From Italy to Antarctica: Archaeological Conservation on the Web

It’s summer (at least for a few more weeks) and for many of us, that means travel.  Some conservators take travel one step further and fly around the world to do archaeological conservation at active excavations.  Luckily for us back at home, many of them are blogging about their experiences.  Here’s a roundup of several archaeological conservation blogs.
The Mugello Valley Archaeological Project/Poggio Colla has a long tradition of blog posts, going back to the late 90s – before they were even called “blogs.”  Recent posts from conservator Allison Lewis can be found here.  I love the use of RTI on incised bucchero sherds, as described by Poggio Colla intern and current UCLA grad student Heather White.   Earlier posts from Poggio Colla can be found in the MVAP archives.
Turkey seems to be the center of archaeological conservation blogs – it must be all the strong coffee and tea!  The conservators and interns at Gordion, where I was lucky enough to work one summer, blog about their time working at the ancient Phrygian capital here.  This post really captures the feel of village life in central Anatolia.  A great conservation-related post is this one about the on-going conservation of two Roman altars rescued from a nearby river.
Nearby in Turkey, the conservators at Kaman Kalehoyuk blog about their experiences at the Bronze Age and Iron Age site.  This post makes nice use of a digital microscope in examining and sharing pictures of artifacts.  Rounding out blogs about the Mediterranean world, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology Dig Diaries are no longer being updated, but the archived posts still make for interesting reading.
The prize for the blog from the most exotic location, although certainly not the warmest, goes to the tough conservators of the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project in Antarctica, run by the Antarctica Heritage Trust.  They are doing some amazing work, like the conservation of these newspaper fragments under challenging conditions.
Close to home and happily active again after a temporary closure because of funding, the conservators at U.S.S. Monitor Center are blogging about their work conserving the massive remains of the Civil War ironclad.  This post gives one an appreciation for the complexity of working on such a large object.
That’s it for now.  Stay tuned for a future post about museum blogs focused on archaeological conservation.  If I missed a blog, feel free to let me know in the comments or via MemberFuse.  And I’d love to see more blogs started, especially about archaeological conservation in other parts of the world such as Asia or South America.
This post was developed by the AIC’s Archaeological Discussion Group (ADG).  For more information about ADG, please visit ADG’s Facebook page.