STUDIES \ UMS \ 921-04
1: G. Buccellati, November 2002

UMS 4


Gli Opifici di Urkesh.
Papers read at the Round Table in Florence, Novembre 1999.

Urkesh/Mozan Studies 4
Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 27, Malibu: Undena Publications, 2001.
Published jointly with the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence.

Summary from the published volume


Full digital version of the volume (Online).
Full digital version of the volume (Download as .zip).
      The volume Gli Opifici di Urkesh contains the proceedings of a Round Table held in Florence on November 23, 1999, devoted to the subject of conservation and restoration at Tell Mozan, ancient Urkesh, in northeastern Syria. The first part describes the role of the institutions that participate in the project: the Opificio delle Pietre Dure of Florence has joined the Mozan/Urkesh Archaeological Project in order to provide a full fledged technical support, while the excavations provide the students of the Opificio with an opportunity for intense exposure to the vicissitudes of field work.

      The second part provides an overview of the historical, architectural and artifactual context, from which both the conservation laboratory and the activity of the field school receive their full justification.

      The third part contains special studies on critical aspects of the conservation and restoration activities, in particular techniques of artifact preservation in the field, a new system for the conservation of mudbrick walls, special uses of digital photography and three-dimensional rendering of the architecture, and functional uses of conservation.

      Besides regular members of the Urkesh staff, other authors represented include C. Acidini, G. Bonsanti, M. Michelucci, B. Angeli, P. Pfälzner, P. E. Pecorella, G. Chiari, L. Castelletti. It is edited by S. Bonetti, Director of the Urkesh Conservation Laboratory.