A chapter of the digital monograph: Site conservation
NOTE: on this topic, cf. also the dedicated topical book on “CONSERVATION”.
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The internal record
Recording the procedures and the types of treatment follows the standards defined by the discipline, and it is the choice of the professional conservator to use whatever system seems most appropriate. This obviously entails, besides forms and standards, a photographic coverage before and after intervention. One goal of the record is to provide full information about the initial conditions, the way in which this has been affected by the treatment, the degree of reversibility one has aimed for, and so on.
The shape of this internal record is in function of the ease of the individual conservator. Standardization would be at the level of normal practice and of common sense, so that there may be continuity from one conservator to the next.
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The global record
Standardization, however, is more important than just for practical reasons (the continuity across seasons). It feeds into a global record of the excavation in an intellectual sense as well, as I argue with regard to the Urkesh Global Record. This means that every observation about the conservation of a given element will appear, or be referred top, in the particular entry that deals with that single element.
Thus the extensive evidence for conservation of the Palace walls and of the Temple Terrace is discussed in this section on SITE CONSERVATION in terms of the general approach to the system, but the specifics are given in full detail in relation to gthe individual features to which they apply, whether for the mudbrick walls of the Palace or the stone structures of the Temple Terrace.
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