Characterisation and Conservation of Paintings on Walls and Sculpture from Nabataean Petra

• Applicants: Professor Adrian Heritage; Professorin Dr. Birgit Kanngießer; Professor Dr. Stephan G. Schmid
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology ; Physical Chemistry of Solids and Surfaces, Material Characterisation
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 285789434

After the re-discovery of the today UNESCO World Heritage Site Petra in Jordan in 1812 archaeological research onsite plays a very important role. The large number of discoveries is accompanied by the need of conservation measures. In this project methods shall be exemplarily developed for the detection, characterisation, and conservation of ancient painting on wall plaster and sculpture in the frame of intense cooperation between archaeological research, chemical research and conservation research. For the remains of Nabataean wall paintings an extensive survey and documentation is planned, which includes a detailed archaeometric study of gilded wall paintings in situ with portable instruments. A further study to determine alteration mechanisms in laboratories will follow. Likewise a better documentation, chemical characterisation, and understanding of recently discovered marble sculptures and their painted decoration is planned. One focus will be on gilded paintings, as well. For required conservational measures a large environmental monitoring will be carried out on site and new conservation materials on the basis of organic-inorganic polymers will be developed. Specialists from the Department of Antiquity of Jordan (DoA) and Petra Archaeological Park (PAP) will take part in the project. In addition, they will be offered training courses on the analytical techniques.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Denmark, Jordan, Switzerland, United Kingdom
• Major Instrumentation: Handheld Fourier Transform InfraRed Spectrometer
• Instrumentation Group: 1830 Fourier-Transform-IR-Spektrometer
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Piotr Bienkowski; Dr. Bernhard Kolb; Dr. Lars Lühl; Dr. Wolfgang Malzer; Dr. Doris Oltrogge; Dr. Anne Sicken; Antonia Weiße
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr.-Ing. Monther Jamhawi; Professorin Dr. Regine von Klitzing; Jan Stubbe Østergaard