relationship between connoisseurship, con-

servation and conservation science can be deli-

cate. Unquestionably, conservation scientists play

a key role. They, by definition, are essentially con-

cerned with ‘hard facts’ while nuances of artistic

input are not their realm. Inevitably, even though

conservation scientists are accredited, on occa-

sion, with a definitive role (e.g. detection of fakes

and forgeries, identification of previous interven-

tions), their participation is subsidiary. Just like

curators and conservators, they too are involved

in the artwork, but only to a finite extent. While

scientists concentrate on the work’s physicality,

the results of their research are used by museum

experts, combined with other pieces of informa-

tion and applied to such aspects of the work that

go far beyond its corporeal nature. Besides, the

rest of the object ‘…is the prerogative of the art

historian’s considerations and the restorer’s ma-

nipulations’ [10, p. 446]. All these domains work

on a stage at which the artefact assumes its muse-

ological context and enters the realm of public

viewing. While conservators aim at establishing

the relationship between substance and process,

and an artist’s visual idiom, art historians – based

initially on what is seen – consider their arguments

within a certain socio-cultural context and scien-

tists, by analytically studying the nature of ma-

terials, can set up historical perspective anew.

Each viewpoint shapes a different statement, which

attempts to determine the visual and intellectual

process of artistic endeavour to the extent that

35e-conservation

SCIENCE AND RESTORATION AT THE SERVICE OF INTERPRETATION

it affects the meaning of the work. Getting insights

into the experience of producing art is totally dif-

ferent from the messages of the finished work.

Yet, despite the fact that the experience of creat-

ing art differs from the completed work, the two

should enlighten each other; however, the cross-

section of a paint sample, for instance, may provide

information on the technical aspects of creation,

but it is not really illuminating in terms of the

initial idea the artwork has emerged from or the

artist’s state of mind before and during the cre-

ative process. Obtaining information and putting

this information in context are different mecha-

nisms. In a way, science deconstructs the creative

process of art and by doing so it fails to capture

the intangible aspect of an otherwise quite phys-

ical manipulation of concrete materials and tech-

niques. The interaction of science with theory en-

ables the understanding of relationships and main-

ly ‘…that of reason and intuition …deliberation

and spontaneity’ [11]. A paint cross-section can

thus be meaningful if the experience of viewing

and the experience of creating art are jointly taken

in, hence artistic intent and vision, as these con-

nect to physicality are deciphered. In this sense,

it appears that the role of the conservator is that

of an intermediary between the art historian/cu-

rator and the conservation scientist who eventu-

ally addresses art historical questions rather than

conservation and restoration issues. Conservation

science, thus adds to connoisseurship, which is

the underpinning of curatorship. In the past, con-

noisseurship was based principally on the prom-

inence of seeing. Traditional connoisseur curators

performed mainly interpretation by description;

thus they recounted their experience of a work and

by doing so they appraised it and suggested ways

of reading it [12]. Nowadays, connoisseurship re-

lies, apart from secondary sources, on science and

physical testing, and if scientific analysis results

match visual evidence, then curators can claim

to have conducted sustainable interpretations.

Restoration as a Viewing Process and Artistic Empathy

The dominant role of science in contemporary

conservation practice results from science’s pur-

suit for objectivity. After centuries of arbitrariness,

personal preferences and partiality, science offers

rational thought and precludes assumptions in

favour of pure facts. Nevertheless conservation

has always had an artistic dimension, and this

fixation with factual evidence may deprive the

art conservator of the painterly attitude of deal-

ing with objects. Even though restoration has been

repeatedly accused in the past for precisely this

sort of approach (mainly for excessive interven-

tion/retouching, which resulted in beautification

and adaptation to current trends, fashions and

personal tastes), in order to empathize with the

artists, conservators ought to act like them, but

not in the unjustified way this was done in the

past. Today, conservators have all the scientific

equipment and technology necessary to work with

precision in a systematic, evidence-based manner,

which nonetheless might hold them back from

assuming their artistic role.

Since scientific conservation involves materials

– not ideas – it considers the world from the point

of view of hard material sciences [13]. Neverthe-

less, works of art are conveyors of multiple mean-

ings, ideas, intentions, dreams and aspirations;

they are products of their epoch and amalgama-

tions of social, political, cultural, economic and

personal circumstances in a given place, at a given

time, and as such, their conservation and restor-

ation incorporate the preservation and visual in-

terpretation of intangible cultural qualities such

as memory, symbolism, identity, intention, vision

as well as a series of related information. If con-

servation is deprived of its artistic dimension, it

is then reduced to a factual and material discipline.

If the work of art is seen holistically, as a material

DIMITRIOS DOUMAS

36 e-conservation

entity and an envisioned creation, then analytical

work is presumed just as much as artistic empathy

is justified. Precisely as the artist has to overcome

the fear of counterbalancing the dialectic during

the creative process between reality and fiction

[14], respectively, the conservator must empathize

with the painter and see the artwork as a created

readable visual fiction. If this is achieved then the

work will have been considered first as a completed

image – despite its losses and deterioration - and

as the result of a certain intention. Evidently, and

as stated earlier, it might be hard for conservators

to see a work of art disengaged from what they

have been trained to look at and care for – namely

damage, wear and distortion. Nonetheless, it is

important to appreciate the work for what it stands

for first and then regard it as a subject of critical

enquiry and physical intervention.

Conservators can sometimes impose significant

change in the way(s) the past is construed and

may be reshaped due to the visual and aesthetic

impact that their actions have on objects. In this

sense, conservators introduce narratives of a work’s

meaning, aging, decay, intervention, adaptation

and reinterpretation [15]. In so doing, they take

on an academic role - which for years was hardly

ever acknowledged since the mighty curator was

considered the one and only expert - and that is

to edit the visible history of artworks and then

decide which aspects to reveal or reconstruct and

which to hide or play down. Works of art, just like

any other functional object, are documents of the

reality (or realities) they have emerged from. At

the same time, they convey an indefinite quality,

a sort of ‘otherness’ that consists mainly in the

particularity of artists and their standpoint to-

wards the world. Conservation and particularly

restoration, therefore, have to maintain a good

balance between the documentary information

works of art provide, which fixes their historical

value, and their aesthetic dimension. Conservators

are essentially accountable for what museum visitors

physically see in artworks. The role of connoisseur

curators and scientists in this burden- some respon-

sibility is vital, as they advise on originality and in-

tention, and since objective analyses cannot be de-

finitive in terms of aesthetics, a choice eventually

is made on what the eye tells about style and hand.

Conclusions

Visual appreciation therefore proves vital; look-

ing precedes seeing and as a going-back-to-basics

process it is rather the starting point that enables

museum professionals to make allowance for any

intellectual, technical and scientific enquiry. Such

integration of personal and impersonal viewpoints

is a necessary condition for understanding artistic

intentions. In so doing, and before any treatment

is undertaken, conservators pose serious ques-

tions that involve issues like what is it that they

should preserve and restore, how do they justify

their choices to place emphasis on certain aspects

of the work while undermining others, and most

importantly, whom do they treat objects for.

Assuming that the realm of conservation and res-

toration is not about preserving material and struc-

ture only, and that the exhibition of artworks is

not circumscribed into putting them on mere dis-

play, conservators face the challenge to perceive

the object not only as it is now, but also as it was;

to discern the many different ways it has changed

and envision the possible ways it might continue

to change. Bearing in mind that conservators act

as liaison between the objects and the public, the

perception of an artwork’s meaning is dependent

upon the treatment it has undergone. To this end,

visual interpretation and presentation are funda-

mental - a fact which denotes the significance of

restoration as a museological act whose aesthetic

implications may impinge on and, in effect, shape

public perception of art.

37e-conservation

SCIENCE AND RESTORATION AT THE SERVICE OF INTERPRETATION

Note

Much of the discussion articulated in this article

is based on my doctoral thesis ‘Curatorship and

Conservation: A Theoretical Enquiry into the Scope

of Each Realm, their Interaction and the Conse-

quences for the Perception of Works of Art’, Uni-

versity of Lincoln, Lincoln UK, 2008.

