Hi, Liz.
> Our second challenge is the profile of a 17th century cellar hole
> filled in the first quarter of the 18th with tavern garbage. We have
> bisected the cellar and we now have a wall profile that extends about
> 10feet long and 4 feet deep, with 26 layers of tavern fill and tinglaze,
> bottle, oyster, and pipe sticking out of it. We would like to preserve
> it, perhaps permenatly for the museum, but at least temporarily. Any
> ideas?
It sounds pretty stunning! I worked on a site a few years ago where part
of the crew bisected an earthwork from the War of 1812, and there was
some discussion on ways of preserving it. I wasn't in on the discussion,
as I was working on another area of the site; I do know that they decided
against tring to preserve the profile... John Triggs was the
Archaeologist-in-charge, and the site was Dundurn Castle, Hamilton,
Ontario, Canada. Sorry I don't have the proper address handy, but mail
addressed as above *has* made it!
Some thoughts on preserving the profile ... I'm not sure how effective
methods would be -- soil has a tendency to move around a lot! Perhaps a
tightly fitting sheet of plexiglass across the cut? It would probably
have to lay completely flush against the profile, though, else dirt will
fall into the open areas. This may be a problem, if you have an uneven
profile, with bits of stone, artifacts, etc. sticking out.
A latex peel of the profile could possibly be used to get a record of the
stratigraphy/location of artifacts, or you may be able to use it as a
negative for a mould of the profile (perhaps in plaster?) which you could
paint to match the real thing, and display. Laura Nagora is the
reproductions person at Parks Canada, Ottawa (sorry, no # handy) -- she
may be able to give you some more advice. Also, you may wish to contact
the Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa, Canada at 613-998-3721.
Michael Harrington is a furniture and decorative arts conservator, who
could more than likely point you to the reproductions/mould making person
at CCI.
Hope this helps!
Megan.
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