Conservation & degradation

The best conservation is sometimes to leave or rebury the object, rather than “collecting” objects that often deteriorate in air. However, wood is often conserved with polyethylene glycol (PEG) or freeze drying. Metal can sometimes be treated with electrolysis. The largest objects conserved so far are the Vasa, Mary Rose, and the Bremen Cog.

• Conservation of the Vasa, Dottie Mayol
• Leather objects from Spanish troopship Salvador, Atilio Nasti
• Octant from Spanish troopship Salvador, Atilio Nasti
• Conservation of the Mary Rose bronze guns, Martin Read
• Corrosion of aluminum in sea water, Pete Johnson

PEG
© Mary Rose Trust

Degradation link

• Department of Wood Science, SLU, Uppsala, Sweden. Researching the degradation of wood. Presently involved in efforts to save the degrading Vasa ship.

Conservation links

• Conservation Department of the National Museum of Denmark. Includes an excellent presentation of conservation methods during the past 150 years. 
• Conservation of Archaeological Material, St Andrews University
• Conservation Research Laboratory, Texas A&M University
• ARC-Nucléart, Grenoble, France
• Methods of Conserving Underwater Archaeological Material Culture, D.L. Hamilton
• Conservation OnLine, USA
• Archaeology at Freshwater Sites, Paul Storch
• Procedures for Salvage of Water Damaged Library Materials, Peter Waters
• Emergency Drying of Coated Papers Damaged by Water, David Tremain