References

[1] J.R. Galser and A. Zenetou, Museums: A Place to Work – Planning Museum Careers, Routledge, London/New York, 1996

[2] M. Shanks and I. Hodder, ‘Processual, post- processual and interpretive archaeologies’ in S. Knell (ed.), Museums in the Material World, Routledge, London/New York, 2007

[3] N. Davey, “The hermeneutics of seeing”, in I. Heywood and B. Sandywell (eds.), Inter- preting Material Culture: Exploration in the Hermeneutics of the Visual, Routledge, London/New York, 1999

[4] M. Carter and A. Geczy, Re-Framing Art, Berg Publishers, Oxford, 2006

[5] E. Panofsky, “The history of art as a humanistic discipline”, in S.N. Price, K.M. Talley and A. Melucco Vaccaro (eds.), Historical and Philo- sophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, The Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, 1996

[6] E. S. Skaug, “Cleaning controversies and “the two cultures”: steps towards professional autonomy”, in J. Bridgland (ed.), 11th Trien- nial Meeting, Edinburgh 1-6 September 1996, Preprints, Vol. I, ICOM-CC/James & James, London, 1996

[7] H. Schinzel, Touching Vision – Essays on

Restoration Theory and the Perception of

Art, Ghent University/VUB Brussels University,

Brussels, 2004

[8] B. Appelbaum, Conservation Treatment Meth- odology, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 2007

[9] M. E. Wiseman, A Closer Look: Deceptions and Discoveries, National Gallery Company Ltd., London, 2010

[10] G. Urbani, “The science and art of conserva- tion of cultural property”, in S.N. Price, K.M. Talley and A. Melucco Vaccaro (eds.), Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, The Getty Conservation In- stitute, Los Angeles, 1996

[11] C. Mancusi-Ungaro, “Material and method in modern art”, in J. Hill-Stoner (ed.), Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, The Arthur Sackler Colloquium, March 19-21, 2003, The National Academies Press, Washington D.C., 2005, pp. 152-161

[12] D. Carrier, ‘”In praise of connoisseurship”, in S. Knell (ed.), Museums in the Material World, Routledge, London/New York, 2007

[13] S. Muñoz-Viñas, Contemporary Theory of Conservation, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 2005

[14] L. Schneider-Adams, Exploring Art, Laurence King Publishing, London, 2002

[15] D. Bomford, “The conservator as narrator: changed perspectives in the conservation of paintings”, in M. Leonard (ed.), Personal Viewpoints: Thoughts about Paintings Conser- vation, The Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, 2003

38 e-conservation

DIMITRIOS DOUMAS

FREE CONSERVATION

RESOURCES

Art Conservation Researchconservationresearch.blogspot.com

SCIENCE AND RESTORATION AT THE SERVICE OF INTERPRETATION

39e-conservation

DIMITRIOS DOUMASPaintings Conservator Contact: [email protected]

Dimitrios Doumas has been working as a paintings

conservator at the Benaki Museum Conservation

Department, Athens since 2001.

He was conferred with the Doctor of Philosophy

award in 2010 at the University of Lincoln, UK.

His thesis titled ‘Curatorship and Conservation:

A Theoretical Enquiry into the Scope of Each Realm,

their Interaction and the Consequences for the Per-

ception of Works of Art’ explores the role of art con-

servators within the wider function of the art

museum/gallery and particularly their relation-

ship with curators.

He received his Master of Arts in the ‘Conservation

of Historic Objects’ from De Montfort University,

UK in 2000 after completing his undergraduate

studies in ‘Conservation and Restoration’ at the

same university in 1999.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

e-conservation magazine is open to submission

of articles on a wide range of relevant topics

for the cultural heritage sector.

Next deadlines for article submission are:

for Issue 18, February 2011 – submissions

due 1st January 2011

for Issue 19, April 2011 – submissions due

1st March 2011

Nevertheless, you can always submit your

manuscript when it is ready. Between the

receival of the manuscript until the final

publication may pass up to 3 months

according with:

- the number of the manuscripts on hold,

submitted earlier by other authors

- the release date of the upcoming issue

- the pre-allocated space in the magazine

to each section

Please check our publication guidelines

for more information.

e-conservation magazine offers the possibility to publish bilingual articles in the html version. Articles inEnglish may also be published in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian, at authors request.

AN EXTENSIVE STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF THE ENZYME α-AMYLASE

USED IN TEXTILE CONSERVATION on Silk Fibers Dyed with Safflower

and Madder Dye

By Harby E. Ahmed

Natural adhesives were used to fix archeological textiles onto textile, paper or wood

supports. However, starch adhesives may be harmful on ageing. This paper describes the

use of α-amylase enzyme to remove adhesives from silk dyed fabrics. Silk fabrics were

subjected to accelerated ageing. Natural dyes used in this study were safflower, madder

and their mixture as found in real objects. The effect of enzyme concentrations and the

treatment time were studied with respect to the mechanical behavior and color changes.

The study proved that the use of enzymes in adhesive removal showed good results in a

short treatment when compared to conventional methods.

Introduction

Adhesives are used in textile conservation to hold

deteriorated and friable fibers together in order

to improve physical strength of fibers or textiles.

With ageing, natural adhesives, such as starch,

become hard, rigid and even brittle causing me-

chanical damage to textiles. Furthermore, under

ageing conditions the pH of adhesives may become

acidic, to the degree that causes acid hydrolysis

of fibers in humid conditions [1, 2].

The use of enzymes in conservation is an alterna-

tive when all other options have been exhausted

or cannot be used. Enzyme treatments will be of

great advantage if the layers of adhesive are very

thick or resistant avoiding, thus, lengthy humidi-

fication or bathing periods. The enzyme α-amyl-

ase is used in textile conservation to hydrolyze

starch adhesives, cleaving at random internal α-

1,4 glycosidic bonds in both amylose and amylo-

pectin, showing little or no activity on α-1,6 bonds.

This enzyme degrades starch into small polymeric

fragments, known as dextrins and maltose, disac-

charides which contain two glucose residues [3-6].

Method and materials

- α-amylase enzyme from Aspergillus Oryzae, type

X-A, code A6211 (Sigma). One unit will liberate 1

mg of maltose from starch in 3 minutes. Ph= 6.9

at 20 ºC;

- Starch from Riedel-de Haen. AG, Seelze, Han-

nover, code 18727;

- Greek silk fabrics supplied by Tsiakiris Co., Soufli;

- Natural dyes such as madder and safflower dye;

- Mordents such as Al2(NH4)2(SO4)4.24H2O (Fluka).

Samples Preparation

The exhaustion method was used to prepare the

dyeings using a liquor ratio (LR) of 1:20 (1 gm of

fabric per 20 ml of bath). In order to help the dye

to adhere to the fabric, a mordant (alum) was ad-

ded as concentrated solution (50 g/l) to give a

final dye bath concentration of 2.5 g/L or 5 g/L.

Consequently, the dyeings were washed three

times in cold water (5 minutes, room temperature

(25 ºC), LR 1:20.) to remove the unfixed dyestuff

[7, 8].

The starch adhesive was applied on the samples

as a solution which was absorbed by the fibers

and solidified. Accelerated ageing was performed

because it was important to simulate the charac-

teristics and condition of a historical textile. There-

fore, accelerated thermal ageing was done at a

temperature of 120 ºC for different time periods

of 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 days.

Enzymatic treatment

After ageing, the samples that were coated with

starch were cut up into small pieces (2x2 cm) and

were put in test tubes. Then, 5 ml of enzyme solu-

tion (α-amylase in sodium phosphate buffer, pH

= 6.9) was added to each tube and was incubated

at different time intervals (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5

and 3.0 h) at room temperature (25 ºC) and at

40 ºC. The enzyme concentration varied (1, 10,

15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 U/ml) and was

added to each fabric sample with and without

stirring.

Testing and Analysis

Morphological study

The surface morphology of the untreated samples

was compared to the enzymatically treated fabrics

using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Quan-

ta 200 ESEM FEG from FEI [9].

42 e-conservation

HARBY E. AHMED

Color Measurement

The CIE-Lab values of the color changes were meas-

ured using a double beam Optimatch spectropho-

tometer (Datacolor Spectraflash SF 450, UK)

(Table 1).

Mechanical properties

Mechanical parameters such as tensile strength

and elongation were measured according to the

ASTM D5035 method in the warp and weft direc-

tions. Silk fabric was cut into strip 30 cm length

and 5 cm width. Five samples per treatment set

were tested and the breaking load averaged for

each sample [10].

X-ray diffraction analysis

X-ray diffraction measurements of enzymatically

treated and untreated samples were carried out

with a SIEMENS X-Ray Diffractometer – D 5000,

given 40 kV Cu Ka, radiation of 30 mA. The diffrac-

tograms were recorded over 2θ = 50 to 300 con-

tinuously at a scan rate of 20/min. Crystalline in-

dex (crystalline to amorphous ratio) can be cal-

culated according to Segal [11].

Fourier transform infrared spectral analysis (FTIR)

The infrared absorption spectra of the untreated

and treated samples were measured in the range

500–4000 cm-1 with a resolution of 4 cm-1 at room

temperature with a Bruker FTIR Tensor 27 spectro-

meter using KBr pellets [12].

Results and discussionEffectiveness of amylase on starch adhesive paste removal

The surface of the fibers after the application of

the adhesive was investigated using a Scanning

43e-conservation

Samples Thread / cm Mechanical parameter Weight g/m2

Plain weave

Warp Weft T.ST Eb (mm)

Silk - Raw 32 25 27.961 15.852

25.4 Plain 1/1

Silk – S. + M. - original

32 25 30.372 16.531

Silk – S. - original

32 25 25.959 12.821

Silk – M. - original

32 25 25.925 12.562

Color Coordinates

L* a* b* C* h X

UncoloredSilk

89.87 0.574 6.211 6.214 84.8 72.34

Silk – S. - Alum

80.84 0.839 62.68 62.68 89.24 55.50

Silk – M.- Alum

61.40 24.44 25.69 35.46 46.42 34.82

Silk – S. + M. - Alum

72.90 11.32 41.14 42.67 74.62 46.57

Y Z

76.02 73.53

58.19 15.22

29.71 16.79

45.01 21.32

Table 1. Structure of silk fabrics used in the experimental part. Legend: S. = Safflower; M. = Madder.

