Challenges on the conservation of decorated bronzes from the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara, Egypt.
Creators: name: Manti, Panagiota
name: Gosling, Jenny
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010

description: Abstract

Excavations by Paul Nicholson in 1995 at the area near the entrance to the Falcon Catacomb at the sacred animal necropolis at North Saqqara, conducted under the auspices of the Egypt Exploration Society to whom we are grateful for their permission for the publication of this paper, led to the discovery of the largest so far cache of votives from the Sacred Animal Necropolis with more than 600 objects. Most of these objects were small tapering buckets known as situlae that were given to the gods as votives by worshippers who visited the shrines. Most of the recovered situlae were badly corroded heavily leaded casts, a high proportion of which was decorated, whilst some had inscribed hieroglyphs. 

 Fieldwork seasons in 1996, 2004 to 2006 aimed to study, record and stabilise all the material, and clean those objects which were considered priorities of study and research, most often the decorated situlae. Given the limited working period of three weeks per year and the large number of retrieved objects, different approaches of cleaning were adopted according to the post-excavation use of the objects. The most representative examples of each type of situlae were prioritised for conservation, in order to ensure that maximum information is recovered via investigative cleaning and the revealing of decorative details and hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs were possibly added at the donors’ bequests after the object’s manufacture and they did not appear to be regular or linked to object size. Most of the objects were only cleaned enough to reveal details of their decoration. Although the conservation strategy incorporated an element of selectivity (in terms that not all artefacts would be necessary to receive the same level of cleaning), environmentally controlled storage would reinsure the long run preservation of the objects. 

Details of the surface decoration were obscured by thick compact layers of powdery light-blue/turquoise corrosion and totally disfigured by dense, voluminous pustules of hard green corrosion products. Incised decoration was not normally visible before cleaning. Choices of conservation treatments are discussed on the basis of the number of objects, time limitations and availability of facilities. Problems in revealing the incised decoration and hieroglyphs under different corrosion types are also discussed, providing an appraisal of the investigative cleaning approaches that were followed during this work.
description: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are indebted to Dr P. T. Nicholson, director of this project, the Egypt Exploration Society, Mr. Abdel Aziz Sayed Abdel Rasheed Soltan, conservator from the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities, the S.C.A. staff at the Saqqara premises, and Ms. Janice Coyle, photographer of the project.

 
description: Short contribution published in 

Dawson, J., C. Rozeik, M.M. Wright, L. Bruno, United Kingdom Institute for Conservation of Historic, Artistic Works Archaeology Section, United Kingdom Institute for Conservation of Historic, and Artistic Works Archaeology Section Conference. Decorated Surfaces on Ancient Egyptian Objects: Technology, Deterioration, and Conservation; Proceedings of a Conference Held in Cambridge, UK on 7-8 September 2007. Archetype Publications, 2010