9.2: Curation - Storage and Preservation of a Collection


Stored artefacts (Detecting and Collecting)
Responsible collection is about stewardship of the objects and the information associated with them.

The responsible storage of an archaeological collection requires sufficient space for the material and the associated hard copies of the documentation where they are safe from hazards such as fire, flood etc. The collection should be in one location, not scattered. At all times the collector should act as though the next day they were going to walk out of the house and be hit by a bus, would the state in which the collection is at all times allow a third party to retrieve the information in it?

All objects should be kept in a separate container (such as an individual box or bag) and be accompanied by a label bearing the details of the findspot and the collection catalogue number.

Environment
Every owner of an archaeological collection, whatever its size, has a duty to care for it. Appropriate action should be taken to maintain the collections in a stable condition. The responsible collector must ensure that all finds are stored in appropriate environmental conditions (relative humidity, temperature and light), and that those conditions are appropriately monitored and controlled. Finds should be inspected at least annually, with spot checks on individual items. Sensitive finds must be checked at least bi-annually.  The collector's budget should make appropriate provisions for the costs of remedial and preventive conservation. Objects must be protected from physical shock, the possibility of accidental damage and vibration. Objects must, where appropriate, be kept separate from each other to prevent abrasion and contamination. Sudden or extreme fluctuations in relative humidity and temperature must be avoided. Objects must be isolated from sources of direct heat, including the heat-producing components of lighting installations. Packing and support materials must be inert and must not affect the object in any way. The higher the temperature, the faster chemical and biological change progresses. For this reason, the temperature should be kept as low as possible in unoccupied areas, though this should not be such as to cause the relative humidity to rise above the recommended levels.There are guidelines in publications on the best levels of various parameters for different materials in specific conditions. All collectors with archaeological collections should ensure access to the advice of a trained and experienced archaeological curator.

Preservation
To prevent transfer of skin greases and chlorides (etc.), all objects must be handled wearing clean white cotton or polyvinyl surgical gloves; if that is impracticable, hands must be washed and dried before and after handling objects

Finds should not be cleaned without prior consultation with the appropriate specialist (conservator, environmentalist, bone specialist, etc), otherwise valuable evidence could be lost or deterioration encouraged.

Any objects that are conserved should have systematic and detailed documentation of the treatment they have undergone as well as details of all investigative cleaning and remedial conservation treatment, including where appropriate relevant drawings, scaled photographs, and X-rays. These should be treated as part of the documentation of the collection

The handling and movement of objects must be kept to an absolute minimum

Advice on the storage of archaeological material is given in Walker 1990, see also  


Text in part adapted from 'Standards in the Museum Care of Archaeological Collections', 1992 where more details can be found.

Bibliography:

Cronyn, J.M. The Elements of Archaeological Conservation. London, UK: Routledge, 1990.

 Charlotte Newton and Clifford Cook 2018, 'Caring for archaeological collections' part of CCI's Preventive conservation guidelines for collections online resource.

National Park Service 2001, Appendix I: Curatorial Care of Archeological Objects  In NPS Museum Handbook, Part I: Museum Collections. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 2001.

Pye, E. "Conservation and Storage: Archaeological Materials." In J.M.A. Thompson, ed., Manual of Curatorship: A Guide to Museum Practice. 2nd ed. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1992.

Rimmer, M., D. Thickett, D. Watkinson and H. Ganiaris. Guidelines for the Storage and Display of Archaeological Metalwork Swindon, UK: English Heritage, 2013.

Walker Kirsten  1990, 'Guidelines for the preparation of excavation archives for long-term storage',  United Kingdom Institute for Conservation Archaeology.

Watkinson, D., and V. Neal. First Aid for Finds, 3rd ed. London, UK: RESCUE – The British Archaeological Trust and United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, Archaeology Section, 1998.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3.3: Archaeological layers

Image
In talking about archaeological context we tend to think of it in terms of being composed of individual layers. These are discrete units of sediment, debris, rock, and other materials that form or accumulate as the result of natural processes, human activity, or both. In order to describe them and indicate their position on a site and in its sequence, these layers are generally numbered sequentially (with the lowest number being that removed first). An individual layer or deposit may be termed (following geological nomenclature) a stratum, and multiple layers are called strata. Therefore the study of their sequence is called stratigraphy (description of what we call the stratification). One of the simplest ways to depict layers is to depict them as a vertical sequence and this is frequently done in the form of a section (or 'profile') through them. Here is an explanation from Michigan State University 'Campus Archaeology' page "Archaeology 101: Reading strati
Read more

9.4: Curation - Access to Information

Image
Many collectors object to archaeologists and conservation professionals criticising the notion of a "private collection", saying that the material in their own personal portable antiquities collection is available to bona fide researchers for study. While this is laudable, it should not be imagined that this is an ideal situation for any researcher. Even if an object has been recorded in a public database like the PAS, t here is no mechanism to follow the movement of objects between various ephemeral private collections after it leaves the collection of the finder. If they are not accompanied by their own documentation, even objects that had been shown to archaeologists and recorded a decade or more earlier are in effect later  totally lost to science. Even if a few decades from now a coin or brooch surfaces anonymously, it will be difficult to relate it to one of the mass of records of similar-looking objects in archived archaeological records.  Many artefacts in private
Read more

9.1: Curating Archaeological Information as a Personal Collection

Image
Antiquities collection Since the archaeological record is finite and fragile, responsible artefact hunters who are removing material and information from it must replace any information destroyed by a permanent and as full as possible documentation. The objects in a responsibly-created private collection should not be held loose, but in a form that allows them easily to be linked back to the documentation of the archaeological interference that produced them. As Ian Longworth (1992, 5) puts it, if the collected objects are to be used to fulfil their potential, then their care becomes a matter of paramount importance. It should be noted that preservation, far from being a passive role, is a task that must be worked at that calls for the use of many resources to turn good intention into reality. To be effective in this task private collections must seek to reach attainable standards and these need to apply to all aspects of the problem - the environmental conditions under whic
Read more