THE EFFECT OF α-AMYLASE ENZYME IN TEXTILE CONSERVATION

Electron Microscope (SEM) and compared to the

surface of the samples after the application of

the enzyme. Figures 1 and 2 show samples before

and after the enzyme treatment, where the sur-

face difference can be noticed. The analysis of the

conditions affecting the performance of the en-

zyme allowed to observe that its efficiency in re-

moving a higher amount of hardened starch in-

creases directly with its concentration in the

treatment solution. As the enzyme concentration

increases, the number of successful collisions

also increases showing that the reaction rate is

directly proportional to the enzyme concentration.

Thus, the higher the enzyme concentration, the

faster the reaction takes place.

The effect of time was also analyzed. It was ob-

served that there is a direct proportional relation-

ship between the length of the treatment and the

higher efficiency of the enzyme to hydrolyze har-

dened starch. It was also noticed that applying

the enzyme at 40 ºC resulted in a higher efficiency

than applying it at 25 ºC. The enzymatic reaction

is temperature dependent as it can be accelerated

increasing the temperature. However, if the tem-

perature is too high, the enzyme may be denatured.

Every enzyme has an optimal temperature under

which it is the most efficient. It has also been

observed that aged starch coated fibers require a

harder process of removing the starch in the same

conditions in which the enzyme works. Longer

contact time between starch adhesive paste and

fibers leads to a high degree of polymerization

and covalent bonding of the starch with the fibers.

In other words, upon ageing chemical changes

take place in the starch adhesive paste, sometimes

resulting in chemical bond formation between the

fiber substrates and the starch adhesive paste.

44 e-conservation

Figure 1.Microphotographs of silk fibers. Sample A shows a silk fiber coated with starch at 40% after ther-mal ageing at 120 0C for 12 days. The ageing in-duced the starch to shrunk, crack and become rigid and brittle. Samples B, C and D show silk fibers, also coated and aged as sample A, after the en-zyme application done at concentrations of 5, 20 and 75 U/ml, respect-ively. The treatment was performed at 40 0C for 3 h with stirring.

HARBY E. AHMED

A

C

B

D

45e-conservation

Figure 2. Photographs of silk fibers. Figures A, B and C show silk samples dyed with safflower, madder and a mixture of safflower and madder respectively, coated with 40% starch concentration after thermal ageing at 120 0C for 12 days. The ageing induced the starch to shrunk, crack and become rigid and brittle. Figures D and E show stereoscope images of silk samples coated with 40% starch concentration after thermal ageing at 120 0C for 12 days. Sample F shows a stereoscope image of silk fibers, coated and aged after the enzyme application at concentration 75 U/ml. The treatment was done at 40 0C for 3 h with stirring.

A

C

B

D

E F

THE EFFECT OF α-AMYLASE ENZYME IN TEXTILE CONSERVATION

On the other hand, SEM microphotographs show

that the use of α-amylase resulted in extensive

cleaning of the fiber surfaces, with high effect-

iveness for small capillaries and the center of

the yarn bundle.

Furthermore, the samples weight was compared

before and after the treatment and a direct correl-

ation between the enzyme concentration and the

time of enzymatic treatment with the percentage

of weight loss was observed, as shown in figure 3.

Effect of α-amylase treatment conditions on the crystallinity

X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of untreated and

treated samples is presented in two ways.

The first way presents the percentage of the crys-

tallinity index of the untreated samples and of those

treated by enzyme at different concentrations.

There is a slight increase in the crystallinity index

of the silk after enzymatic treatment as presented

in Table 2.

The second way is the Wide Angle X-ray (WAXS) dif-

fractograms of the silk samples (Figure 4) that show

a slight difference between the treated and the

untreated fabrics due to the action of α-amylase.

It can be seen that the treated silk shows a slight

increase in the peak intensity (counts) in both the

amorphous and crystalline regions. This suggests

that the treatment using amylase enzyme does

not affect particularly the size and shape of crys-

tallites of the silk samples. Furthermore, the ratio

of the crystalline and amorphous fractions barely

changed, thus the enzymatic treatment did not

result in considerable decrystallization of the silk.

Changes in crystallinity by amylase treatments

may be indicated by the tensile properties of the

samples. Therefore, there were no drastic changes

on the size and shape of crystallites of the samples.

Effect of α-amylase treatment conditions on the functional groups

The spectra obtained for the control sample and

the treated samples (silk dyed with madder, saf-

46 e-conservation

Figure 3. The figures shows a decrease of the starch weight after buffer or enzyme application performed at concentration of 40 U/ml (A) and 75 U/ml (B) for silk fabric coated by 20% starch, at 120 ºC for 1 day to 12 days. Both treatments were done at 40 ºC for 0.5h to 3.0h with stirring.

HARBY E. AHMED

A B

silk to different concentration of amylase enzyme.

Generally, there are no drastic changes in the

FTIR spectra among the treated and untreated

samples. This can be explained by the absence of

new chemical groups and the fact that none of

the existing groups disappeared. These results

show that the enzymatic treatment caused no

significant damage to the fibers (Figure 5).

flower and mixture of madder and safflower dye)

treated by α-amylase enzyme in different con-

centrations (10, 20, 30, 50 and 75 U/ml) at dif-

ferent duration (1 and 3h) are reproduced in

Table 3.

FTIR did not detect changes between the three

tested samples indicating the good stability of

47e-conservation

Figure 4. Wide Angle X-ray (WAXS) diffractogram of silk after enzyme application performed at concentrations of 25, 50 and 75 U/ml for 1 and 3 hours.

Table 2. Crystalline Index of treated silk fabrics.

Samples Crystalline area Amorphous area Crystallinity index(%)2θ Counts 2θ Counts

72.70Silk – Raw 20.440 o 192 12.960 o

56.2 72.03Silk – amylase - 25 U-1 h 20.58 o 201 12.491 o

61.0 71.48Silk – amylase - 25 U-3 h 20.713 o 216 13.056 o

56.1 71.80Silk – amylase - 50 U-1 h 20.630 o 199 13.836 o

56.6 72.36Silk – amylase - 50 U-3 h 20.481 o 203 12.890 o

66.3 71.78Silk – amylase - 75 U-1 h 20.531 o 235 13.117 o

Silk – amylase - 75 U-3 h 20.605 o 233 13.365 o 63.3 72.83

52.4

THE EFFECT OF α-AMYLASE ENZYME IN TEXTILE CONSERVATION

HARBY E. AHMED

Table 3. Functional groups of dyed silk fabric after enzyme treatment and their respective wavenumbers as identified by FTIR.

Silk + S. + M. (cm-1)

Silk + S. (cm-1)

Silk + M.(cm-1)

Functional Groups

3279 3279 3279 Broad band due to bonded O-H stretching - in case of silk, this band overlapped N-H stretching

2924 2924 2924 C-H stretching of saturated aliphatic groups

2162 2162 2162 Overtones or combination bands

1705 1705 1705 C=O stretching of the dye

1644 1644 1644 C=C stretching of the dye

1619 1619 1619 C=O stretching (amide I)

1514 1514 1514 C-N stretching + N-H bending (amide II)

1443 1443 1443 C-H bending (amide III) overlapped O-H bending

123011671068998

123011671068998

123011671068998

C-O stretching of various hydroxyl groups

611 611 611 C-H out of plane

Legend: S. = Safflower; M. = Madder.

A

BFigure 5.FTIR spectra of untreated and treated silk. Figure A compares an untreated silk sample with a sample of silk dyed with madder after α-amylase treatment at different concentrations for 1 h. Figure B compares an untreated silk sample with a sample of silk dyed with safflower after α-amylase treatment at dif-ferent concentrations for 1 h.

48 e-conservation

Effect of α-amylase on samples color

Table 4 presents the color changes of colored silk

dyed with madder dye, safflower dye and a mix-

ture of madder and safflower using alum as mord-

ant after amylase treatment with different enzyme

concentrations for different periods of time.

The results show that the silk dyed with madder

presents a small color difference (ΔE) between

1.030 and 1.932. There is a slight decrease in

brightness (ΔL*) and in color chromaticity (ΔC*).

On the other hand, we can see a slight increase in

color hue (h) of silk dyed with madder.

