During this past week I continued to treat small finds excavated from the west side of the Taharqa gate, and to watch the progress of the stabilization and rebuilding of the south wing of the gate. In his last blog entry, Richard wrote about the processing of the hundreds of pottery sherds dug up over the course of the season. Occasionally there are enough sherds from a single vessel to reconstruct it, and for me there is a certain zen-like satisfaction in assembling these 3-D puzzles. In the picture on the left, I’m sorting through pieces looking for possible joins, and I’m using the sand-filled tubs to prop up the pieces that I’ve already glued together. The adhesive of choice in this case is the ever-useful Paraloid B-72 acrylic resin. Pictured on the right is part of a large, double-handled vessel with white slip decoration that I put together.

I also continued to clean coins using the mechanical and chemical methods described in my previous blog entry. One of the clearer images I found on the dozen or so coins I’ve cleaned so far is pictured on the left. It’s probably the profile of a Roman emperor wearing a laurel wreath, and hopefully there’s enough information visible for a specialist to identify and date the coin. Another of this week’s projects, a broken limestone fragment with part of an inscription carved on its face, is pictured on the right. The block was found reused in the north side of the Taharqa gate, and probably dates to the time of Ramses II according to Jaap van Dijk, our team’s hieroglyph specialist. The fragile face of the stone was consolidated with a 2% solution of B-72 resin in acetone and ethanol, applied with a syringe.

This season I’ve had the opportunity to check the condition of many of the repairs done on the large-scale sculptures in the precinct by the Brooklyn Expedition in past seasons. Stone, though a seemingly impervious material, is actually very susceptible to degradation caused by the moisture and soluble salts found in the ground here in Egypt. One of the most significant preservation initiatives in the precinct over the years has been to move many of the free-standing sculptures and architectural fragments onto raised brick and mortar platforms (mastabas) with moisture barrier material built into the mastaba bases that isolates the sculptures from water and salt in the soil.

With Bill Peck as my guide, we looked at many of the lion-headed Sakhmet sculptures in the second court of Mut Temple that were repaired and placed on mastabas such as those pictured above on the left. The badly eroded ram-headed sphinx pictured on the right was repaired and moved onto a new stone pedestal under the direction of Brooklyn Museum conservator Lisa Bruno and our Egyptian conservator Khaled Mohamed Wassel. I’m happy to report that the repairs are holding up well. Many of the sculptures in the precinct have suffered extensively from centuries of burial and vandalism but at least now the deterioration process has been slowed somewhat.

My first few days here were spent recovering from the two day journey and seven hour time change, as well as organizing the conservation supplies and hunting down a few things in the souq (the market) that I didn’t bring with me. I also walked around the site to view a month’s worth of excavations, and then staked my claim to one of the tables under the tent shown in the photo on the left where I began to treat small finds (coins, ceramic sherds, and faience objects). Shown in the photo on the right is a small faience object broken into three pieces that I repaired with Paraloid B-72, an acrylic resin widely used in conservation because of it’s stability and reversibility. The object is actually a crouching male figure holding a rather large appendage between his legs that extends over his shoulder. Yes, the ancient Egyptians did have a sense of humor!

The photo on the left shows what excavated coins often look like. They are round lumps of blue or green mineralized copper corrosion products and encrusted soil that may or may not have copper alloy (metal) left in their cores. They have to be carefully cleaned because frequently the only details remaining from the original surface of a badly corroded coin are in the corrosion layer itself. Cleaning can be done mechanically with wooden tools and soft brushes or in a very controlled way with chemicals. In the photo on the right I’m making treatment notes while soaking some of the coins in a 10% solution of EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid) in water made basic with a little ammonia. This solution softens the encrusted dirt and mineralized corrosion products allowing them to be carefully removed. Stay tuned to see if I find any legible detail on this year’s coins, which might help the archaeologists date the place where they were found.

Mary has already written describing the stabilization of the north wing of the Taharqa gate. Khaled has been doing an amazing job with Mohamed and his team on this huge project. As I arrived, work began on the south wing, which is in worse condition than the north. Many of the sandstone blocks are badly deteriorated and require hours of consolidation with dilute solutions of B-72 acrylic resin applied with a syringe or brush. Some blocks are beyond help and have lost all cohesion and reverted to sand. These will be replaced with new sandstone blocks necessary for the structural stability of the wing. In the picture on the left I’m helping Khaled apply B-72 consolidant to a stone fragment from the south wing, and on the right is an overall picture of the wing where you can get an idea of what bad shape it’s in.

