Conservation laboratory activities for Unit J6

Patrizia Camatta – July 2025

Introduction
Metals
Ceramics
Seal impressions

Introduction

For the 2008 and 2009 seasons we had no conservation specialists.

Metals

Of the 10 metal objects found in J6, only two are intact/whole. These are a copper-alloy needle i14 and a copper-alloy pin i30. Both were encrusted with soil and had oxidised surfaces. During the last excavation seasons we did have any specialist for metal conservation, waiting for next years. The objects are in the conservation lab.

Ceramics

the ceramic material that needs a treatment is mainly composed of vessels that are found broken in the ground but almost complete and can be reconstructed. If a vessel turns out to be missing too many pieces for it to be reconstructed, an attempt is made to reconstruct at least the profile in order to draw the section. This was the case for instance with half a large jar that was found used as a burial (A16.71). When a pot smash is found, where it is unclear at a first sight if the shape could be reconstructed or not, the only thing to do is to try to reconstruct it, by looking first at how much of the base and of the rim are present. If there is enough surface, the reconstruction is attempted and the gaps left by missing sherds are reconstructed in plaster. If there is not enough material, as it turned out to be the case of a cooking pot (i30, see photo of how it was found, v41), there is no point in trying to reconstruct it.

All of the whole or reconstructed vessels are subsequentially drawn and photographed.
Of the 40 pieces of the A16 conservation list, 6 are ceramic vessels that have been reconstructed, 4 jars (see A16.2, A16.9) and 2 bowls (see A16.58) of various sizes. Besides these reconstructed shapes (except one, A16.71 which is only half a jar along the vertical section), there were 2 more vessels that came out intact from the ground, a small jar (A16.14) and a carinated bowl (A16.45), and there may be another 4 pieces coming from the 3 graves excavated at the end of the excavation season(A16.61,62,63,64) the material of which still need to be processed.

Seal impressions

delicate sealing impressions that in 90% of the cases are taken to conservation, where they are left to dry and then are cleaned. Depending on the quality of the clay and on its hardness, they can be very hard and easy to clean, or extremely crumbly and difficult. To clean these, a magnifiyng lense and in some cases a microscope are usually necessary, together with scalpels, dental tools, needles. From A16, only 2 seal impressions came to conservation out of 4 (A16.17, A16.24), and none of the 9 triangulated figurines needed any conservation. One of these is a beautiful horse head with a harness (A16.23).