Concerning the color changes of the colored silk

49e-conservation

THE EFFECT OF α-AMYLASE ENZYME IN TEXTILE CONSERVATION

Silk + M. Δ E Δ L Δ C Δ H Observations

10 U – 1 h 1.030 -0.520 -0.591 -2.163 Darker, less red, less yellow

10 U – 3 h 1.173 -0.256 -0.904 -0.141 Darker, less red, less yellow

20 U – 1 h 1.151 -0.273 -0.607 -0.350 Darker, less red, less yellow

20 U – 3 h 1.173 -0.195 -0.617 -0.954 Darker, less red, less yellow

30 U – 1 h 1.216 -0.541 -0.740 -1.648 Darker, less red, less yellow

30 U – 3 h 1.431 -0.010 -0.627 -1.508 Darker, less red, less yellow

40 U – 1 h 1.442 -0.113 -0.916 -0.124 Darker, less red, less yellow

40 U – 3 h 1.932 -0.188 -0.787 -0.464 Darker, less red, less yellow

Silk + S. Δ E Δ L Δ C Δ H Observations

10 U – 1 h 1.251 0.611 -0.534 0.906 Lighter, less red, less yellow

10 U – 3 h 1.546 0.987 -1.732 1.423 Lighter, less red, less yellow

20 U – 1 h 1.179 0.623 -0.425 0.906 Lighter, less red, less yellow

20 U – 3 h 1.445 0.699 -0.408 1.197 Lighter, less red, less yellow

30 U – 1 h 1.544 0.442 -0.271 0.601 Lighter, less red, less yellow

30 U – 3 h 1.714 0.010 -0.627 1.508 Lighter, less red, less yellow

40 U – 1 h 1.574 0.746 -0.508 0.855 Lighter, less red, less yellow

40 U – 3 h 1.932 0.188 -0.787 0.464 Lighter, less red, less yellow

Silk + M. + S. Δ E Δ L Δ C Δ H Observations

10 U – 1 h 0.984 0.386 0.259 -0.388 Lighter, less red-yellow

10 U – 3 h 1.470 0.961 0.071 1.331 Lighter, less red-yellow

20 U – 1 h 1.583 0.285 0.437 0.259 Lighter, less red-yellow

20 U – 3 h 1.299 0.106 0.796 1.021 Lighter, less red-yellow

30 U – 1 h 1.552 0.788 0.632 2.012 Lighter, less red-yellow

30 U – 3 h 1.785 0.240 0.453 1.287 Lighter, less red-yellow

40 U – 1 h 1.493 0.465 1.406 -0.193 Lighter, less red-yellow

40 U – 3 h 2.006 0.013 0.521 -0.075 Less red-yellow

Table 4. Effect of α-amylase concentration on the brightness (L), the hue (h), and the color chromaticity (C) of silk dyed with madder mordanted with alum. Legend: S. = Safflower; M. = Madder.

dyed with safflower dye, the samples show a color

difference (ΔE) between 1.216 and 2.351. There is

a slight increase in the brightness (ΔL*), a slight

decrease in color chromaticity (ΔC*), and a slight

decrease in the color hue (h) of silk dyed with saf-

flower.

Table 4 also presents the color changes of colored

silk dyed with mixture from safflower and madder

dye. The results show that all these samples have

color difference (ΔE) between 0.984 and 2.002

and a slight brightness (ΔL*) decrease. All of the

treated samples had a color change of about 1.5,

which is not easily detected by the human eye.

This indicates that there are no drastic changes

in the color shades or the hues of dyed silk fibers.

Effect of α-amylase on mechanical parameters of the samples

Tensile strength and elongation of untreated and

treated silk fabric samples are presented in Table

5. The treated silk samples show only a slight im-

provement in the elongation properties over the

untreated samples, with an increase in enzyme

concentration and enzymatic treatment time.

This shows that there are no drastic changes in

the mechanical parameters of the dyed silk fibers.

Conclusions

α-amylase is considered an effective enzyme for

the removal of starch adhesive paste even at rel-

atively low temperatures (room temperature).

According to the results of this study, α-amylase

causes first an improvement in the mechanical

parameters (Tensile Strength, Elongation and

Crystallinity index) of silk fabrics and a slight

change in the optical parameters of silk dyed with

Madder, safflower dye or mixture of mordanted

with alum. Furthermore, the fact that no drastic

changes were recorded in the color shades or the

hues as well as in the brightness values and the

mechanical parameters of the samples proves

the suitability of α-amylase to remove the starch

adhesive from archeological silk fabrics having

either madder or safflower dye.

50 e-conservation

Table 5. The mechanical parameters of cotton samples after amylase treatment with different enzyme concentration 25, 50, 750 U at 40 ºC for different time periods - 1.0 h and 3.0 h. Legend: T.ST = Tensile strength; Eb= Elongation.

War

p di

rect

ion

Samples T. St. (kg force) Eb (mm)

Silk - Raw 27.967 15.852

Silk - amylase - 25 U - 1 h 27.881 15.901

Silk - amylase - 25 U - 3 h 28.005 16.301

Silk - amylase - 50 U - 1 h 28.537 16.247

Silk - amylase- 50 U - 3 h 28.423 16.769

Silk - amylase- 75 U - 1 h 28.971 17.113

Silk - amylase- 75 U - 3 h 29.318 17.023

HARBY E. AHMED

Acknowledgments

This paper was supported by the 2-years project

“New Strategies for Conservation of Ancient Egyp-

tian Textiles with the Application on Some Selec-

ted Textile Objects" at the Museum of the Faculty

of Archaeology, Cairo University, and funded by

STDF (Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific

Research, Egypt).

51e-conservation

References

[1] A. Tímár-Balázsy and D. Eastop, Chemical

Principles of Textile Conservation, Butterworth-

Heinemann, 1998

[2] S. Landi, The Textile Conservator’s Manual,

Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998

[3] I. Schwarz, "2. A Pre-packaged α-Amylase

Poulticing System: Albertina-Kompresse",

The Book and Paper Group Annual 19, 2000,

URL (accessed 1st September 2010)

[4] A. Blüher, I. Schwarz, G. Banik, G. Römer,

and E. Thobois, "The Albertina compress: a

ready-to-use enzyme compress for removing

starch paste", Restauro 105 (3), 1999

[5] S. Decoux, “Enzyme used for Adhesive

Removal in Paper Conservation: a Literature

review”, Journal of the Society of Archivists

23(2), 2002, pp. 187-195

[6] P. C. DeSantis, “Some Observations on the

use of Enzymes in Paper Conservation”,

Journal of the American Institute for Conser-

vation 23(1), 1983, pp. 7-27, URL (accessed

1st September 2010)

[7] H. Schweppe, Practical hints on dyeing with

natural dyes : production of comparative

dyeings for the identification of dyes on

historic materials, Conservation Analytical

Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, 1986,

URL (accessed 1st September 2010)

[8] H. E. Ahmed , Y. Zidan and K. El-Nagar, “Studies

on dyeing with cochineal and ageing of silk

dyed fabric”, in R. Janaway and P. Wyeth (eds.),

Scientific Analysis of Ancient and Historic Tex-

tiles, Archetype Publications,2005, pp. 246-250

[9] J. Batcheller, "Optical and scanning electron

microscopy techniques for the identification

of hair fibres from Roman-Egyptian textiles",

in R. Janaway and P. Wyeth (eds.), Scientific

Analysis of Ancient and Historic Textiles,

Archetype Publications, 2005, pp. 51-57

[10] P. G. Tortora, and R. S. Merkel, Fairchild's

Dictionary of Textiles, Fairchild Publications,

7th Edition, 2007

[11] L. Segal, J.J. Greely, A.E. Martin Jr., and C.M.

Conrad, “An Empirical Method for Estimating

the Degree of Crystallinity of Native Cellulose

Using the X-Ray Diffractometer”, Textile Re-

search Journal 29(10), 1959, pp. 786–794,

doi: 10.1177/004051755902901003

[12] M. Baker, D. van der Reyden, and N. Ravenel,

"FTIR Analysis of Coated Papers", The Book

and Paper Group Annual 8, 1989, URL

(accessed 1st September 2010)

HARBY E. AHMEDConservator-restorerContact: [email protected]

Harby E. Ahmed is a conservator-restorer spe-

cialised in textiles. He started his training at the

Conservation and Restoration Institute, in Kina,

Egypt where he obtained a Diploma degree in

1993. He later obtained a Bachelor and Master

degrees in Conservation and Restoration in 1997

and 2002, respectively, at the Cairo University,

Egypt and a PhD on the use of enzymes for con-

servation of textiles from the Enzyme Biotechno-

logy Department of the School of Chemical En-

gineering from the National Technical University

of Athens, Greece in 2010. At the present he is a

lecturer of Textiles Conservation at the Conserva-

tion Department of the Faculty of Archaeology,

Cairo University.

THE EFFECT OF α-AMYLASE ENZYME IN TEXTILE CONSERVATION

case

stu

dy

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF A RARE LARGE PERSIAN CARPET

By Omar Abdel-Kareem

This study describes the conservation and restoration of a large carpet belonging to the Cairo University.

