TEHNICI DE PRELEVARE UTILIZATE PENTRU SALVAREA OPTIMĂ A OBIECTELOR DE PATRIMONIU
ON-SITE SAMPLING TECHNIQUES USED FOR OPTIMAL SALVATION OF HERITAGE OBJECTS

Summary/Abstract: On sampling archaeological ceramics, special problems may arise when within some archaeological features whole vessels are discovered, especially in the case of prehistorical or prefeudal ceramics, which mostly, were fired at low temperatures, a technological aspect that negatively influences the conservation state of these vessels. Such vessels, in most cases fragmented following the soil’s pressure, may form real time capsules; the inside soil could hide a series of important traces or contain different quantities of pollen, seed etc. For this category of objects, especially if the vessels are found in an advanced degradation state (strongly fragmented, paste fired at low temperatures, degradations as consequence of action of the soil and vegetation etc), the most recommended sampling method is binding. Subsequently to transportation to a restoration laboratory, vessels will be processed in different stages that take into consideration the conservation state, type of fragmentation, presence of other artifacts inside. In some cases, for different reasons, fragments of a vessel (even funerary urns) may be scattered perimetrically on a relatively large surface, a fact which does not allow application of the binding. In these cases it is recommended to recover in the lump or on a support, more complicated operations necessitating specific materials and an elaborated work procedure which involves a great deal of effort, aspects that cannot be always dealt with in the archaeological site. Following an objective evaluation of the conservation state a series of measures may be appealed to by which artifacts is to be kept away from the action of factors of external environment until we are able to establish amethodology and necessary equipment to apply the above mentioned methods, or in certain cases a compromise method may be applied. This includes division of the complex into squares, and fragments are sampled and packed separately into groups that contain 2 to 10 fragments. Both methods allow sampling and successful processing of ceramic pieces and allow optimal preservation from the point of view of the conservation state for long periods of time before undergoing the proper process of restoration.

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