As I said before, I’m glad to be back and looking forward to the challenges of another season of conservation on site. I was reminded that I’m working outdoors again by the strong winds and blowing dust during my first couple of days. I made sure the artifacts were safe, held on to my hat, and kept my mouth shut…good advice for any number of situations, LOL!

The final week on site was spent finishing up various small projects, catching up on treatment notes, and packing up the tools and supplies for next year. It was also satisfying to watch the progress on the west wall of Chapel D, pictured here, where Mohammed Gharib and Khaled did the final filling of losses between the original carved blocks with a mortar that closely matches the color of the stone when it dries.

My three weeks here at Mut have gone by fast and it’s been fascinating dealing with some of the problems conservators face in the field where the challenges range from preserving large scale stone and architectural elements to treating small excavated objects like coins and pottery. I’ve also made a lot of new friends and had the chance to see beautiful vistas everyday, like this one looking up the Avenue of Sphinxes toward the south entrance to the Karnak Temple complex. A special thanks to everyone who made it all possible!

I continued to treat and clean coins as well but also had the pleasure of cleaning this small bronze lion, about five centimeters in length, with crossed forepaws. Pictured on the right, I’m cleaning the recently discovered relief fragment with an image of Khonsu on it to help make the incised lines more legible.

Another new project was the cleaning and reconstruction of a low-fired ceramic storage vessel shown here before treatment, upside down and broken apart in fragments, and held together by the packed earth inside the vessel. I first removed the broken fragments from around the packed earth form and then carefully sifted through the earth, which yielded a few more ceramic fragments but unfortunately no hidden cache of coins or treasure. The ceramic fragments were then washed and spread out in the sun to dry, and in the picture on the right I’m sealing the edges of the fragments with a dilute solution of B-72 resin prior to joining the fragments with a thicker solution of the same resin. B-72 is a commonly used adhesive in ceramics restoration because of its stability and relative ease of reversibility.

A large limestone block made a convenient table for laying out the fragments prior to reassembly. Since I’ve been here I’ve definitely learned to improvise more with the tools at hand and finding available workspace. On the right, the reconstructed vessel is propped up in a tub of sand, and I’m placing one of the final existing pieces in place. About eighty percent of the vessel was found and reassembled which means it can be photographed and the form possibly identified and dated. Working outdoors (think occasional stiff breeze and blowing sand) is a little different than working in the clean, climate controlled museum lab that I’m used to, and I’m enjoying the challenge.

In addition, I met my Egyptian colleagues for the first time including Khaled Mohamed Wassel, the Egyptian conservator on site who has been doing an admirable job of consolidating the carved sandstone blocks in the west wall of Chapel D, and supervising the master mason, Mohahamed Gharib and his team in rebuilding the wall. They’ve all been attempting to teach me a few words of Arabic with often humorous results.

I set about surveying my conservation supplies, and examined the small finds from this season, including a group of about forty coins. Pictured above is one of the first coins I cleaned mechanically with brushes and dental tools that shows the head of a Roman emperor yet to be identified. In the other picture I’m cleaning another coin with the pointed end of a wooden skewer after softening the outer layers of corrosion in a chemical solution of 10% EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid) in water made basic with ammonia. Uncovering legible details on heavily corroded coins requires a steady hand and a lot of patience but if successful can aid in dating the area the coins were found in.

As Mary mentioned in her most recent blog, I was also occupied this week with a very badly deteriorated, carved limestone block pictured above that is significant because it has the name of Montuemhat on one face. The block, originally part of a doorjamb, was found upside down and reused in a later doorway within the Taharqa gate. In order to continue the excavation of the gate, the block had to be moved as soon as possible. The stone though was so badly deteriorated due to damage from soluble salts in the soil that it was really just a loose pile of fragments held together by wet earth.

In order to stabilize the stone before its removal it was allowed to dry out somewhat before it was injected with Sika epoxy to strengthen its internal structure. The exterior surfaces were then faced with layers of cotton gauze, shown here, impregnated with a dilute solution of Acryloid B-72 acrylic resin that encased the top and sides and provided additional support.

After the adhesive dried, the earth underneath the block was carefully excavated around the perimeter until the block could be lifted slightly with nylon straps to free it. Here, the crew is carefully lifting the block onto a wooden support, afterwards transporting it to a nearby mastaba where it will be displayed. The operation was a success with nothing lost from the block during the move, and now I can begin to remove the cotton gauze facing.