The carpet was identified as Persian, being made in the city of Isfahan between 1850 and 1900 A.D. The

initial examination indicated that the carpet was very soiled, with stains and extensive losses. These

problems were thoroughly investigated before the treatment methodology was implemented. This study

explores an innovative restoration technique for carpets, which consists in the replacement of the missing

areas by using previously prepared pieces identical to the original but produced by a different

technique and fixed in place by stitching. This method is reversible and in agreement with conservation

ethics. After conservation, the carpet was prepared for display by using a Velcro strapping system.

e-conservation 53

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF A RARE LARGE PERSIAN CARPET

Introduction

Among the textile arts, carpets hold a special

status [1]. Their deterioration leads to both a loss

on the origin and history of the object and to the

weakening of the carpet itself [2]. Historical car-

pets, representing one of the most artistic treas-

ures, should be preserved for future generations

[3]. Most of the times, carpets need conservation

and restoration treatment before exhibition. There

is a tendency for conservators to draw a distinct

line between the restoration and the conserva-

tion treatment. This is especially true in the area

of carpets, since parallel services exist for their

restoration and conservation [4]. Both these in-

volve intervention: a physical modification of the

carpet with the intention of preserving or enhan-

cing it physically and/or visually. In neither case

the original state of the carpet can be recreated.

Conservation is the treatment that places a carpet

in serviceable condition for handling, study, and

display, recognizing that an active intervention

should not detract from the original components

and visual aesthetics of the piece. Restoration is

the treatment that places a carpet in serviceable

condition primarily for its intended utilitarian use,

striving to integrate the restoration with the ori-

ginal visual aesthetics as unobtrusively as possible

[5]. Conservation aims to maintain the physical

and visual integrity of the object while removing

and adding the minimum material. Restoration

aims to recreate the visual and physical appear-

ance of the carpet as it is believed to have looked

originally. This also raises the interesting ques-

tion of the distinction between a restored carpet

and a fake. This depends on the actual treatment

carried out, or on the way in which the treated

piece is presented to the public [6]. The most

common treatments of carpets include cleaning,

stabilization, exhibition and storage. This pro-

cess should begin with a complete examination

and documentation of the piece which usually in-

cludes the creation of photographic or video re-

cords [7]. Conservators have feared the use of

restoration techniques primarily as a reaction to

the treatments that compromised original arti-

facts in the attempt to compensate for losses. To

avoid this problem, textile conservators turned to

minimalism as a way of addressing loss [8]. Effect-

ive restoration can give a textile visual complete-

ness and physical strength, which can be particu-

larly successful for functional textiles, such as car-

pets and rugs.

The main aim of this study is the conservation and

restoration of a large rare Persian carpet belong-

ing to the Cairo University. The project aimed to

improve the long-term preservation of this car-

pet by making it safe and adequate for display.

Also, this project aimed to stabilize and improve

aesthetically the disfiguring losses of this carpet.

The procedure was to combine the skills with an

OMAR ABDEL-KAREEM

Figure 1. General view of the carpet before the intervention.

Figures 2 and 3. Persian inscriptions. Left: Reference to the provenance of the carpet, which was made in the city of Isfahan (actual Iran); Right: Reference to the name of the carpet maker: Raheme.

54 e-conservation

innovative technique to achieve aesthetic com-

pensation for losses in oriental carpets.

Description and condition

Historical Context

A large carpet belonging to the Cairo University

(Figure 1) had been used as permanent floor cov-

ering at the Ahmed Lotfy hall, the University main

hall. According to the design and decoration the

carpet is Persian, being made in the city of Isfa-

han (actual Iran) between 1850 and 1900 A.D.

The carpet contains Persian words, as shown in

Figures 2 and 3, meaning that it was a present

from Isfahan, and that it was made by “Raheme”.

Technical Notes

The dimensions of the carpet are 505 x 785 cm.

The warp and weft are made from cotton and the

weft is constructed by two threads run for every

row of knots. The type of knot is Persian (Senna,

or unsymmetrical knot). The number of knots is

36/cm2. The most present colors in the carpet are

red, dark blue, light blue, white to beige and light

gray-green.

Condition report

Initial examination indicated that the carpet

condition was as follows: the whole surface was

very dirty, stiff and hard due to solid, sandy dust

accumulated during the long term use as floor

covering in the university. There were also some

different additional stains on it and in some the

knots were rotten or had disappeared completely.

There were enormous holes in the carpet and the

selvedges and edges suffered from wear and ab-

rasion. Nevertheless, except for the aforemen-

tioned aspects, the carpet still appeared to be

quite strong and in fair condition.

Microscopic examination

Small parts of each fiber were analyzed with an

optical microscope. The results show that all the

yarns from different colors of the knots (pile) are

composed of wool (Figure 4). The fibers were gen-

erally in good condition although relatively dirty.

The yarns of both warp and weft, and edges are

made of cotton.

Figure 4. Surface morphology of a fiber of knotting thread at 400x magnification.

e-conservation 55

Scanning electron microscopy

The observation of the surface morphology of

fibers collected from some parts of the carpet by

scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed a

high degree of weakening and damage. The sur-

face shows losses of the scale structure. There is

a large amount of dust covering the surface, there-

fore the fibers appear opaque (Figure 5). This may

be due to the microbiological deterioration (rot)

of the wool fibers in these parts of the carpet.

Despite these damages, the results showed that

most of the carpet is in a fairly good condition.

X-ray diffraction analysis

The dust collected by vacuum cleaner from the car-

pet was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) spec-

troscopy. Spectra of the examined dust showed

that the mineral composition of the dirt contained

quartz, calcite, dolomite, albite and clay minerals.

This composition is similar to that of common nat-

ural mineral dust in Cairo (Figure 6).

Proposed treatment

In order to achieve the main aim of the project,

which was to improve the long-term preservation

of this carpet, the proposed treatment included

the following steps: cleaning and removal of the

stains, stabilization of the selvedges and edges,

stabilization of the weak and missing areas, com-

pensation for the loss areas to stabilize and aes-

thetically improve disfiguring losses on the carpet

and preparation for display.

Conservation treatment

Vacuum cleaning

The initial investigation showed that most of the

soiling is loose dust that can be cleaned using a

Figure 5. SEM microphotograph showing the surface morphology of a fiber of knotting thread.

Figure 6. EXRD spectra of the dust showed that the main com-ponents of the dirt were inorganic substances of mineral ori-gin, namely quartz, albite, calcite and dolomite.

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF A RARE LARGE PERSIAN CARPET

Figures 7 and 8. Surface cleaning of the carpet on both sides by vacuum cleaning.

56 e-conservation

vacuum cleaner. To clean the carpet, the floor sur-

face of a large room was covered with a sheet of

polyethylene on which the carpet was rolled out

face upwards. The suction head of the vacuum

cleaner was used from top to bottom of the carpet

to extract the loose dust from the surface. In the

areas where the carpet was too weak, the proce-

dure was carried out through a strong layer of poly-

ester net (Figure 7). After finishing the surface

cleaning, the carpet was covered with another

sheet of polyethylene and then it was rolled up

between the two sheets on a special PVC roller.

This way the carpet was turned on, the top sheet

of polyethylene was removed and the previous

procedures were repeated on the other side (Fig-

ure 8). These procedures were repeated several

times on both sides until no more dust could be

removed by the vacuum cleaner.

Stain removal

Tests for colorfastness were carried out before

any cleaning treatment. All the carpet dyes in

the stained areas proved to be resistant in con-

tact with the detergent (Synperonic N). Color-

fastness test were also carried out on the other

chemical that was used to remove the other

soils. The stains were removed using a solution

of 0.3 g/L of non-ionic detergent (Synperonic N)

in deionized water, which was then rinsed with

deionized water. Other stains were removed with

using ethyl alcohol and deionized water 1:1 v/v

(Figures 9 and 10).

Restoration

Stabilization techniques (lining)

There are various methods to treat carpet edges

that became weaken, damaged and abrasive [4,

9, 10]. However, the carried study confirms that

a complete lining attached to the back of the Figures 9 and 10. Example of a stained area before and after cleaning.

OMAR ABDEL-KAREEM

Figure 11 Example the lining of the edges with linen fabric. The complete lining of the carpet was performed in order to stabilize loose elements and to support the carpet during display periods.

e-conservation 57

carpet edges was the best method to stabilize

loose elements, and support the carpet during

display periods. The complete mounting will carry

the overall stress and strain of the carpet’s weight

while hanging on display. The procedure was ap-

plied as shown below.

Preparation of mounting fabric

Many steps were taken to clean and to remove

shrinked linen fabric before using it in the mount-

ing process. The fabric was washed and rinsed

three times in deionized water in a home-style

washing machine, using a pure, synthetic deter-

gent without optical brightener (Synperonic N).

The fabric was then partially dried in a home-style

tumble dryer on high heat for 20 minutes. Still

damp, the linen was laid flat on a glass table sur-

face. The warp and weft were gently aligned, sel-

vedges were cut and the linen was left to dry over-

night [11].

