|
2009 CONSERVATION
& MAGAZZINO
Gretchen Meyers, Franklin & Marshall College: Director of
Materials
Ann Steiner, Franklin & Marshall College: Director of Research
Chris White, Head Conservator
Batyah Shtrum, Head Conservator
Anne Hooton, Illustrator
JoAnn Boscarino, Illustrator
Isabel
St. Clair, Laboratory Fellow
Laura Hovenac, Laboratory Fellow
Elizabeth Saetta, Conservation Intern
Elizabeth Rydzewski, Conservation Intern
Magazzino
and Conservation -- Opening Report
Director of Research:
Dr. Ann Steiner, Franklin and Marshall College
Director of Research
Ann Steiner
The lab is assembled
and has begun working in the Guardia and Selve spaces. This year's
area of special focus is the treatment and publication of Podere
Funghi materials. In addition to supporting the excavation activities,
the lab staff will be preparing material associated with pottery
production in the Podere Funghi for publication.
Dr. Ann Steiner, Provost
of Franklin and Marshall College, will be coordinating preparations
for the publications of the Podere Funghi material as well as
the 2009 excavation material. She will soon be joined by Dr.
Gretchen Meyers, also of Franklin and Marshall College.
Director
of Materials, Gretchen Meyers with
Lab Fellows Laura Hovenac and Isabel St. Clair
This year conservation staff include Chris White, Beth Rydzewski,
from Buffalo College, and Elizabeth Saetta from Winterthur College.
The 2009 season is well underway and they are working both on
Podere Funghi materials and the remaining 2008 materials and
beginning to treat this season's objects.
Head Conservator Chris White
Conservation interns Elizabeth Saetta and Beth Rydzewski
Lab Fellows, Laura Hovenac,
a graduate student at Florida State University, and Isa St. Clair,
a student at Swarthmore, are cataloging incoming materials, confirming
past catalog entries as well as managing the flow of objects
through the lab. Their assessment, analysis and interpretation
of our finds will provide and invaluable benefit to the site.
Laura's background with the site as a member of the field school
in 2006 and her subsequent experience as a graduate student brings
broad knowledge of the site and Etruscan culture. Isa was also
a field school participant in 2008 and her research project studying
the olla, a ubiquitous shape at the site, makes her well positioned
to contribute to our study of ceramics at the Podere Funghi.
Illustrators Anne Hooton and JoAnn Boscarino
Our archaeological illustrator, Anne Hooton, joins us for her
fifth season from her regular position at the Athenian Agora.
Her expertise and professional drawings are an invaluable asset
for the documentation and publication of site's materials. Anne
is joined this year by illustrator JoAnn Boscarino.
Lynn Makowsky is a Keeper of Collections, Mediterranean Section
at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
She will be working on the paleoethnobotany samples from 2008
and 2009. She has just arrived and is beginning to analyze soil
samples and will be collecting samples from this season's excavations.
Lynn Makowsky
floating paleobotanical samples
Our project photographer,
Stephanie Brown, graduate student at New York University is returning
for her third season. She will be supporting the publication
of the Podere Funghi materials as well as this season's materials.
Photographer Stephanie Brown
Magazzino
and Conservation -- Final Report
Director of Research:
Dr. Ann Steiner, Franklin and Marshall College
Final Lab report
The Selve and Guardia
labs have had successful seasons, completing several projects
from prior years while processing material from 2009. As we count
down to the final days of excavation, we are completing conservation
of finds and housing them for the 2009-2010 off-season.
Head Conservator
Batyah Shtrum
Batyah Struhm arrived
mid season for her second round with us, trading places with
Chris White as Head Conservator.
Dr. Sara Bon-Harper,
Archaeological Research Manager at Monticello in Virginia, returned
for her fourth consultation at MVAP. She spent two weeks working
on a project to determine degrees of standardization in the locally-made
fine ware pottery production at the Podere Funghi. Erica Koppenhoeffer,
Franklin & Marshall '11, carried out an ancillary project
to assess standardization in the large standed bowls also produced
here. Erica is here with the support of the Franklin & Marshall
Hackman Scholars program which provides funding for student-faculty
collaborative research.
Sara Bon-Harper
studying Podere Funghi fine ware in the lab
Laboratory Fellows Isa
St. Clair, Laura Hovenac, and Stephanie Brown completed a massive
project to update our inventory from 2007, 2008, and 2009. This
significant accomplishment brings us up to date for full documentation
of finds from the site. A second major project included the drawing
and photography of material from the Podere Funghi in preparation
for publication. The drawing team of Annie Hooton and JoAnn Boscarino
completed those drawings, and Stephanie Brown took publication-quality
photographs of every inventoried find. We end the season well-placed
to take the next step in the study and publication of the Podere
Funghi.
Stephanie
Brown, Erica Koppenhoefer, and Isa St. Clair photograph and catalog
finds
Recent finds from 2009 Poggio Colla trenches
The Conservation lab
was privileged to have a grant from the Etruscan Foundation which
allowed improvements in lab equipment as well as a special project
to rehouse fragile material from the Podere Funghi .
In the last week of the
season, Director of Materials Gretchen Meyers and Director of
Research Ann Steiner oversaw the return of the material sent
to the Meadows Museum in Dallas for the Spring, 2009, exhibition
that presented 15 years of excavation at Poggio Colla and the
Podere Funghi. The material came home safe and sound and is back
in storage for the winter with the rest of the finds.
Above and
below: 2009 Magazzino/Lab Team: Stephanie Brown, Isa St. Clair,
Laura Hovenac, Gretchen Meyers, and Ann Steiner (yes, this happy
all season)
Stephanie Brown shooting final trench photos during "Dawn
Patrol" at season's end
Above and below: Conservation Team - Elizabeth Saetta, Beth Rydzewski,
and Batyah Shtrum (this team was also happy all season!)
Conservation
Intern Beth Rydzewski
Conservators Batyah Shtrum and Elizabeth Saetta consolidate a
pithos in north scarp of PC 34
Batyah
Shtrum and Beth Rydzewski remove a small sheet of bronze from
Trench PC 38
Ian Hagmann helping in the lab during Week 6
Gretchen Meyers and Ann Steiner study a Poggio Colla pithos in
the museum magazzino
Stephanie Brown, Isa St. Clair, Laura Hovenac, Ann Steiner, and
Gretchen Meyers
 Research
For photographs of key finds from trenches
in the recent season, see Finds.
For information on the Conservation Lab,
see below. For additional information on the lab and magazzino,
visit the Labs page listed under Facilities.
About the Conservation
Lab
In the conservation lab, conservators
and assistant conservators clean, conserve, and label finds.
Conservation involves the repair, consolidation, and preservation
of material remains. In special cases, our conservators will
come up to the site and assist in the removal of fragile remains.
Conservation work requires expertise in art history, science,
and studio art, and an understanding of archaeological methodology.
2007 Conservation and Illustration
lab and staff:
Josiah Wagener, Allison Lewis, Wendy Walker, and Anne Hooton
Puzzle: a table of pot sherds to be matched up and joined
Conservation tools and
chemicals used in cleaning and joining finds
Axe from Poggio Colla trench being cleaned in conservation lab
Chris White joins and restores fragments of a bucchero oinochoe
Chris White with his portable conservation lab
Anna Serotta and Chris White lifting bowl from Trench PC 28 for
transport to the lab
 |
