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.Latest News from the Archaeological Restoration Workshop
Since the excavations at Kalkriese started, Kalkriese’s archaeological restoration workshop has restored more than 3,000 artifacts and about 1,500 coins. This year, restorator Christiane Matz focuses on all relevant objects retrieved from the »Oberesch« excavations (section 47). 60 iron, bronze and silver artifacts must be restored..
Elaborate processes are involved in the restoration of the artifacts. For example, currently the clamp of a pilum (a weaponry part), the tip of a projectile and diverse iron rings are one by one being uncovered. To remove the loose upper layers of sand attached to the artifacts, the finds are sandblasted. Underneath, these objects are encrusted with an extremely hard so-called conglomerate layer, i.e. the grains of sands are clinging together due to corrosion as if they had been baked. With a dental polishing machine resembling a Dremel tool plus a so-called »heatless disc«, the actual find is uncovered further. Many of the iron objects show tears after they have been fully uncovered, and there is a risk of entire pieces breaking off. To preserve such artifacts in whole, a special glue of a watery consistency is applied to the tears and breaking points. The glue must harden for 24 hours before the treated object can be worked on any further. During this time, other finds are being worked on and prepared for their respective restoration processes.
As soon as the glue has hardened, the object is polished. Under a microscope, even the tiniest grains of sand become clearly visible. To be able to work precisely, and to be able to remove the tough corrosion layer from the iron artifacts, it is necessary to treat them with a diamond grinding tool. Afterwards, the object is sandblasted once more to obtain a uniform surface structure. As soon as the object has been cleaned and degreased with ethanol, it is coated with a special microcrystalline wax developed for the restoration of iron objects. This treatment protects the find from environmental influences, such as dust. Safely packaged, the object is now passed on to the archaeological drawer…
