Site presentation at Tell Mozan

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From flyers to booklets

Since the early nineties I had prepared simple flyers, half the size of an A4 page lengthwise, contained in a folded A4 page as cover. There were two series, one covering the excavations and the objects, the other providing background information. This system had the advantage that one could easily update individual pages (i.e., half pages).

It was, however, a bit cumbersome to keep the sequences straight in the two series, and thus in the late nineties I printed each series on an A3 sheet. Front and back, this yielded the equivalent of eight (half) pages. Printed small, these two flyers contained in fact quite a bit of information. They were translate into Arabic by Jamal Omar.

At the suggestion of our guard, Muhammad Omo, I experimented, as a supplement to the flyers, with a cassette tape, in which I had recorded a narrative that helped the visitor walk through the excavations. Presumably, Muhammad walked along with the battery operated tape recorder I had provided, but I am in fact not sure as to how effectively this system worked, or whether it was even used at all. It was also difficult to provide updates, so I gave up on this idea after a couple of years.

In the meantime, the A3 format for the flyers had become insufficient to contain all the material that I wished to present to visitors. So in 2004 I produced a Guidebook in the form of a 40 page booklet, which was also translated into Arabic by Jamal Omar.

Printed in black and white Qamishli, the Guidebook was made available for free. I also produced a Companion Folder, with 58 pages: with color plates, this folder was made available to visitors during the tour as a supplement to the Guidebook.

Besides the cost of producing the booklet each year, two other problems arose. It was difficult to insert updates on a regular basis - so I began to issue separate pages as an appendix. And it was also difficult for visitors to match Guidebook and Companion Folder among themselves and with the actual places in the excavations that were being addressed at any given page.

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2005-7: the “panoramas”

In 2005, at the suggestion of Sabah Kassem, I designed a large metal case, with a wide canopy, on the slope facing the Palace, which allowed an excellent view from an appropriate distance and height. It was Sabah who started to refer to the structure as a “panorama.” This became the “Palace panorama.”

In 2006, Federico Buccellati built a knoll facing the Temple Terrace, using our own backdirt. Sabah built a second case and canopy. This became the “Temple panorama.”

Also in 2006, we first installed a lightnig system, with halogen lamps, that made it possible to view the excavations at night from both “panoramas.” An unexpected benefit was thestrong interplay of light and shadow that put in bold relief features of the monuments that were not as visible in plain daylight. This system is still in function, but only when the Expedition is in session.

The main problem with the cases was that it was difficult to secure the pages inside the cases, and to keep them clean. This led to a thorough overhaul in 2007: the pages were placed between two glass panes, sealed at the edged with transparent tape. A colored cloth background served to identify each cluster of pages within the case. Caitlin Chaves and Sarah Graff undertook this task: the result was excellent, and the cases have remained the same since they were first installed. Only a minor case of water infiltration occurred in the Palace “panorama,” which has been corrected since.

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2008: signposts and reading stands

The pages used in the “panoramas” were in part derived from the 2004 Companion Folder. Thus began the transfer of information from materials printed for distribution to fixed panels within the physical context of the site itself. The two great advantages of easier updating and of immediate referential function (the explanation faces directly the thing explained) induced me to seek additional ways of panel display. If we could place a sufficient number of panels within the excavations, we could dispense with the booklets. The aims were to tie in directly the panels to the features which they were meant to explain; to provide adequate space so that several pages could be shown; to allow for easy updates; to protect the pages from the weather, while making it easy for visitors to consult them; and to minimize costs. I needed to come up with an alternative to the “panoramas.”

Thus in 2008 I introduced the concept of signposts and reading stands, and produced a few on an experimental basis. I also increased greatly the number of stops and changed the direction of the itinerary. The following winter of 2008-9 was to serve as a test to see how the different types of stands would weather rain, wind, snow and any other possible damage. In the meantime I maintained a hybrid system that included both some fixed panels and the material for distribution.

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2009: the site as a book

The test brought out a few systemic problems, due primarily to wind and birds. The wind would open the lid of the reading stands, and the pages (which were simply glued) would then blow away; and the birds would perch atop the stands and soil them. Having taken care of these problems with an apropriate set of improvements to the original design, I felt tat we were ready for the full transition to a system of fixed panels only.

The actual implementation was made possible through a grant from the World Monuments Fund for both conservation and site presentation. Through it, we were able to bring the system to its full implementation, with a large number of reading stands that replace entirely the earlier distribution material. The site can now be truly read as a book. Tere is of course ample room for enlargments and improvements. But the model is now fully operational with a coherence of its own.