Plastination Applied To The Conservation of Cultural Heritage

Abstract

2 Department of Anatomy and Comparative Pathological Anatomy; Regional Campus of International Excellence “Campus Mare Nostrum”, University of Murcia, Spain. ABSTRACT: The archaeological excavation of a Phoenician shipwreck at Bajo de la Campana, San Javier, Murcia, Spain, was carried out from 2007 to 2011 under a collaboration agreement between the Institute of Nautical Archaeology of Texas A & M University, and the Ministry of Culture of Spain, through the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology of Cartagena. Throughout successive campaigns of systematic excavation, the archaeologists documented and raised an extraordinary cargo of a Phoenician wreck dated between 7th – 6th centuries BC. Among the raw materials it carried there was a magnificent set of 53 elephant tusks, and fragments of elephant tusks, some of them with inscriptions. The uniqueness of this archaeological find is due to it being one of the few known examples of Phoenician navigation in the Mediterranean Sea, and the first time a shipment carrying ivory as raw material has been documented in Spain. With this work, we present the results of the plastination process carried out on waterlogged archaeological remains, as an alternative to traditional preservation procedures on items of cultural heritage, which have proved to be ineffective due to the extreme density of ivory. We tested the Biodur® S15 plastination technique at room temperature in successive phases, each step depending on the results obtained in the previous steps. Elephant tusk fragments were dehydrated with acetone, and subsequently impregnated with a mixture of polymer and catalyst, Biodur® S15 plus 1% S3. After impregnation, they were exposed to Biodur® S6 crosslinker, for the curing phase. The time taken for each step varied proportionally, according to the size of the ivory fragments. The results obtained were satisfactory, both in dimensional stability and visual aspect, essential for the study and exhibition of these pieces that are part of our cultural heritage. It should be noted that these optimum results have been maintained over time, two years since their processing, which validates this technique of plastination as a procedure for preserving waterlogged archaeological materials.