Site conservation techniques

Exposed stone walls

Giorgio Buccellati – May 2011

A chapter of the digital monograph: Site conservation

NOTE: on this topic, cf. also the dedicated topical book on “CONSERVATION”.

General remarks

Stone walls do not present the same problems as the mud brick walls, essentially because they are not as susceptible to damage through erosion caused by rain and wind. The only vulnerable part are the joints, which generally consist of mud.

Consequently, I normally leave the stone walls exposed, with special precautions to protect the joints. The approach differs depending on whether we deal with a wall face or the top of the wall.

Wall faces

Wall faces are vulnerable primarily to birds and, in the lower courses, to foxes. To prevent animal intrusion, I suspend a bird net along the face, held in place at the top and at the bottom by “sausages” (to use the nickname we give them in the field), namely long sleeves made of tent material, filled with dirt from the excavations. The material is visible only at close range, and it works well with birds, less so with foxes. These, however, are fewer and their intrusion is large and readily visible, so that the guard can remove by force the intruder.

Wall tops

The tops of the walls present the same problem as the horizontal surfaces, and they are treated in the same way, with a piece of tarp and a mud plaster coating. We also channel the water so that it does not form puddles on top of the wall, since infiltrations would weaken considerably the core of the wall itself.