Attaching the mounting fabric

The carpet was laid out face down on a clean, flat

surface. The carpet was flattened carefully, without

any folding. Each one of the edges was backed

completely with a sheet of linen fabric prepared

previously (with appropriate area). The backing

mounting fabric was attached to the carpet using

curved needles as they lie flat on work surface

without tension. The linen fabric was sewn to the

carpet overlapping the vertical rows of stitches

(Figure 11). All stitches were done using needle

and cotton threads. Different types of stitches

were used in this work: herringbone stitches were

done around the top and bottom edges, over-sew-

ing was used to fix the selvages, and running

stitches were used to join the linen fabric with

the carpet. The fringe was also stitched to a linen

backing to keep it aligned. The damaged areas

were stitched using couching stitches and each

fringe thread was fixed with over-casting stitches.

The edges of split areas were mounted and stitched

onto new linen patches using herringbone stitches

(Figures 12-15).

Compensation of the loss areas

There are different methods to compensate loss

areas [4, 7, 8, 12, 13]. These can be classified into

Figures 12 and 13. An area with lacuna before and after intervention.

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF A RARE LARGE PERSIAN CARPET

Figures 14 and 15. An area with lacuna before and after intervention.

58 e-conservation

Figures 16 and 17. Compensation the loss areas. Example of a lacuna in the carpet (left), and designing process of the missing part in order to match the original one (right).

six repair techniques [14]: reknotting with the

insertion of a partial or complete new foundation;

embroidery techniques; inserting a carpet patch

cut from another carpet; patching with fabric at-

tached from the back using needles and threads;

patching with fabric or with patch cut from an-

other carpet using adhesive; and a complete lining

attached to the carpet back with couching stitches

used to stabilize loose elements, either to patches

or to the lining itself (this technique is similar to

traditional tapestry repair). The current study

explores an innovative restoration technique for

carpets consisting in the replacement of missing

areas with pieces identical to the original, although

previously made by a different technique, and

fixed by stitching. This method is reversible and

in agreement with conservation ethics (Figures

16-21).

Preparation of new pieces identical to theoriginal

The preparation of the new pieces was done in

several steps:

1 - Identification of the exact area of any loose

part by placing a sheet of thin transparent ramie

fabric (pure cellulose) behind the area and out-

lining the lacuna, marking thus the correct size

of the new piece (Figure 17).

2 - Recreation and design of the decoration on

the identified areas in order to mimic the origin-

al pattern (Figure 18). The patterns of other sim-

ilar areas have helped in this procedure once the

patterns of most carpets are governed by rules

of symmetry [13].

OMAR ABDEL-KAREEM

Figures 18-21. Compensation the loss areas. From up to down: preparation process of the new piece, the new piece finished, stitching the new piece onto the lacuna of the carpet, and general aspect of the lacuna area after intervention.

e-conservation 59

3 - Fixing a cleaned undyed cotton fabric with

appropriate area on a wooden frame.

4 - Fixing the prepared transparent ramie fabric

with decoration on the cotton fabric up on the

wooden frame (Figures 18-19).

5 - Dying threads of natural wool (100% wool

with appropriate thickness) with high fastness

dyes (in colors similar to the original ones).

6 - The decoration was performed using needles

and wool threads with appropriate colors (Fig-

ure 18). The procedure was repeated until accu-

mulating the adequate aesthetic appearance,

similar to the original but still different and dis-

tinguishable as the piles are not knots, only plug

accumulating threads.

7 -Additionally, fixing stitches using dyed cotton

threads and needles were used to secure and fix

the new developed relief part with the backing.

8 - The completed new compensation parts were

carefully cut out from the wooden frame with

pinking shears.

Attachment of the new pieces to the carpet

To attach the new pieces in their places on the car-

pet, the following steps were performed. Mount-

ing and patching each hole with appropriate linen

packing, attached by stitching with needle and

threads. The edges of the hole were fixed by patches

using herringbone stitches. The damaged warps

ends and wefts of the carpet around the hole were

left in place and secured on the backing linen

fabric. Each new compensation part prepared

previously was stitched directly into the appro-

priate lacuna of the carpet with the backing linen

fabric stitched previously to the carpet (Figures

20-24).

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF A RARE LARGE PERSIAN CARPET

60 e-conservatione-conservation

Preparation for Display

Since the early 1970s, conservators have used

hook and loop fasteners such as Velcro to hang

tapestries, carpets and other large flat textiles.

These allow for even distribution of the weight

and quick removal of objects in case of emergency

[5]. The common and simplest technique of using

Velcro system is stitching the soft side of Velcro

with the top and bottom of the carpet or tapestry.

The hook side of Velcro is attached (glued and

nailed) to wooden battens [7, 10, 11, 15, 16].

The application of the Velcro system could be per-

formed because this carpet was in fair condition,

allowing hanging. The only problem, however, was

its extra weight. Therefore, additional support to

the carpet was done by complete lining of the top

and bottom edges of the carpet (about 1 meter

along the width of the carpet). The application

procedure of the Velcro system was done as follows:

1 - The treated carpet was laid face down on a

clean, flat surface covered with a polyethylene

sheet.

Figures 22-24. Compensation of losses. Above left: example of a lacuna in the carpet; Above right: the new piece finished; and general aspect of the lacuna area after intervention.

OMAR ABDEL-KAREEM

e-conservation 61

Figure 25. The back side of the carpet after intervention.

e-conservation

2 - Careful measurements were done to identify

the exact areas where the Velcro strips would be

attached and to calculate the length of the Vel-

cro strips, as well as to identify the appropriate

frame that was required.

3 - The soft side of Velcro was sewn (using a sew-

ing machine) to linen strips before being stitched

onto the carpet.

4 - The prepared soft side of Velcro was fixed onto

the carpet using needles and cotton threads (Fig-

ure 25).

5 - The hook side of the Velcro strips was glued

and nailed onto the previously designed wooden

battens.

Conclusion

XRD analysis showed that the main components

of the dirt were inorganic substances (quartz,

calcite, dolomite, albite and clay minerals).

SEM examination of the fiber revealed a high de-

gree of weakening due to the deterioration on

some parts of the carpet while most of it is in a

fairly good condition. The technique used in this

study for compensation the loss parts of the carpet

proved quite successful, providing an adequate

aesthetic compensation for loss in the oriental

carpets, as the visitors can not easily differentiate

between original knots and the new fill.

At the same time, the method respects the funda-

mental principles of restoration and recreates the

visual and physical appearance of the carpet as it

is believed to have looked originally.

The technique used in this study respects the out-

set of the carpet: its visual and aesthetic continu-

ity, the original materials, structural soundness,

and reversibility. It also facilitates a minimum

handling of the object as it can be done separately

(on wooden frame) and then stitched directly in-

to the lining fabric that stitched previously with

the carpet.

To prepare the carpet for hanging display, Velcro

strapping was stitched to various areas on the

back of the carpet, not only to the edges. This is

because the carpet is too large and heavy. A com-

plete lining attached to the back of the carpet edges

is very important to stabilize loose elements, and

to support the carpet during display periods.

Notes

The dating of the carpet was carried out by Prof.

Dr. Rabie Khalifa, Professor of Islamic Monuments

and Arts, Vice Dean of Faculty of Archaeology,

Cairo University.

Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge Prof. Dr. Hussam Eldin

Abdel-Hamid, Director of the Center of Conserva-

tion of Antiquities, Manuscripts and Museum Ob-

jects, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University,

for his encouragement and permission to pub-

lish this work. I would also like to thank the

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF A RARE LARGE PERSIAN CARPET

team of the project, Mr. Salah Madboli, Mr. Ali

Saad, Mr. Mostafa Abdel-Salam and Mr. Wahid

Abdo for their assistance. Finally, I would like

to thank all the individuals who took the time

to share their experience in this project.

References

[1] C. Bier, “Carpet Condition: A Curator's Percep-

tion of ‘the Hole’”, The Textile Museum Journal,

Volume 29-30, 1991, pp. 6-8

[2] A. Lister, Guidelines for the Conservation of

Textiles, English Heritage, London, 1996

[3] R. B. Hutchison, “From Restoration to Conser-

vation: Parallels Between the Tradition of

Tapestry Conservation and Carpet Conservation”,

The Textile Museum Journal, Volume 29-30,

1991, pp. 9-12

[4] H. F. Mailand, “Traditional Methods and

Alternatives for Cleaning, Repairing, and

Exhibition Rugs”, The Textile Museum Journal,

Volume 29-30, 1991, pp. 26-33

[5] S. W. Green, “Preface”, The Textile Museum

Journal, Volume 29-30, 1991, pp. 5

[6] K. Leath, and M. M. Brooks, “Velcro TM and

other hook and loop fasteners: a preliminary

study of their stability and ageing characte-

ristics”, Textile Conservation Newsletter 34,

1998, pp. 5-11

[7] J. Merritt, “A Survey of Current Practices in

Europe”, The Textile Museum Journal, Volume

29-30, 1991, pp. 42-45

[8] Z. A. Perkins, J. Brako, and R. Mann, “Woven

Traditions: The Integration of Conservation

Figure 26. Final aspect of the carpet after intervention.

