Conservation Tips and Tricks

As the excavation season progresses, it isn't uncommon for some tools and materials to become scarce as supplies are used up.  In our case, certain cleaning tools employed by the conservators were no longer available.  In a display of ingenuity, student intern, Vale Vafaei, began experimentation with the existing supplies to make her own Dremel polishing tools for the removal of light surface debris on copper alloy objects.  This was accomplished by adhering polyethylene foam to used Dremel bits and cutting them into the required shapes.  The results were both elegant and effective.  

2015 Excavation Season well under way!

This year's field conservation staff for Kaman Kalehoyuk is comprised of Nichole Doub, Ingrid Gudmestad and Vale Vafaei.  We have been hard at work over the last 4 weeks conserving the artifacts recovered from this year's excavation and diffing into the backlog from previous seasons.

Here are just a couple of the objects we've been working on so far.... 

       
















There has also been vast quantities of x-radiography taking place....

Even a couple of block lifts on site...

And there is sure to be more excitement and work in the next few weeks!