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SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICAN
ARCHAEOLOGICAL CERAMIC TREATMENT

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Conservation will shortly be starting a multi-year project to address salt contamination in its Central and South American
Archaeological Ceramics. A condition survey identified those ceramics exhibiting deterioration from soluble salts. Stabilization
will be achieved through the removal of the salts.

The Field Museum holds outstanding collections of well documented archaeological ceramics. Those from the Southern
Andes for example, are a primary research resource for anthropologists, human biologists, and archaeologists. The 1925 and
1926 collections from Peru by noted anthropologist Alfred Kroeber are some of the most important in the world due to the
excellent scientific context and state of preservation. The Kroeber collection from the Lima and Canete Valleys represents
important material of the Lima, Wari, and Inca cultures. They shed light on the Lima culture, a little known but important part
of Andean prehistory contemporary with the Ancient Nazca, and are a key collection for understanding the relationship
between local groups and imperial colonizers during the Wari and Inca periods. Other important southern Andean ceramic
collections include the G. A. Dorsey collection from Ancon, scientifically excavated in 1891, documenting late Wari, late
Intermediate, and Inca presence on Peru’s central coast.

Contamination with water soluble ground salts, especially chloride salts, is common to archaeological materials. With
fluctuations in relative humidity, these salts crystallize and rehydrate near the surface of the ceramic, causing the surface to
breakup and powder or flake off. The ceramic is weakened and critical surface detail is lost. Eventually the ceramic can be
lost entirely. The preservation of surface detail and ceramic body is critical to their research value, making the stabilization of
these ceramics a high conservation priority for the department.

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To determine the extent of the problem of salt damage, conservation recently completed a condition survey of all 15,000
ceramics in the Central and South America archaeological collections. The survey identified those ceramics, representing
23% of the collection, that exhibit deterioration from soluble salts.

The least interventive approach to addressing the problem is to store and display objects in an environment with an extremely
stable relative humidity to minimize the dehydration and hydration of the salts. For structural and equipment reasons, this is
not possible in the collections storeroom available in the Museum. We have successfully used microclimate enclosures for
archaeological metal objects and a few large pieces of salt contaminated stucco with iron armatures; however the number
and size of the unstable ceramics and the degree of access required of the collection makes microclimate enclosures
unfeasible.

Stabilization will instead be achieved through the removal of the salts. Objects will be treated through a series of immersion
baths in deionized water until conductivity readings indicate that no more salts are migrating into the soak bath. Severely
damaged surfaces will require consolidation prior to wetting and soaking. Those that are friable or lightly flaking will be
consolidated in the laboratory with an acrylic polymer resin (Acryloid B-72) applied locally or by immersion, depending on the
severity and/or extent of the damage. Some ceramics are flaking so severely that they can not be moved from their storage
shelf without significant loss of material. These ceramics will be consolidated in situ with molten cyclododecane wax, then
moved to the laboratory for documentation and desalination. Treatment will ensure that these important objects are available
to researches in future.

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