OMAR ABDEL-KAREEM

62 e-conservatione-conservation

Omar Abdel-Kareem is associate Professor at the

Conservation Department of the Faculty of Archae-

ology at Cairo University, Egypt. He specialized in

textile conservation, having trained in different

countries, namely at the Textile Conservation Cen-

ter TCC (UK), The Hungarian National Museum and

Faculty of Fine Art in Budapest (Hungary), Musée

Historique des Tissus in Lyon (France), and Wawel

Castle, Krakow (Poland). He has also training in

application of analytical techniques such as HPLC,

XRD, and FTIR and UV/VIS spectroscopy to textile

conservation.

He is the principle investigator of the Egyptian

National Project funded by STDF “New Strategies

for Conservation of Ancient Egyptian Textiles” with

application on some selected textile objects from

the Museum of Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo Uni-

versity. He is a member of Med-Colour-Tech Pro-

ject, supported by the European Commission. He

has supervised 12 Master and PhD thesis in Cairo

and Yarmouk University. He has published more

than 40 articles in the conservation field.

OMAR ABDEL-KAREEMConservator-restorerContact: [email protected]

and Restoration Techniques in the Treatment

of Oriental Rugs”, The Textile Museum Journal,

Volume 29-30, 1991, pp. 13-25

[9] A. H. Ennes, "The stabilization of edges and

ends: gradations of intervention", The Textile

Museum Journal, Volumes 29-30, 1990,

pp. 34-41

[10] S. Landi, The Textile Conservator’s Manual,

Butterworth-Heinemann, London, 1998

[11] S. Gates, “One Hundred Anatolian Flatweaves:

Conservation for Exhibition, Travel, and Sto-

rage”, The Textile Museum Journal, Volume 29-

30, 1991, pp. 65-76

[12] C. de Nola, C. Tonin, M. Bianchetto Songia,

R. Peila, C. Vineis, R. Roggero, and L.E. Bran-

cati, “Conservation project of an early 19th

century Turkish Ghiordes rug found to have

significant pesticide (DDT) contamination:

the result of a successful cooperation”, in

Preprints of the 13th Triennial Meeting Rio de

Janeiro, 22-27 September 2002, ICOM-CC,

Vol. II, 2002, pp. 730-735

[13] H. J. Exner, “To Restore or Not to Restore”,

Oriental Rug Review, Volume 15 (6), 2004,

pp. 1-11, available at URL

[14] S. W. Green and J. Swetzoff, “Compensation

for Loss in Oriental Rugs: Traditional Methods

and Passive Fills”, The Textile Museum Journal,

Volume 29-30, 1991, pp. 46-57

[15] Y. Maes, “The Conservation/Restoration of

the Sixteenth-Century Tapestry The Gathering

of the Manna. The Conservation of Tapestries

and Embroideries”, Proceedings of Meetings

at the Institute Royal du Patrimoine Artistique,

Belgium, September 21–24, 1987, The Getty

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF A RARE LARGE PERSIAN CARPET

e-conservation 63e-conservation

Conservation Institute, California, 1989,

pp. 103–112

[16] M. Austin, “Mounting Large Textiles”, The

Textile Specialty Group Postprints, 1996,

pp. 14-16

proj

ects

THE BACTRIA CULTURAL CENTRE:

A UNESCO-sponsored project in Mazar-e Sharif, war-struck northern

Afghanistan – Success or Failure?

by Alessandro Califano

Introduction

The case study of a UNESCO sponsored cultural

centre providing on-site heritage related services

in northern Afghanistan, and of its background

– including the actions to foster traditional build-

ing craftsmanship and preserve immaterial cul-

tural heritage – is compared to two other cases,

in southern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Though

not a complete success per se, this approach may

be seen as potentially useful in similar situations

in post-war and post-disaster countries.

Project's background and setting

About half an hour away from Mazar-e Sharif's

downtown area, driving east towards the border

with Uzbekistan, a new suburb is under construc-

tion. Stretched out to the south of the main road

leading to Khulm (the old town of Tashkurgan,

where the summer residence of the Afghanistan

kings used to be), right below the hills building a

geographical border to the vast northern steppe,

the construction dominates the lower lands. It is

a bit less dusty here, and there is a chance that

rivulets flowing down the mountain will make

their way to gardens and water reservoirs instead

of quickly evaporating in the desert plain, even

before reaching the Amu Darya river farther north.

It is for this reason that the area had always been

used as a pasture for sheep and goats by local

herdsmen. According to my sources, the whole area

was bought about five years ago, by or on behalf

of Tajik Governor Atta Muhammad. He is now con-

trolling the Balkh Region in the name of President

Hamid Karzai's central government after the pre-

vious local leader, Uzbek Abdul Rashid Dostum,

was called to other offices to the Afghan capital.

Measurements and subdivision of the whole area

in different-sized land lots followed quickly. Two

Inside the Bactria Cultural Centre land lot, looking south.

South of the Tashqurgan road to Mazar-e Sharif, a cultural centre named after ancient Bactria is being

built by ACTED and UNESCO in a new suburb. Started in 2007, it should be completed by 2017. But

UNESCO’s funds for the project are exhausted and no more funds have been found in the meantime, so

no further action has taken place since the building’s foundations were completed in late 2008.

In the light of a comparison between this project and another Bactria Cultural Centre built in Tajikistan, it

could be considered that the Afghanistan-based one is not a success so far. It is also perfectly clear

that in the current climate – where security concerns for other provinces have top priority – cultural

heritage issues are lagging behind in getting both funding priority and consideration.

However, UNESCO’s strategy of considering as the main requirement for the funding the production of

special dome tiles needed for the construction has been very effective: fostering traditional

craftsmanship and passing on a traditional, high-quality building technique to the next generation of

craftsmen is now a fact and so are the short and long-term benefits given to a local community in war-

struck northern Afghanistan.

65e-conservation

THE BACTRIA CULTURAL CENTRE IN MAZAR-E SHARIF

large roads were laid out through it, south of the

Mazar-to-Tashkurgan road, while various north-

south diversions drove straight towards the hills.

The very same reasons that made the area very

good for herdsmen made it an excellent choice

for builders and landlords too. In fact, a new sat-

ellite town dedicated to hosting foreign institutes

and affluent members of society couldn't have

been planned better: in the opposite direction of

nearby Balkh's notorious hemp (Cannabis sativa)

plantations, it enjoys a quiet and relatively un-

polluted position, with lots of space to be freely

rearranged, and with an extremely low acquisition

price to start with.

It is in this area that UNESCO and ACTED had planned

to built a new cultural centre. The Bactria Centre,

named after the ancient denomination of the wide

area ranging from the mountain ranges of Haza-

rajat up to southern Tajikistan, had to cover mul-

tiple functions. Firstly, it was meant to foster local

artistic efforts, and secondly to provide shelter

to temporary exhibitions of both contemporary

artefacts and of local archaeological findings. It

was meant to be a hub of cultural activities – part

museum, part incubator, part dissemination centre.

There had been some previous similar achievements

in the same macro region: on the one hand the

small on-site museum at Fayaz Tepe in Uzbekistan

and a Buddhist monastery blossoming near today's

Termez from the Kushan period down to the 5th

century, restored by UNESCO and the Japanese

government, and on the other the first Bactria

Centre established by ACTED itself in Dushanbe,

almost as soon as Tajikistan headed out of its

lengthy and bloody civil war1. Socio-economic

conditions in the three states being somehow

similar, though Uzbekistan was, and still is, far

better off than the other two, the past experience

suggested that the opportunity was to be seized

in the Mazar-e Sharif area as well.

Project's description – 2008

In an on-site visit I paid to the construction site

in October 2008, together with Czech fellow pho-

tographer Roman Pekar, ACTED's chief engineer

for all projects in Balkh, Mr. Isar, and Mr. Sayed,

who is monitoring monument control at ACTED,

told me that the actual construction work started

in 2007. The contract said that work should be

finished by 2017 although they were confident

to be able to have everything ready by 2013. The

project, for which UNESCO had generously contri-

buted, was developed by architects of the Russian

Federation and was then handed out to the local

Rendering of the Bactria Cultural Centre.

66 e-conservation

Looking south-east at the building’s eastern entrance to the inner court.

ALESSANDRO CALIFANO

1 Bactria Cultural Centre, Tajikistan, URL (ast consulted on 4 November 2010)

branch of ACTED by UNESCO's office in Tashkent,

which provided the funds. This might have been

a rather uncommon procedure since Afghanistan

already had its own UNESCO office in Kabul at

that time. Ancient Bactria covered, however, the

three locations, each now belonging to a different

state. And since Barry Lane, at that time head of

the UNESCO office in Tashkent, was very active in

fostering both the Fayaz Tepe project in Termez

and the first Bactria Centre in Dushanbe, it made

sense that the impulse should come from one and

the same source – and some of the funds, as well.

At the time of my visit, the about 8,000 square

metre land lot was evened and fenced, while the

building's foundations had been thoroughly laid

out, emerging from the slightly sloping ground

about 1.2 meters on the southern end to 1.6 meters

on the northern end. The platform was laid out

in a east-west direction, the north-south sides

being the shortest. The main entrance was on

the eastern side. Inside the one-storey building,

chambers were clearly outlined in two rows: to-

wards the outside the somewhat more spacious

ones and looking towards the inner court the

less spacious ones. The wide central court was

going to be landscaped as a garden while the

vast outer space had room enough for another

garden as well as for a large parking place. All

chambers were going to be covered by circular

domes, for which special tiles had been provided.

In fact, UNESCO's main strategy was to foster tra-

ditional craftsmanship, and the funds provided

were also meant to cover the production of the

special dome tiles which were considered the

main requirement for the granted funding. Neatly

Looking north-west over the building’s foundations.

67e-conservation

Looking south – ordinary (left) and special tiles (right) are heaped at the entrance.

THE BACTRIA CULTURAL CENTRE IN MAZAR-E SHARIF

stacked along the southern fence of the land lot,

two brands of tiles were in fact waiting to be set

in place. One was the coarser, rather fragile sort

of semi-industrial construction bricks every con-

struction worker uses in the area, those bricks that

one can see being baked at small local manufac-

turing plants all around in the plains, high chim-

neys puffing out vast amounts of pollutants and

fumes. The second ones were of a completely dif-

ferent kind: traditionally used in the region of

Balkh for local long-lasting buildings, these tiles

where comparatively larger, smoother and heavier.

Completely handmade, the latter are prepared

using a thick clay mix pressed into wooden forms,

where the tiles rest for a while to let the water

drip out, to finally be set out into the sun to dry

out until hard. Resistance testing to both impact

and pressure assure these tiles to be much more

long-lasting than the usual construction bricks.

The lengthy and accurate human labour involved

in the production process, as well as the much

higher care in choosing the raw material, caused

however these techniques to be not only neglected,

but even almost forgotten in present-day archi-

tecture, even in a region that had been originally

famous for this very same high-end quality product.

Project's description – 2009

I had the opportunity to travel back to Afghanistan

less than a year later, in May 2009, for a Kabul-

based UNESCO consultancy contract. Though this

of course implied that I would not have a chance

to visit again the Bactria Centre building site on

this occasion, I could nevertheless contact ACTED

for a briefing about the further development since

my previous visit to the country. Sadly, not very

much has moved since. The funds granted by

UNESCO have paid for the construction of the build-

ing's foundations, as well as for hoarding bricks

and tiles for the further construction needs, but

are now exhausted. In the mean time, no more

funds have been found, and no more action has

taken place.

In fact, even the first phase had been a pretty dif-

ficult one, as confirmed by two sources: despite

having the approval of Balkh's Governor Atta him-

self, as well as being able to rely on UNESCO funds

for the foundations, there was much wrangling

to gain approval for the rest of the construction.

There was even the impression of some interfer-

ence from the government side regarding this is-

sue. On the other hand, as was perfectly clear and

well stated by everybody, in the current climate

– seeing security concerns for other provinces

having top priority – it seemed that Culture was

definitely lagging behind in getting both funding

priority and consideration.

ACTED itself had been very restricted in its action

by not having enough funds. To this came staff

changes in the Afghan offices of the NGO and a

rising number of projects, so that they hadn't been

From left to right: measuring the regular construction tiles; measuring the special dome tiles – height; and measuring the spe-cial dome tiles – width.

68 e-conservation

ALESSANDRO CALIFANO

in a condition to really follow up on this project.

However, they were still hoping to come back to

it in 2010, and would still continue to be looking

for funds. But in comparison to the previously ac-

tivated Bactria Centre in Dushanbe, it was evi-

dent that the situation in Afghanistan was either

much more complex or, to say the least, by far

not as positive in its medium-term prospective

outcome.

An evaluation attempt

In the light of a comparison between the past and

the prospective evolution of the two Bactria cul-

tural centres, the one in Dushanbe and the one

being presently built in Mazar-e Sharif (the mu-

seum at Fayaz Tepe being a positive achievement

obtained on a much smaller scale), it could be de-

duced that the Afghanistan-based centre wasn't

a success so far. Even more, that the continuing

conditions of social and political uncertainty in

many areas of the country, together with rising

security and military related concerns, let many

further difficulties be viewed ahead.

Nevertheless, it wouldn't be completely fair to let

an evaluation rest entirely on this basis. With the

completion of the foundations and the prepara-

tion of all the tiles and bricks needed for further

building, the most arduous part of the work has

been done. Neatly sheltered under a double lay-

er of plastic sheets and earth, the bricks, and

even more the tile stacks, are securely protected

for future use, while the presence of guards on

site should deter theft. On the other hand, bricks

being readily (and cheaply!) available in the whole

area – and tiles being of uncommon use – theft

prevention partially lies in the materials them-

selves. The relative optimism of engineer Isar re-

Right: Covering the special tiles to protect them even in the case of a long interruption of work at the construction site.

Above: ACTED Chief Engineer Isar with a large fragment of the special tiles and detail of a special tiles fragment.

69e-conservation

THE BACTRIA CULTURAL CENTRE IN MAZAR-E SHARIF

garding a timely completion of the whole building

can thus be better understood: even a long inter-

ruption of work at the construction site will not

damage the part of the building completed so far,

much less the material to be used to complete it.

Funds for another year of activity should possibly

bring it to its final shape, while some more time

would of course be needed for its inner decoration,

landscaping, and eventually planning its activities

– which will probably prove the toughest task to

fully achieve.

But if time schedule and milestones for bringing

the building process to an end are to be considered

more or less adequate, (while only time will tell

what will become of the original plan to make it

function as a hub for multi-purpose, heritage re-

lated activities, and whether it will compare to the

lively proposals of its twin in Dushanbe), there is

still another point to take into account.

Choosing the peculiar and lengthy production pro-

cess of old-fashioned hand-made tiles as the main

requirement for their funding, UNESCO has had a

primary role both in fostering traditional crafts-

men's knowledge and passing it on to a younger

generation of Afghan craftsmen, and in working

towards the completion of a real and contemporary

model that could proudly stand against the usual,

pre-fabricated concrete-and-iron building solu-

tions. This choice would then represent a real al-

ternative solution, challenging the nefarious im-

pact of mainstream cash-related building solutions

which have no spin off effects at all on the local

economy. Far from compromising with “modern”

techniques, which in the end are generally revealed

as only apparently cheaper than traditional build-

ing solutions – and certainly much less environ-

mentally friendly – Barry Lane's project chose to

involve local work forces, letting them participate

in a complex but sustainable training and produc-

tion process.

Even if the final product of the Bactria Centre pro-

ject seems still to be largely floating in the future

this at least has been already achieved: passing

on a traditional, high-quality building technique

to the next generation of craftsmen is now already

a fact. It can be considered a healthy and sound

approach, combining traditional craftsmanship

training, planning and actual building, with the

help of external funds to foster sustainability and

economy in a destitute, war-struck area. With all

its shortcomings, it should be considered as a good

case-study of how immediate and long-term bene-

fits can be given to local communities, and of what

could be done – or maybe rather: could and should

have been done – in Afghanistan, to effectively

help a country disrupted by 30 years of war.

Credits:All pictures © Alessandro Califano, 2008

ALESSANDRO CALIFANOCuratorContact: [email protected]

Italian national, a Ph.D. in Oriental Studies,

Alessandro Califano has been Research Scholar at

J. Nehru University’s School of Social Sciences (New

Delhi), and Research Fellow in Museum Studies at

the UBC’s Museum of Anthropology (Vancouver).

Senior Curator at Rome’s Heritage Department, he

is also working on material and immaterial cultural

heritage related projects as a free-lance Cultural

Consultant in the Baltic area for the Italian Minis-

try of Foreign Affairs, and in Central Asia (Uzbe-

kistan, Afghanistan) for UNESCO. He is a member

of ICOM, ICOMOS-UK, and the Canadian Museums

Association.

Websites:

http://museumstudies.tumblr.com

http://twitter.com/a_califano

http://www.slideshare.net/califano

70 e-conservation

ALESSANDRO CALIFANO

No. 17, December 2010

ISSN: 1646-9283

Registration Number125248

Entidade Reguladorapara a Comunicação Social

Propertye-conservationline, Teodora Poiata

PeriodicityBimonthly

CoverA view from the 16th International Heritage Show,

Paris 2010Photo by Petruta Vlad

Executive EditorRui Bordalo

EditorsTeodora Poiata, Anca Nicolaescu

CollaboratorsAna Bidarra

Daniel Cull

Graphic Design and PhotographyAnca Poiata, Radu Matase

ExecutionTeodora Poiata

Address Rua de Santa Catarina, nº 467, 4D4480-779 Vila do Conde, Portugal

www.e-conservationline.com

All correspondence to: [email protected]

LICENCE

Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Portugal

You are free:to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit this work

Under the following conditions:

Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by our licence, best by linking to CC website.

Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

e-conservationline informs that the published information is believed to be true and accurate but can not accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may occur or make any warranty for the published material, which is solely the responsability of their authors.

70e-conservation

e-conservation magazine is published and distributed under the Creative Commons Licence

Attribution - Noncommercial - No Derivative Works.